John -

I am one of those women scouters, and your observations are pretty
accurate.  We do a LOT of camping, and the joke with our troop is that if
it's raining, the troop must be out camping.  We do a lot of work with the
boys in terms of learning how to pack appropriately for the weather, how to
plan meals, and shop for food, how to delegate tasks equally amoung the
group for the trip, how to build a fire (another waning art - often times,
I build a much better fire than most of the men and boys.  I sometimes
wonder if it's just inherent with the gatherer side of our species), how to
clean up after themselves, etc.

As for training the leaders how to manage the boys, the official training
is mostly geared toward youth safety (physical, emotional and sexual).
They want to make sure we're as much a safe haven for boys, as we are
moulders of young boys into young men.  The other unfortunate truth is that
many parents drop off the boys like the scout leaders are a bunch of baby
sitters, so the attitude doesn't help with managing them appropriately,
either.

I've seen too many times the men barking orders, and maybe explaining after
the fact.  I keep my mouth shut, so as not to appear to be mothering the
boys.  That was a prejudice I had to remove from the minds of my fellow
leaders very quickly.  On the flip side, I've felt a need sometimes to bark
orders myself and I've also seen a lot more men in scouts apologize for
barking orders than anywhere else.  I think they realize they'll get more
respect from the boys if they admit to making a mistake once in a while.  I
know I've earned a lot of respect from the boys (they even elected me into
the Order of the Arrow this year, and then proceeded to dump a bucket of
water on me - now that's respect! ;-)).

I teach the Computer merit badge, and had the luck of having a large class
of boys to teach one Saturday.  Since the company of my employ, Ziff-Davis
Education, is an adult computer training center, it was the perfect seque.
I've also had many of the boys in my own troop ask to take this merit
badge.  I think there's a general lean toward the "light" professions -
those that are not as labour intensive as the trades.  I think the best way
to get boys interested in taking merit badges is to advertise them.   I
know the boys are supposed to seek out the counselors, but I figure for
them its "out of sight, out of mind".  Go to the local troops and ask if
you can do a little presentation to get some of the boys interested enough
to ask to take the merit badge.  That's how I started with the Computer
one.  None of the boys in our troop had a clue someone in their presence
knew a thing about computers.  Once they found out, I had a hard time
limiting the number of boys who could take the class at one time.

I think the BSA should continue to stress the trades as much as other merit
badges and their accompanying skills.  Not every boy will grow up to want
to be a doctor, or white-collar businessman, or a computer programmer.
Some will want to be truck drivers, beekeepers and stone masons.

- Pam