Change of Pace

Tonight, I get to go on a weekend retreat with the youth from our church rather than with Scouts. It's a nice change from tents to bunkbeds with real mattresses, but it also lets me see what kids outside of scouting are like.
I don't know if the scouts get better because of the Scout program or if the type of boys that join scouts are just 'good', but I see a noticable difference in the levels of self-control, leadership, empathy, and looking out for other people between scouts and non-scouts. This is in a church group where I'd also expect to see these qualities in the boys. I suppose its even more pronounced in a place like school or the mall where all types of kids can be found.

Of course, there are superstars and oddballs in any group, but in general I'm very pleased by what I see in the scouts - both those in our troop and other troops that attend our church.

Scout On