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