My son, Forest, recently joined the Cub Scouts, partly as a result of my encouragement. It has me revisiting a lot of thoughts and experiences I had as a Cub Scout and later as a Boy Scout. In this post, I reminisce about my scouting experiences, then explore the values of the scouting organizations, what they mean, and how they are imparted to their members.
Personal Experiences in Scouting
My Experiences
I joined the cub scouts sometime around grade three. I remember an adult guest came in and talked to our public school class about all the fun stuff that you can do at scouts and passed out registration forms. Swimming, camping, hiking, archery, etc. It all sounded super fun, and I brought the paper home and asked my parents if I could do it and they said sure. As a side note, I think the girls in the class were also subjected to that presentation even though girls were not allowed in the cub scouts at that time. Brutal.
After joining, we did do some of that stuff they advertised and it was pretty fun. I also remember some kind of boring meetings where we had to learn about how to wash our hands and stuff. Of course that is important, but by grade three I had that very well mastered.
The best part of cub scouts for me was the annual camping trip to Mohican State Park. We would camp from Friday night to Sunday morning, and have fires, and go on hikes, and play sports, and go “snipe hunting”. I also loved the annual pinewood derby and actually got second place in the pack one year.
Snipe Hunting
The leaders told us there was a bird called a snipe and they came out around dusk and they were hard to catch, but if you caught one, you had to hold it by its left leg and it would become paralyzed as long as you held it that way. And the snipe got its name from its signature call: a high-pitched “SNIPE!”. So if you heard that, then a snipe was nearby and you should try to catch one. You could also lure them to you by making that call yourself. So we would all go to the edge of the woods and make the snipe call and hear snipes making that call and try to catch them.
I never caught one or saw any of my peers or our parents catch one. But the leaders assured us it was possible because such and such scout from several years ago caught one and made it into stew. I didn’t recognize that scout’s name, but that’s probably because he was so much older…
Robby’s Dad and the Homemade Spears
As boys of about ten-ish years old, one of the major rights of passage was getting your first pocket knife. You had to learn and recite all the safety rules and be old enough to be allowed to have one. We would talk about the rules and the dangers and stuff at the meetings to get ready to get our knives, and surprisingly we all took it pretty seriously and I don’t recall a single serious accident from pocket knives. When you got one, you learned to whittle. I remember an occasional activity of making soap sculptures which I thought was kind of lame and messy and I wasn’t too good at it. But we also learned how to sharpen sticks into homemade spears, and we all thought that was awesome!
At every camp out we would find good straight sticks and set to the task of sharpening them into the coolest spear. One time one of the dads showed us that you could also make patterns in the bark to make your spear look extra cool.
One particular camping trip was not at the usual Mohican location (IDK why) and a new kid named Robby joined us. We knew Robby from school but hadn’t seen him at scouts before. All the dads were sitting around the fire chatting and we boys were in the cabin making our spears as was the tradition. At some point Robby’s dad came in and assessed that it wasn’t safe for us kids to have spears. He cut the sharp point off of Robby’s spear. And for a second we all felt kinda bad for Robby, but then it got worse. He cut the tips off of all of our spears. Him being an adult, we handed over the spears for the wrongful mutilation, and when he was done he went back to the fire with the other dads.
We weren’t sure what to make of it. We realized there was some inherent danger in having the spears, but we were always allowed to have them before and we still had our knives that we had earned after all. Eventually we went out to the fire to bring it up to the dads. Robby’s dad explained that he thought it wasn’t safe and it was clear that he thought he had exhibited some quality parenting and expected the other dads to agree. For a while it was quiet, nobody wanting to contradict the new guy.
At some point a kid said, “we were always allowed to have them before” and a dad said, “that’s true”. Then some kid said, “So can we have them or not?”. More quiet. And then something that I found remarkable even at that age happened. Jace’s dad said, “Jace can have one”. After a chorus of “That isn’t fair; why only Jace?” his dad was quick to add that he could have one as long as he was safe and responsible with it as he always had been before. Then one by one all the other dad’s said that their kid could have one too. I can’t remember whether Robby’s dad eventually allowed Robby to have one or not. But I do remember that back at school in the following years, Robby left class during Sex Ed and again during Evolution.
