A LOT MORE THAN YOU THINK

[Music] what do you really think about scouting not long ago we asked that question all across the country to boys some of the answers we got weren't too surprising for instance when we asked the boys what they thought was most fun about scouting most of them said hiking and camping Outdoors but then we asked the boys what they thought was most important about scouting and they said to help you be prepared for life this is about some of the Scout programs that are happening right now to help boys be prepared for life be prepared you to be prepared you to take the lead cuz if you a who take care of the futes of our sons well let me ask you now who's going to tell about the POR man who's going to tell about the C man who's going to tell what itn't about it's all about you know you can if you want to you you now let me lay it on you basically when we started the street corner scouting program what I did did was I came into the communities that had you know very little scouting at all you know the kids had very little to do and they had no contact with scouting at all and majority of the kids that I work with now they either have home relationships which are pretty bad or they you know don't have a father there they stay with their grandparents or someone like that so I came out and basically when in street corner scouting we do what they want to do hey Connie come here Houston Texas like many americ am cities has two distinct Parts on the one side a growing Center of business and culture on the other a sprawling inner city street corner scouting is one of the ways scouting is reaching out to this country's Inner City Boys many of whom have never heard the word scouting the first time I had a meeting with some of the kids uh I didn't quite understand what to do with them but the big deal that I had to do was I had to come out here every day during the weekend including Saturdays and Sunday and go out on these same adet with them and play the same kind of games they play and just have a regular scouting program with them a big problem that everybody's going to have a streak point of scouting is controlling the kids and stopping some of the fights among themselves and uh a couple of months ago I found out the best way to stop some of the fights is make them a ring out of bodies and give them a pair of boxing gloves and let them sell whatever arguments they have and this way we've curved down on some of the fights uh some of the kids would just poor students in school period elf students and uh Street Corner scouting has kind of pulled them up through that right now they're C average students I have a group of kids the entire group of them who are the leaders in the troop and they have a 2.0 average which is a c average so basically you got to go to where they are if they're in the ballpark or behind the house or in the bar you got to go to them and when you go to them you got to have a program that you're going to develop and deliver to them and if you don't they're going to chew you up they're not going to give you a chance at all by contrast in some parts of the country boys still live in spots so isolated that once they leave school for the day it's next to impossible for them to return to a community center to participate in activities such as scouting with the school's cooperation this situation can be solved by a program called in school scouting okay so what we're going to do today is just have a little bit of instruction on one of your tend foot requirements which is something very very simple uh little knot time I brought a piece of rope with me and anybody here know how to T some the Scout KN all right let's do it like this right hold on to this one just cross him over go underneath see go around the telephone pole right in there there she squaring up see it see that all right we'll let you do it one time to think you know how to do it all right try it again what you call this that's an awful KN that's not a that's not a square knot hey you got a square knot great congratulations day is done gone the Sun from the lake from the Hill from the sky all is well safely rest God is not how well does School scouting work well in a section of Appalachia near Logan West Virginia schools have determined that boys gain as much from their weekly Scout meeting as they would from the regular class period they missed and the program is presently attracting more than half the boys six months ago an executive from the AL Camino District Boy Scouts came to my office and offered scouting to us as a program that would be needed here and right away I said no to him because in my own mind scouting has always been a very middle class uh organization which is fine for some people and not for others especially for people that live in this type of an area which is a poverty area Alma Ren who by the way is typical of the increased and important role women are playing in scouting Works in Ramona Gardens a housing project in East Los Angeles close-knit community perhaps 80% Cho Ramona Gardens had had for years rejected scouting in favor of boys groups of its own only when the community saw for itself that the principles and programs of scouting were readily adaptable to its adults and its children it scouting become very much a part of Ramona Garden the families here are just like families anywhere in the United States or around the world they have dreams for themselves they have dreams for their children but somehow their dreams become stifled due to lack of Education lack of employment lot of sociological problems that that come out of