I was an Assistant Scoutmaster for two years. Was I perfect? The definite answer is a resounding, "No." So this story is about the time I was the Idiot Scoutmaster. Yes, I am admitting that even I screw up.
When I became an Assistant Scoutmaster for Troop 180 out of Lutz, Fl. there had been a shift in youth members. They had lost a lot of boys to turning sixteen. I know you are thinking, "But aren't the boys allowed to be youth members until their eighteenth birthday?" Yes. That is true.
But when they turn sixteen they start driving, and become more interested in girls than Scouting.
I heard one of my own Scoutmasters say, "We've got to get these boys to Eagle by fifteen, or else they'll never get it." ("It" being Eagle.) Again, the subjects of girls and cars were brought up.
So Troop 180 was in the middle of a member shift. It mostly consisted of Scouts that were one to two years removed from Webelos. So they were quite young and inexperienced. I remember the first campout that I somehow ended up being in charge of for the first hour. I was running ragged answering question after question. They were coming at me like a machine gun.
That was one of my stronger moments. But like I said earlier, I've had my Idiot Scoutmaster moments. It all started with two of the Scouts doing something extremely stupid. I can't remember what. But I was giving them unholy hell for doing it.
That's when I said/yelled, "You're acting like a bunch of God Damned twelve year olds!" Yeah, not one of my better moments. It was then that one of the Scouts said back to me, "But I'm ten!" I didn't quite know what to say to that.
So I calmed down a bit, and thought about the situation. I realized I was dealing with not just kids, but ten year old kids. They were inexperienced, and when it came to communicating with youth so was I. So I learned something new that day.
I screwed up a bit, but I tried to be a better Scoutmaster because I now knew what I was working with. Also, the Scouts quit doing whatever dumb thing I yelled at them for. So they learned a bit as well.
Does this mean I'm going to quit posting, "Idiot Scoutmaster" stories? Hell no. I'm sitting on a goldmine of stupidity stories. I can't let that go. But look at this way. The Scoutmasters who were idiots will have stories told about them, and those who weren't will not.
For further reading, here is my Idiot Scoutmaster collection:
Bored Scoutmasters and the Tale of the Wampus
Idiot Scoutmasters: A True Story of a Scout's Canteen
Idiot Scoutmasters: Once Bitten, Forever Stupid
Idiot Scoutmasters: The Dishwashing Paradox
Idiot Scoutmasters: The Idiot Committee
Here's a post that goes back over a decade. This was posted on my old Myspace Blog.
Adrian reminisces about his childhood days with the Boy Scouts
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