That was an important lesson in parenting that I stored away for decades and now get to use in my own parenting.
Boy Scouts
Later I moved onto boy scouts, formally and formerly known as “Boy Scouts of America”. I was less into that. There was no pinewood derby anymore. They had a lot more camping trips which I thought I would like, but there was also a lot more responsibility on the scouts, and a heavier load seemed to fall on the newest scouts rather than those with seniority. I started to feel the opportunity cost of going to scout meetings and having to miss out on playing with the neighborhood kids. Eventually I started calling it “Gay Scouts” - “gay” being the universal adjective for anything that was uncool in any conceivable way back in the 90s. Ironically, the fact that the scouts unfairly forbid actual homosexuals to join became on of my chief complaints when I started making a proper case to quit.
Forest Joining
This past summer at Riverfest, the local scout troop set up a climbing wall and let anyone climb it for free. Forest got to take several tries at it and made it almost halfway up the wall and thought it was really fun. One of my former acquaintances from when I was a scout, is now the troop leader over there and encouraged us to hang around and climb. They gave Forest and Riley little first aid kits and a flier encouraging kids to sign up. It was pretty similar to the one I took home in grade three, although the modern ones prominently feature a website that certainly didn’t exist #BackInMyDay, and pictures of both boys and girls. Girls are now allowed to join both cub scouts and the organization for older kids which is now known as “Scouting America” having dropped “boy” from the name.
Cub Haunted 2026
We just finished our first cub scout camp out. It was mid october and it was pretty cold at night and in the mornings, but Forest was super tough, and never complained about it once. We were the only ones from our pack that went, but we made friends with another pack, hung with them most of Saturday, and went to their camp fire.
Among the activities were haunted house and trail, hay ride, smores, rock climbing, archery, BB shooting, pumpkin bowling, mini golf, fishing, crafts, and others.
Overall we both had a really good time, and Forest got his first patch: which says “Cub Haunted 2026” and depicts a pirate ship.
Stated Values
The scouts make a real effort to identify and state their values. They have several different short documents that are usually recited at meetings. They are:
The Scout Law
A Scout is: * Trustworthy, * Loyal, * Helpful, * Friendly, * Courteous, * Kind, * Obedient, * Cheerful, * Thrifty, * Brave, * Clean, * and Reverent.
The Scout Oath
On my honor, I will do my best
To do my duty
to God and my country and
To obey the Scout Law;
To help other people at all times;
To keep myself
physically strong,
mentally awake and
morally straight.
Motto
Do Your Best
Pledge of Allegiance
They also use the Pledge of Allegiance which is used far more broadly than just the scouts. You can read it at that page and I won’t repeat it here in my domain because I hate it. It is basically a United States nationalist poem indoctrinated into public school children.
My Reflections on Their Values
First of all, I respect the hell out of these organizations for actually attempting to explicitly identify their values and impart them to their members. So few people these days care about articulating their values and I suspect many people don’t even really know their own values.
Law
I basically support the scout law and the list of values it includes. The only partial exceptions are obedient and reverent. The others I fully support.
Obedience
I think it is appropriate in many situations, but it should not be taught as a top level value. When I’ve had employment in the past, I’ve usually found it appropriate to obey the orders of my various bosses or supervisors. But that is always subject first to my own primary values. If my boss told me to kill an innocent person, or defraud the public, I would not obey. I expect my kids to obey me most of the time, but if I tell them to do something that doesn’t make sense or that they find legitimately objectionable, I encourage them to bring that to my attention. I also encourage them not to cry wolf so that I have the patience and presence of mind to continue listening to their objections. So while I think obedience is a reasonable heuristic, I do not consider it a value in and of itself.
