ERIC Number: ED239815
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 1983-Oct
Pages: 51
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Making Good Boys Better: Nonformal Education in Boy Scouts.
Kleinfeld, Judith; Shinkwin, Anne
This paper on a widespread nonformal American educational experience, the Boy Scouts, describes the close relationship between family socialization and scouting, and the education that occurs in three key scouting settings: camp-outs, troop meetings, and scout service projects. The paper argues that certain types of families deliberately use scouting as an educational tool, as a way to reinforce threatened family values, and to carry out a specific educational agenda for their sons. The study is based on intensive observation of boys' experience in 2 Alaska scout troops, each observed for 7 months, and on repeated interviews with 20 "focal" boys (boys in troop leadership roles, with several years of scouting experience; boys new to the troops who noticed the commonplace) and their parents. Scouting education in the troop setting is seen as demanding that 11- and 12-year-old boys learn how to perform a difficult set of unfamiliar tasks: running a meeting, keeping a group together to get a job done, identifying community projects, and organizing volunteers. An analysis of these tasks as nonformal educational experiences is included. Positive reviews from scouting professionals, scoutmasters of the troops studied, and parents interested in the research are cited. (MH)
Descriptors: Camping, Educational Experience, Family Influence, Family Involvement, Group Membership, Leadership Responsibility, Leadership Styles, Leadership Training, Meetings, Nonformal Education, Outdoor Education, Parent Attitudes, Participant Characteristics, Participant Satisfaction, Peer Evaluation, Preadolescents, Social Values, Socialization, Values Education
Publication Type: Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: N/A
Audience: Practitioners
Language: English
Sponsor: National Inst. of Education (ED), Washington, DC.
Authoring Institution: Alaska Univ., Fairbanks. Inst. of Social, Economic, and Government Research.
Identifiers - Location: Alaska
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A