Boys Scouts may be best known for their outdoor activities, but one of the greatest values they instill is citizenship.
Connecticut Rivers Council CEO and Scout Executive Steven Smith made that argument as he spoke on an episode of “The Municipal Voice,” a co-production of the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities and WNHH 103.5FM, about how the organization tries to instill those values in 2022.
Smith said that one song in particular explains so much about how they feel about the values the Scouts pass on to their members.
“We always used to sing a song, ‘Big Yellow Taxi,’ and it’s always sung on ecology day,” he said.
Joni Mitchell sings the line, “Don’t it always seem to go that you don’t know what you got ’til it’s gone?” And for Smith, “In scouting we’ve always taught that citizenship is something that you don’t want to go away because if you let it go away, worse things can come forward.”
And it’s something you have to be active about. There’s no sitting on the sidelines of citizenship.
One scouting program called “Citizenship in the Community” is not only about learning about community, but going to city council meetings, talking to local elected officials, and asking why it’s important.
At these meetings, boy scouts can hear local officials debating the budgets of programs, ask why more money isn’t being allocated towards a parks project, and affect change in their community.
Smith said that in many troops, there’d be a project that they’d wanted to get off the ground but the town or city simply didn’t have the money in the budget. So, they did what any good troop would do, and raised the money themselves.
“It’s just always been a good part of scouting, and paying it forward.”
Part of that paying it forward involves forward thinking as well. One new badge called the “Citizenship and Society Merit Badge” is “the most unusual badge we offer.”
Tied to diversity, equity, and inclusion in the community, it’s not weird because of the topic, but because there’s “no right answer.” With all other badges, there’s a circumscribed manner in which badges are awarded. This involves thinking about how your decisions affect the community, from your local community to the global community.
And of course, the world for the Scouts is bigger today than it ever was, now that girls are officially allowed to join troops.
Smith called it the best kept secret since there were co-ed programs that went back to the 1970s when that Joni Mitchell song was still on the charts. Today, families can do activities together under the one umbrella of Scouts. And though he notes differences in how they get things done – including a fun anecdote about how differently the process of starting a fire can be managed – it’s important to think about inclusion in 2022.
Canoeing, hiking, camping, and building fires are still an important part of their activities, but so is STEM education and building computers and coding. Ultimately, the Scouts will still be known for outdoorsmanship. Through the merits of citizenship, they preserve their parks, trails, and camps, not paved parking lots or tree museums.
Watch the full interview with Smith below.
