Church Releases Details for New Youth Initiative to Replace Scouts, Personal Progress

[6EQUJ5]

1 hour ago, Scott Lloyd said:

Welcome to my ignore list. You’ve worked long and hard for it. Congratulations. 

I'd like to thank the Academy.  I have worked for this day and it is quite overwhelming to be in the moment.

But rest assured Brother Scott: I will never ignore you!

[HappyJackWagon]

3 hours ago, Scott Lloyd said:

I’ve never been what one would typically consider a whole-hearted devotee of Scouting. Except when I was a patrol leader back when I was 13 or 14. That was a good experience for me. But I didn’t do things precisely by the book even then. 

And yes, when BSA itself began making startling changes, I felt it was time for the Church to discontinue being a chartering organization. And I said so. 

And I’ve grumbled before about Friends of Scouting. 

I see you being open to change, especially when it comes to programs, logistical policies, and issues you consider to be purely cultural.

For example, you've been very open to the use of personal electronics in church while some members/wards/leaders seem to discourage it.  You're quite progressive  

 

[RevTestament]

5 hours ago, Scott Lloyd said:

My hope is there will be adaptations so the parents don’t see a need to. Or that there would be commensurate disengagement from the school and/or community options. 

By the way, we Utahns don’t spell it “Utahans.” 

The site spell checker said Utahns was wrong, and liked Utahans 🙄 Still does. I guess you can complain to Nemesis.... I've always spelled it without the extra "a" until today.

[ALarson]

14 hours ago, RevTestament said:

The site spell checker said Utahns was wrong, and liked Utahans 🙄 Still does. I guess you can complain to Nemesis.... I've always spelled it without the extra "a" until today.

According to this, you are correct:

Quote

Is it Utahn or Utahan?

"The U.S. Government and Printing Office is trying to give state residents a lesson on how to spell Utahan, but Utahns just won't listen," it said. "According to the printing office, residents of the Beehive State are Utahans, not Utahns. That's also the opinion of Webster's New World Dictionary, which doesn't even list Utahn as an alternative form."

https://www.ksl.com/article/24207511/is-it-utahn-or-utahan

(Actually, I'll bet either is acceptable.)

Edited May 2, 2019 by ALarson

[USU78]

22 hours ago, Scott Lloyd said:

Two things:

1. Your thread title here is not unduly long. It’s when the title becomes effectively an opening post in and of itself that I believe the writer ought to try to be more concise. 

2. I’ve not yet looked at the linked content, but if the Church is discontinuing regular weeknight meetings and activities, I’d call that huge. It’s a sea change from tradition going back to my youth in the 1960s and earlier. 

And I will tentatively say I welcome such a change. Our youth have long been over-programmed and over-scheduled with the combination of school activities and homework, community sports and other pursuits and Scouts/Young Women. Way too little leisure time and opportunity left for family interaction and memory making. That’s my regret as my children have now begun entering  adulthood. 

In my ward growing up in Brigham, the scouts/mutual was very ineffective.  At least for the boys.  Mutual meant basketball for those inclined (not one of my sports), and that was it. 

As for scouting, there had been one eagle in something like 50 years.  I didn't mind the camping (my two-jobs dad never took us), but the rest of scouting was just not interesting or engaging.  It was nothing but faithfulness kept us bothering to show up. 

I've never been a scouting supporter and am glad to see it gone.  It's been clear for at least 10 years that Scouting and Zion are no longer compatible.

I'll be interested to see the details when they arrive on scene for the new program.

[Scott Lloyd]

16 hours ago, RevTestament said:

The site spell checker said Utahns was wrong, and liked Utahans 🙄 Still does. I guess you can complain to Nemesis.... I've always spelled it without the extra "a" until today.

Virtually every native, general-circulation, mass medium in the state spells it “Utahn.”  In other words, born-and-bred Utahns spell it one way, and it seems that only outsiders insist on spelling it the other. That has to count for a great deal. Why not spell it like the locals  do? Insisting on the contrary strikes me as a snooty reverse-provincialism.

I could give you my logic based argument on why it should be “Utahn” (I’ve done so before), but I think the thread has already been derailed enough on this point. 

Finally, I will readily contradict a spell-checker whenever I believe the spell-checker is wrong. The spell-checker was made for man, not man for the spell-checker. 

[RevTestament]

1 hour ago, USU78 said:

In my ward growing up in Brigham, the scouts/mutual was very ineffective.  At least for the boys.  Mutual meant basketball for those inclined (not one of my sports), and that was it. 

As for scouting, there had been one eagle in something like 50 years.  I didn't mind the camping (my two-jobs dad never took us), but the rest of scouting was just not interesting or engaging.  It was nothing but faithfulness kept us bothering to show up. 