living in a poverty area but Ramona Gardens is just as uh just as real maybe even more realistic uh than any other area in the United States except for the people are poor helping boys be prepared for life means more than bringing scouting to boys who've never heard of scouting it also means reaching out to boys who have have heard of scouting would like to be in scouting but thought they never could be an example is scouting for the handicapped okay first here's the start of it three rocks in a formation you make a beine from this rock to where something that and manade like this form of rocks right here now we keep walking we find an arrow made out of wood okay usually when you find an arrow it means a change in Direction and when you find these arrows you have to look out where you're going and which Trail presently there are 50,000 handicapped Scouts some of the boys are physically handicapped and others are mentally scouting is not made easier for these boys each participates to the best of his ability okay now we've come to this formation of rocks here you can tell that this is the end of the trail for that pole standing erect up there whenever you see something standing straight up know even in established more traditional troops scouting has taken on a new look and new programs all of which stress individual decisionmaking more than ever before are helping a boy in scouting today prepare himself for life one example of this is is called the personal growth agreement on this personal growth agreement thing is merely you have a part in selecting things that you want to do to reinforce this scout Spirit thing and build an even greater uh spirit as you go along the Scout Trail how do you feel about in this I think it's great because in any organization you've always got to have something you know that you can just kind of reach out and just grasp you got to have something that you can work toward so that you can get just a little at least just a little bit of responsibility all right now what we'll do here is go through this little booklet and all of these things that you underline your home and family and your activities and interest and your friends and your community and Vocational interest and then how life looks to you we'll allow you to take one strength and lift it out of this book be allowed to pick the top strength in your personality at this time and then we try to help you build on it we have a rule in our truth that uh if if a boy can do it we do not let an adult do it how do you feel about that kind of an organization I think it's good because if you're pampered and babied all your life you're never going to learn how to do anything I think that a boy they ought to have something that they got to know some kind of skills and they're never going to learn it from just letting adults teach them and show them all the time like that to be on their own just a little bit now your computer merit badge talks about punching your name or some name into a punch car using the standard code there's a new Freedom of Choice throughout scouting's award program too and to make the choices more interesting to boys of today new merit badges include Sports atomic energy space exploration environmental science computers card has printed at the top Samuel John good scout now you remember how we loaded the card reader okay here are the cards okay they aren't all down there yet here comes number two cars and this information has been transmitted onto magnetic tape and is being stored into the tape drive on the other side of the computer room now we did all of this in order to print out a roster of the members in our troop let's push the start button and see what happens there It Go all right this is Paul stum he's my patrol he's coming in in second class candidate um I feel he's met all the requirements the boys in a scout troop today not only have more decisions to make about themselves but also about other Scouts in the troop as well for example for the first three steps in advancement a boy is judged by a progress review made up of boys from his troop uh are you active in the patrol do you go on Hikes and yeah I go on as many um Scout camp out and anything I can that the Scout do oh what is the best thing You' like in scal so far since you've been in it I like the hikes a lot cuz I just like hiking can tell us a little bit about your personal grow this is helped me a lot I think like well in the first conference I think I've understood more about myself there any more questions for the board you step out please this program is not making advancement any easier Scouts know more about their fellow Scouts than adults could ever hope to I think you answered all the questions well he will I believe this get [Applause] should I go get okay congratulations nice congratul congratul congratulations council meeting has now come to order and Ronnie has a project that he wants us to talk about and we want him to tell us any detail well the church has asked us to do a service project they want us to paint the swing fit and everything outside and paint a sign supposed to trim the grass around even activities such as service projects are decided upon by the boys of the troop through a group of elected boys known as The Troop leaders Council and brushes and supplies like that how many how many swings and stuff they have well let's see there's two great big swing sets one little slide chin up bar and um pole a pole in the ground any other details that you need to find out okay so we' made the assignments on who to get paint and tools and the time Gary we've got