November - December 2002

Learning and Scouting at Home

By Cathleen Ann Steg

Families in Charlotte, N.C., use a pack, troop, and crew to provide curriculum enrichment for their home-educated children.

• Something for Everyone
• Homeschooling Is a Growing Movement
• At the Philmont Training Center: Scouting for the Home Schooled, Sept. 14-20, 2003

On the shore of Lake Tillery at Morrow Mountain State Park in central North Carolina, three Venturers are explaining the intricacies of orienteering to a group of Boy Scouts, Cub Scouts, siblings, and parents.

The map-and-compass lesson is part of a June family camp-out that also includes canoeing, swimming, hiking, and lots of camaraderie. It's a four-day celebration of Pack, Troop, and Crew 447's first year as registered units in the Etowah District of Charlotte-based Mecklenburg County Council.

The three units are special because their youth members are all educated at home, or homeschooled. Looking at the events of the previous year, Venturing crew Advisor Chuck Kish saw many reasons to celebrate this successful blend of homeschooling with Scouting's three age-appropriate programs.

"It's a perfect fit," explained Kish. "There's so much Scouting can offer homeschoolers, whether they're in a mixed unit or an all-homeschooler unit."

The breadth and depth of all Scouting programs provide curriculum enrichment for many home-educated students, added Joy Kish, who is Chuck's wife and crew committee chairman. In fact, for many families, "Scouting is the curriculum," she noted. "We turn our Scout program into unit studies; I just incorporate everything we do, expanding on all areas."

For example, Nathan, their 13-year-old son (and troop senior patrol leader) used the Geology merit badge as a springboard for in-depth work in the earth sciences; daughter (and crew vice president for administration) Kristyn worked on her public speaking and organizational skills—typical parts of a high school English lesson plan—through her position in the crew.

Leadership opportunities

Scouting also adds valuable leadership training to a homeschooler's educational experience. Membership in a pack, troop, or crew provides the kind of leadership opportunities available to students in public and private schools through student council, marching band, and other school organizations. Scouting leadership positions provide occasions to learn and demonstrate skills that are a vital part of any student's growth.

"I've been to professional management and leadership courses that teach exactly the same thing we're teaching these kids in their [BSA] junior leader training," said Scoutmaster Tim Minerd, watching Troop 447 junior leaders organize the evening flag ceremony around a homemade pole. "It's exciting to think how much further along they will be than I was at their age."

Older Scouts and Venturers particularly enjoy this benefit, said David Smith, president of Crew 447. A graduate of homeschooling and now a college student, David explained that "leadership development was something we all wanted," when the Venturing crew first hammered out its bylaws.

Working with the younger Scouts, and just knowing that "we are being watched," has been "a great experience," David added. "Being with these younger students at this camp-out has reminded us that you have to set a good example."

Social life, values reinforcement

The Scout program can offer advantages to a homeschooler's social life as well. "Almost all my social life is with Scouting," observed 15-year-old Kristyn Kish.

She described some recent events and activities in which the boys and girls of Crew 447 participated—swimming at the local pool, whitewater rafting, camping, and taking skill-building programs at a councilwide Venturing jamboree.

As a bonus, the homeschooled Scouts of Troop 447 appreciate the way Scouting reinforces their values.

While member families of the pack, troop, and crew are Christian, homeschooled students of all faiths are welcome to join, said Chuck Kish. "We're Christ-centered and family-oriented," he added, noting that the Duty to God point of the Scout Law dovetails nicely with the beliefs of all member families. In fact, when the group was chartered in May 2001, they requested the number 447 for all three units, based on Philippians 4:4-7.

During their drizzly Friday morning Bible study around the campfire, the crew's associate Advisor Debbie Bateman encouraged the group to think about the meaning of the Bible verses that gave the group their identity.

The lines, which begin with the word "Rejoice," are "all about attitude," Bateman explained. "Your attitude affects everything else in Scouting. How does that tie in with the Scout Law?"

"A Scout is cheerful," shouted the Scouts around the fire.

Good for Scouting, too

Families are able to involve themselves more easily and more deeply in Scouting, thanks to the flexibility in the homeschoolers' calendar.

As an example, Chuck Kish pointed to all the tents filling the wooded campsite on Friday morning. "We've been here since Thursday," he observed. "Just think—homeschooled Scouts can camp pretty much whenever they feel like it."

And his family would accompany him in September—for the third time—to the BSA's Philmont Training Center in New Mexico for a course on Scouting and homeschooling, he noted. "It's a great plus for homeschoolers to get to go when the crowds aren't there."

Though home-educated students may have as many activities as their traditionally schooled peers, they usually have more flexibility in their schedules. This makes it easier for all three units to camp together, allowing older Scouts to interact with the younger Cub Scouts. Unlike their counterparts from public schools, leaders for 447 didn't have to coordinate their Cub Scout den schedules with the busy high school sports and club regimens of Boy Scout and Venturing students.

"It's so much easier for the older Scouts to give back to the younger ones when they can all meet at the same time," says Pack 447 Cubmaster Tony Bateman. "It's a great teaching experience for them, plus the dens benefit, as do the den leaders."

Recruiting adult leaders

Homeschool units also can have an easier time recruiting adult leaders.