Reverence
Because of the contexts in which I’ve typically heard the word “reverence”, I tend to think of the religious version. I have no problem with anyone being religious, and if they are, I expect them to be genuine and reverent in it. But I do not think that being religious is a good top-level value. Having looked it up, I realize that reverence can often just mean respect. I also have a complex relationship with the word “respect”, because growing up, I found that adults often demanded respect at times when they were not deserving of it. Today I would say that being respectful is a good default position and that you should respect others until they give you a reason not to. You should not be unconditionally respectful because people often don’t deserve it.
Thriftiness
I think being thrifty is great and I do my best to be thrifty. But I want to observe that the scouts sometimes get caught up in modern conveniences and trends at the expense of thriftiness. To give a specific example, at the Cub Haunted 2026 event we were fed four meals in the dining tent over the course of the weekend. At each of those meals, each person was given a packet of cutlery containing a plastic fork, a plastic spoon, a plastic knife, a napkin, salt and pepper in a paper envelope, and a paper napkin, all bundled together in a plastic wrapper.
Most of the meals required only a fork. A few could benefit from a knife. Only one had a reasonable way to use a spoon. There was no way to return unused cutlery or wash used cutlery. Most people, over the course of the weekend threw four forks, four spoons, four knives, and four plastic wrappers into the landfill. That is obviously not thrifty. I would much prefer to see reusable metal cutlery washed between meals, or at least some effort to encourage guests to keep their cutlery and reuse it for subsequent meals.
Maybe nobody else noticed. Were they mentally awake?
Motto
I fully support “Do Your Best”. No complaints at all. Sometimes people around you will demand more than your best or make you feel like your best isn’t good enough. That’s basically the story of my failed marriage. But you can’t do more than your best, and you shouldn’t feel bad about it.
I actually misremembered the motto as “be prepared”. I don’t know where I got that, but I also fully support being prepared. I guess I didn’t make it up but it isn’t from the same scouts I was in.
Oath
I mostly support the oath, but when I practice it with Forest I skip the “to God and to my country” line. I discussed how I think religion is fine for some people earlier but is not a requirement to be a good person. And I like that the modern scouts interpret God pretty inclusively so that people of non-Christian faiths are still welcome. I don’t know how to make it inclusive of atheists like myself, but I’m not offended by it either.
Regarding the country, “Scouting America” is definitely referring to the United States of America and I absolutely do not support that country or believe I have any duty to it whatsoever.
Morally Straight
I used to interpret this to mean heterosexual. Of course I support gays and consider myself an ally, so I never supported that interpretation. But now I wonder if I misunderstood it. Today I interpret that line to mean being a moral person; following your moral code. Doing what’s right in your best judgement. And I fully support that interpretation.
Pledge of Allegiance
As I said, I hate that pledge and I hate the idea of indoctrinating kids to say it. Fuck the Pledge. Burn the Flag.
In terms of raising my kids, I’ve tried not to indoctrinate them in support of the pledge of allegiance or against it. I’ve done my best to explain what it means and why I will never say it again. But I’ve also made it clear that it is up to them whether they say it or not. Forest knows that the country it references funds ICE and foreign wars and has chosen not to say it for now. I couldn’t be prouder. On the other hand, if he eventually decides to say it, I will be proud of him for having the courage to think with his own mind and not just be a carbon copy of me.
Internal Contradiction
I think that being “mentally awake” and “morally straight” as the oath requires is in direct contradiction to unconditionally pledging allegiance to any particular flag, especially the flag of the “united” states of america. I think anyone who is mentally awake and morally straight would not say that pledge.
I also think that choosing not to say that pledge when there is a lot of social pressure to say it requires bravery which is in the scout law.
So my call to all scouts is to wake up mentally, straighten up morally, and be brave: Stop saying the pledge.
I had offered to be a den leader for Forest’s den is cub scouts. But when I learned that I would be responsible for teaching the kids the pledge of allegiance, I knew I wasn’t a good fit and withdrew my offer.