Boys Grow Best When ...

They are with adults who are at ease with them and who seem to enjoy them most of the time...
They are permitted to make mistakes, which will not harm them unduly, and are permitted to live with adults who do not pretend to be perfect...
Those about them believe in them and express confidence through word and through giving them freedom...
Those about them understand what they are trying to do and support them in their endeavors...
Those about them permit them to express doubts, to raise questions, to try their own ideas...
They understand the limits of the freedom within which they can make decisions, and when this freedom is limited to the responsibility they feel they can carry at their stage of development...
Those about them deal with them firmly and consistently...
Adults around them behave as adults and show what the adult way is like...
Those about them help them to succeed when they need help, but let them struggle when they are winning by themselves...
Those around them gear their expectancy of a child's behaviour to his capacity for that behaviour...
Those about them understand how they grow, and encourage sound growth...
They feel strong within themselves, when they feel they are just the kind of person wanted by their family and friends, and their nation...
There is an atmosphere of friendliness and warmth whether with adults or children...
They meet actual life situations, emotionally charged, and deal with them successfully, with or without adult help...
Their performance expectancy is related to themselves and not to others...
They are interested in what they are doing for it's own sake. They will be interested when it has meaning for them. Boys who are forced to perform at tasks they are not interested in are not learning, but are actually blocked. This attempt of battery against human nature will lose in the end...

Newsgroups: rec.scouting
Subject: Boys Grow Best...
From: jim.speirs@canrem.com (Jim Speirs)
Date: Sun, 2 Jul 95 20:21:00 -0500