A friend sent me the link to an article on the website of the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) titled 10 Skills Our Kids Will Never Learn. It’s a rundown on skills that those of the Baby Boomer generation have come to take for granted but which today’s youth view as useless or otherwise irrelevant, thanks to technology, societal changes or a shift in our education system. There’s not much call for making buggy whips any more, but what about these skills?
As a Boomer and the parent of two Millennials, I can see their point and have seen some of these in my own kids. But the skills in the article are far from obsolete. Rather, they are great things to know that could come in handy when you least expect it.
From a Scouting perspective, it means Being Prepared – for there are times when your smartphone’s battery runs flat, or you need to figure something out that can’t be looked up on Wikipedia or YouTube.
Just for fun, let’s look at some of the supposedly obsolete skills, how Scouting manages to teach them to our young people anyway, and why it matters. Continue reading “Obsolete? Says who!”
A troop committee chair writes:
Most troops have a library of merit badge pamphlets and other information for the Scouts to use in going about their activities. It’s maintained by a troop librarian – a youth position of responsibility – and is primarily run by and for the Scouts.
If you’re a regular reader of Ask Andy, the Net Commissioner, you might have seen this week’s column and you may have been nodding your head as you read along.