Stout, Stout, Get it Worked Out!
'Kick a Ginger Day' Spawned At Least 5 Attacks on Redheaded Kids
Cool, Crafy, Community Event: Unique LA's Holiday Show
Intrepid L.A. Foodies Tackle 11-in-11 Nocturnal Challenge
Map of the Day: Outdoor Skating Rinks in Los Angeles
It's an American institution on the verge of its 100th anniversary, and the Boy Scouts are struggling to survive. Although it's still the top youth organization in the nation, enrollment has been steadily declining over the past two decades, and in order to stay afloat, they've come up with a new strategy: Attract Hispanic kids.
The demographics of the country have changed, and the Boy Scouts are gearing up to adjust accordingly. A Scouting official told the Assosicated Press (via the Daily News): "We either are going to figure out how to make Scouting the most exciting, dynamic organization for Hispanic kids or we're going to be out of business," said Rick Cronk, former national president of the Boy Scouts, and chairman of the World Scout Committee.
While the Scouts can make some relatively simple changes, like hiring bilingual employees and create target-specific advertising, at the core, some of the focus values will need to change. An expert explains "Scouts will have to work with Latinos' strong family connections and relax the focus on individual achievement [...] Creating activities in which younger boys learn from the older ones - much as they rely on siblings and cousins within the extended family - will also feel more comfortable."
But ultimately, one thing the article only hinted at was the pop culture rep the Scouts have garnered as being pretty dorky (see: Napoleon Dynamite, for starters).
Trailblazing in the woods, making a cookstove out of a coffee can, and earning merit badges isn't much competition against video games, skateboarding, or loafing around with your pint-sized pals. Just picture for a moment the 7-12 year old boys you may encounter on any given day here in Los Angeles, Hispanic or not. Now, picture them swapping their everyday togs one night a week for the Scouting uniform, turning off their cellphones, and learning to curb their sassy mouths. Hmmm. Can it work? Mind you, there are, indeed, rewards to belonging to organizations like the Scouts, and those rewards ideally manifest themselves and help make a child into a better adult, but once you sign your kid up, you've got to make sure they like it and become invested.
So the Boy Scouts are poised for a reinvention hinging on the Hispanic population. The Daily News piece ends with this telling bit from a Boy Scout event in Northern California:
Sweet.
As a dozen boys wearing the light blue Soccer and Scouting jerseys tumbled into an auditorium in San Jose's Seven Trees Elementary School, nearly breathless from a game played in the December chill, it was clear they loved the program - certainly the soccer part of it. But the connection to Scouting remained tenuous.Michael Gudino, 7, and his brother Matthew Gudino, 6, talked about what they loved best: dribbling the ball, learning to pass and playing on a real field.
Pressed on what they like about Scouting, they stopped to think.
"Learning to be nice to each other?" Michael said tentatively. "Folding the flag?"
Photo by Ned Raggett via Flickr
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebook
The boy scouts were dead when they decided to not allow gay kids and required you to believe in god.
it's about time they go out of business. Kids need a more accepting and up to date organization to help them.
I was a scout, and I want my children (should such beasts ever walk the Earth) to have the same awesome experiences and opportunities I had growing up. But when the scouts told GLBT members, leaders and supporters they weren't welcome, they lost my support and advocacy completely.
Hear, hear. I'm an Eagle Scout, but there's no way I'd encourage any kids I know to join today. It's tough to be friendly, courteous and kind when your organization is run by bigots.
I'm an eagle scout as well and thought I should weigh in...
I don't think the boy scouts are recruiting less members because everyone is up in arms about gay people not being able to join. You have to remember that this may seem egregious in the 'progressive' state of california, much of the rest of the country's way of thinking falls in line with the stance the scouts are taking (how about the military, for one...).
This is not to say the BSA made a bad decision (they did), but why should that be a license for us to trash them? They're still doing a hell of a lot more good thru community service than almost any GLBT group and that needs to be recognized.
I think it has more to do with what the Lindsay mentions — "Trailblazing in the woods, making a cookstove out of a coffee can, and earning merit badges isn't much competition against video games, skateboarding, or loafing around with your pint-sized pals." Kids today are addicted to electronics and are babied at home by overzealous parents, so why the hell would they join boy scouts anymore? It's no longer "cool."
This is a much more reasonable explanation than saying "oh they're taking a hit cause they hate gay people." Do you really think that if the BSA came out tomorrow and said 'we love gay young boys, so come out and join!' that recruiting will spike?? It will more likely be the final nail in the coffin.
On the cool issue--i spent the last few years following a Boy Scout troop from Harlem for a documentary . A lot of the scouts i've met over the years--and especially those i've encountered in New York City and Harlem--didn't really fit the white-bred-conservative-dork-stereotypes that a lot of my highly educated urban elite friends seem to point to when they categorically dismiss the value of Scouting. You may not believe it but if you bothered to meet some of them you'll find plenty of Scouts are actually quite cool--not a vapid, detached, indifferent, glassy-eyed Abercrombie & Fitch catalog cool (to borrow an image from Scout chronicler Peter Applebome). But many of the Scouts here in New York City exude a smart, practical, observant, engaged, understated and confident cool. Kind of like and Obama cool--who, by the way, will be the next honorary president of the Boy Scouts of America.