Parents in a homeschool Scout unit already teach their own children and help with a host of clubs, athletic activities, and field trips. So putting on the extra mantle of Scout leadership doesn't seem so daunting.

"We've had very little problem recruiting leadership," said Tony Bateman, noting that their current Webelos den leader has five uniformed assistants.

Debbie Bateman agreed, adding that "a lot of these homeschool families are used to learning about something by doing it, by diving into something new."

Finally, the emphasis on family—so important in homeschooling and Scouting—gets a real boost at events like 447's camp-out.

For evidence, just look at the brother-sister team of Nathan and Kristyn Kish, stir-frying chicken fajitas side by side at their camp stove; parents working with their son to set up a ham radio demonstration for Saturday morning; or whole families hiking together up the steep, craggy segment of the Venturing crew's orienteering trail, with younger siblings "doing their best" to imitate their Webelos Scout big brothers.

All help to illustrate the type of perfect partnership available between Scouting and America's homeschoolers.

In Scouting's October issue, contributing editor Cathy Steg described how the Scouting program supplements the curriculum at another educational venue, Virginia's Hargrave Military Academy.

Something for Everyone Watching with satisfaction as some Cub Scouts played chess by the campfire, members of Venturing Crew 447 worked the coals around their Dutch oven, and Boy Scouts policed their site. "Someone recently told me, 'I haven't seen a miracle in a long time,'" Advisor Chuck Kish commented. "I said, 'You ought to come out camping with us.'" Originally inspired—after attending the Philmont Training Center's conference on Scouting for the Home Schooled in 2000—to form a Venturing crew for homeschoolers, in tandem with existing Pack 94 and Troop 94 of Charlotte, N.C., Kish was encouraged to think big and form three completely new units: a pack, troop, and crew. The growing number of homeschoolers in the Charlotte area made it possible to reach out to a larger group, allowing Pack 94 and Troop 94 to serve the northern part of the territory, with the new 447 units locating more centrally for other families. Now, both 94 and 447 continue to grow. As of spring 2002, Pack 447 boasted 25 Cub Scouts, Troop 447 had 16 Scouts, and Crew 447 had 6 Venturers. There were also 16 registered adult leaders, many of whom have been recognized by the Etowah District for outstanding leadership: Tim Minerd, Tony Bateman, and Chuck and Joy Kish all received the district's Godsend Award for 2002, for contributing the most to their units. Hardworking visionary Chuck Kish earned the district's Venturing Crew Advisor of the Year award. Akin to the original "group" method used in the British system of Scouting, the 447 units often meet as a group, and plan at least two full family camp-outs per year. Chartered to the P.E.A.C.E. (Prayerfully Encouraging Academics in a Christ-centered Environment) homeschool organization, all units meet at St. Michael's Anglican Church in Charlotte. Dens meet jointly on Mondays (and then separate out for individual den meetings in the building) twice a month; the troop meets on three Mondays each month, with their PLC on the fourth week; and the crew meets twice monthly. With so many opportunities to be together, each individual unit can benefit from the special skills of the others. For more information about this ever-growing group, visit them at www.scouting447.org.

Homeschooling Is a Growing Movement Conservative estimates calculate that between one and two million students are currently taught at home, with the number growing between 7 and 15 percent a year. For some, like the families in Pack, Troop, and Crew 447 in Charlotte, N.C., religion is a primary purpose for the home education of their children. However, a family's decision can be based on one or more factors, including: Religion: Family values are reinforced when the parents are the teachers. Academics: For many, homeschooling is the ultimate in individualized education, allowing these students to perform at their personal best. "We can learn easier than public school students," observed Webelos Scout Marshall Winchester of Pack 447, a 10-year-old regional spelling champ who is already studying geometry with ease and enthusiasm. Travel: Families in the military, in missionary work, or other fields involving travel to foreign lands with little access to traditional American-style education often find homeschooling a way to provide consistent, sequential schooling. Many curriculums and schedules While there are as many curriculum and scheduling approaches as there are home schools, a majority fall under these broad definitions: School—at home: Families can order a complete curriculum (the Calvert School, for example, long popular with families doing years-long archaeology or other work in remote parts of the world, provides a complete year of "school" in a box, including lesson plans, texts, workbooks, pens, crayons, and tests to be mailed to the Calvert teacher/adviser back in the United States) and structure their day just as it would have been done in public school. Unschooling: Everything done in the family's day is seen as part of the child's education, whether it be the science and math of cooking and gardening, the physics of sailing, the strategic thinking of a chess game, or the creative expression of a theatrical production. In-between: A majority of families currently work somewhere between the two extremes, choosing to use textbooks occasionally, but looking to outside clubs and activities—such as Scouting—to anchor or enrich their studies.

At the Philmont Training Center: Scouting for the Home Schooled, Sept. 14-20, 2003 As part of its week of September courses in 2003, the Philmont Training Center in New Mexico is offering a session for Cub Scout, Boy Scout, and Venturing leaders of homeschooled Scouts. Other sessions available during the week of Sept. 14-20, 2003, include: Teaching Advanced Outdoor Skills, High Adventure Trek Planning, Climbing and Rappelling, Leave No Trace, and Project COPE Director Training. To apply, talk to your district executive right away, to learn how to get the necessary referral from your council Scout executive.

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