I've never been a scouting supporter and am glad to see it gone.  It's been clear for at least 10 years that Scouting and Zion are no longer compatible.

I'll be interested to see the details when they arrive on scene for the new program.

Here in Happy Valley becoming an Eagle Scout was a big thing - so much so that I think National made it harder for boys from this area. However, my wife basically had to force our boys to do it - telling our oldest two that they couldn't drive her car unless they got their eagle. My experience as a parent with scouts in their teenage years was just much different than when they were cub scouts. Then I helped them build their cars for the derby, and just did a lot of fun activities with them including camping. They loved it, and I wouldn't trade those memories for the world. It introduced them to tools, crafts and gave them useful experience. As teenagers... not so much. So yeah, I am not particularly sad to see scouts go, but for elementary kids, I think a lot of the same activities would benefit our kids and parents as well. But you are right, scouting and Zion just became incompatible, and the Church has become an international Church so just needed to do this change. 

[Jane_Doe]

On 5/1/2019 at 10:26 AM, Scott Lloyd said:

And I will tentatively say I welcome such a change. Our youth have long been over-programmed and over-scheduled with the combination of school activities and homework, community sports and other pursuits and Scouts/Young Women. Way too little leisure time and opportunity left for family interaction and memory making. That’s my regret as my children have now begun entering  adulthood. 

I agree that kids today are WAY over scheduled.  But personally I see the need to cut back and pick from great things and the best things.  And I do see getting spiritual instruction/growth to be one of the best things  for a teenager, both in a structured program & personally at home.  

Your kid doesn't need to be at soccer practice 3 nights a week + games & piano 2 nights a week & Chinese lessons & church actives & hockey.  Yes, I realize the pressure for this over-scheduling is HUGE -- people saying you need to round your kid out, it'll improve their resume for college, you need to give them opportunities, etc.   But it's just too much.  Cut down on a lot of those and focus on a very small number of best things.

[HappyJackWagon]

8 minutes ago, Jane_Doe said:

I agree that kids today are WAY over scheduled.  But personally I see the need to cut back and pick from great things and the best things.  And I do see getting spiritual instruction/growth to be one of the best things  for a teenager, both in a structured program & personally at home.  

Your kid doesn't need to be at soccer practice 3 nights a week + games & piano 2 nights a week & Chinese lessons & church actives & hockey.  Yes, I realize the pressure for this over-scheduling is HUGE -- people saying you need to round your kid out, it'll improve their resume for college, you need to give them opportunities, etc.   But it's just too much.  Cut down on a lot of those and focus on a very small number of best things.

Some of my kids really love having that many cool things to do. They don't feel overscheduled and they still do very well in school.

But when a family has multiple kids doing this is near impossible. 4 overscheduled kids is way worse than 1 overscheduled kids. I agree that cutting down on activities, or at least making them feel more "optional" is a good thing. In my area, everyone is "expected" to be at every activity. Too much!!! I need a nap just thinking about it.

[Scott Lloyd]

12 minutes ago, Jane_Doe said:

I agree that kids today are WAY over scheduled.  But personally I see the need to cut back and pick from great things and the best things.  And I do see getting spiritual instruction/growth to be one of the best things  for a teenager, both in a structured program & personally at home.  

Your kid doesn't need to be at soccer practice 3 nights a week + games & piano 2 nights a week & Chinese lessons & church actives & hockey.  Yes, I realize the pressure for this over-scheduling is HUGE -- people saying you need to round your kid out, it'll improve their resume for college, you need to give them opportunities, etc.   But it's just too much.  Cut down on a lot of those and focus on a very small number of best things.

 

1 minute ago, HappyJackWagon said:

Some of my kids really love having that many cool things to do. They don't feel overscheduled and they still do very well in school.

But when a family has multiple kids doing this is near impossible. 4 overscheduled kids is way worse than 1 overscheduled kids. I agree that cutting down on activities, or at least making them feel more "optional" is a good thing. In my area, everyone is "expected" to be at every activity. Too much!!! I need a nap just thinking about it.

I’m more mad at the schools than anybody else. With science fair and other projects, labor-intensive and time-consuming book reports, poorly explained math and other assignments, etc., they rob families of precious discretionary time. I strongly believe learning could be streamlined in terms of out-of-class work. 

[bluebell]

6 minutes ago, Scott Lloyd said:

 

I’m more mad at the schools than anybody else. With science fair and other projects, labor-intensive and time-consuming book reports, poorly explained math and other assignments, etc., they rob families of precious discretionary time. I strongly believe learning could be streamlined in terms of out-of-class work. 

My second to youngest is in kindergarten this year and his homework load has been so dumb.  I don't think kids that age need to have homework sheets to do every night.  It didn't take him long to start to hate that time every day.