Posted by:
sithlord
(
)
Date: December 06, 2012 01:12AM
With a bit of prodding from twojedis I took my 12 year old son to a different non-LDS scout troup last night. The contrast was beyond anything I expected.
Let me start by describing my experience going back to church with my boy on youth night only after we stopped attending church completely last July. My focus was to both socialize but also keep an eye on my boy while he was in scouts. I walked into the room with the 12 and 13 year old boys. There were about a dozen of them sitting around in chairs in one of the classrooms. There were two church leaders there in charge. I made a point of observing only. I was not going to step into any position of authority because I really wanted to see the interaction. I'll be completely honest, I was apalled. I could not believe the total lack of authority of these two leaders and the boys complete lack of respect. The boys talked the ENTIRE time! They were goofing off mostly, making snide comments both to each other and the teacher. The leader stood in front of the class and maybe got one or two of the boys to look at him as he attempted to get them to plan for the next two months. No boy in charge. No leader, really, in charge either. Just chaos. And me sitting there wondering what benefit this could possible have on my son.
Fast forward to last night.
I arrived at this non-LDS troop a few minutes late. I was shushed as I walked into the building as the troop had started it's flag ceremony. The gym has all the boys lined up (STRAIT) in 4 lines. The leaders are lined up on the side along with the parents who are all standing respectfully. The flag ceremony finishes. There was not a peep out of anyone. One of the boys, who has clearly had leadership training steps up and starts walking through the schedule for the night along with announcing other activites. He turns the time over to different leaders who also make announcements. The Scout Master gets up and everyone is listening. One of the older boys makes a comment to another one and he chastized them on the spot. There is complete respect from these boys and there were about 30 of them. The activity is merit badge work and the older boys are helping the younger ones tonight.
As the night progressed no less than a dozen of the leaders and parents come over and introduce themselves. I hear nothing but incredible things about the leaders and the parents who are super supportive. They have a scout master, SIX assistent scount masters, and a council of 12 adults!!! They are all enthusiatic about being there. What the hell!! I am sitting there wondering the whole time how effed up the LDS troop is. This is how it's supposed to run.
Anyways, twojedis wanted me to share that experience. We are never going back to the LDS troop ever again. I told some of these new friends where we were coming from and what it was like in the LDS troops and they completely unloaded on me about how disrespectful, unorganized, and unpassionate the LDS troops are. Just conscripts. How true now that I have seen them both.