I agree that Jamborees are fun, but they aren't real scouting. Clearly scouting isn't real scouting.


I think we have to decide whether this thread is about the way scouting should be, or the way scouting is. I think it should be about the way scouting should be, because that is what scouting should be for, to teach kids what scouting could be, and should be, not what it is. Adult troop leaders and some of the larger scouts could still carry some special emergency stuff, such as communications and extra first aid stuff and perhaps some troop level camp and kitchen stuff, but in principle there is no reason a scout and his buddy couldn't be equipped from the get go to learn how to hike and to be reasonably self-suffient. Shared items. Nothing really needs to be shared. Two scouts could share a hoochie by zipping two tarps together, like I did in basic training, but they would also be essentially self-sufficient. I seriously doubt that that is the way Scouting works in North America today, but we can start changing that right here by changing this thread.

Lets just forget about Philmont and Boy Scouts of America and start over.
Let's talk about equipping scouts the way they could be and should be.


Scouting for under $200 and under 15 pounds per scout should be just as easy as it is cheap.
We should all just agree that most of the obstacles are artificial because of post-modern consumerism.
Scouts and Guides should be a means to correct that problem in our society, not make things more difficult. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

The way life should be, <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />
http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=z9OoPyYGKdI