a troop it's a new troop and they really need some help on their camping like they've never been camping before and they don't know anything about it and uh we were sort of volunteered to help them out in the camping when a scout reaches the age of 14 today he has another decision to make whether to move on into exploring or join another of scouting's new programs known as the leadership Corp after we get out there you know we want to give them something to do and I want to take Doug's suggestion about this uh chipa kitchen and uh we really don't know anything about how to teach these kids and we needed some suggestions from uh people that have gone through leadership training the leadership Corp gives boys at this in between age a mission an identity a distinction but it also does exactly what its name implies it gives a boy training in basic leadership skills you know we get out there are we just going to say here's the picture here's your sticks we've got the Rope now uh go to It Go Wild do your thing put it together well the first thing you better do is kind of establish a leadership position uh don't become leaders yourself the TR but help them uh Le themselves all right who in here can do the square [Applause] last okay everybody watch make sure you know what he's doing okay now pull it under there and put it through here get the idea what it's going to look like a member of the core takes special courses in leadership development offered by local councils he must pledge himself to carry out special projects and to assume extra [Music] responsibilities underneath to the other side okay pick it up it over here and set it over that bad I think y'all did a real good job that's all right another good job being done by Scouts is a program known as project soar save our American resources a year- round program which culminates in an annual keep America beautiful day an event which every Scout troop in the nation is expected to take part in in a recent one more than 1 million Scouts from all across the country cleaned up more than 2 million tons of litter and recoverable resources in many troops however SAR has become more than a cleanup project it's become an environmental education program pointing out the causes and effects of pollution in the boy's very own backyard as you know Rock Creek starts up in the hills and mountains of Maryland comes down through the city of Washington all the way to the bomic river now right now we're on this bridge which is part of the Horse Trail and we can see a plenty of pollution right here okay fellas we've got our water sample what do we see here both approaches are aimed at the same goal to help make boys of scouting age more aware of the importance of America's natural resources now and in the future in here but if we took a bacteria count here I am absolutely certain we would find this filled with coliform bacteria which is evident of sewage you have seen a good reason why the park service has put these signs on all over the park about no waiting no swimming because uh they don't want you to be in that contaminated water uh there's a friend you know of mine and he rides home on the same bus as I do and I went into the bathroom with him and he pulled out uh you know some needles and uh hyon and stuff and he says he says cup your hands you know or get out of here so I cut my hands and and he turned on the water and he put some in the Hyo and he was going to put it in his arm and people kept walking in and you know you just make it look like you're not chicken and then he won't do nothing to you uh was of course pleased uh to have the parents here today uh with you young man to visit with us with you and uh with us relative to operation reach de Mo Middle America even here boys are being affected by the modern-day epidemic known as drugs one of scouting's newest programs is designed to bring boys and their parents to grips with the problem and its causes its name is Operation reach can you imagine any reason come up in your life that would be so hard uh on you that you would ever want get interested in drugs that you would ever want to get invol Dr friends you just can't stand call you chicken all that you tell you to get out of here do all that stuff and not unless you take it they don't plan to use drugs or or they just try them once once you know just experiment see what all they say is true or whether they find it or not and is they just experiment with them sometimes you know to see for themselves like you got to know when to walk out on your friend if he's going to take drugs and he offers you some I think you got to have enough sense to do what you right yeah he's not classified as a real friend yeah he's going to offer you drug uh you you think then your parents have the right and responsibility to try and protect you from yeah that's your job operation reach wasn't designed to get boys just to talk about drugs its ultimate purpose is to help boys and young adults seek alternatives to drugs what scouting calls natural highs how about uh accomplishing things are there any things like things that you are actively interested in or do that serve as a natural high outside of drugs yeah hope your dad you are for every boy in scouting today there's another boy who'd like to be but can't and the reason most of them can't is because no adult in the neighborhood think scouting's worth the time now what do you really think about scouting scouting today is a lot more than you think you to be prep to take thead [Music] prepared are you ready to get be prepared you ready to take the your a [Music] [Applause]