Just curious if anyone has positive or negative experiences to share.

I was a Scout for many years and enjoyed it, and even though I never really focused on advancement, I got a lot out of it. I particularly enjoyed Order of the Arrow when I was older.

I was perhaps in a slightly unusual situation because troop membership declined sharply when I joined (due to bad recruiting practices). When recruitment started rising again, that left me as the oldest member by far, with the rest of the troop at least 2 years younger (most of them 4 years younger). While I didn't really have age peers there, I think that ended up working out okay. My role ended up being much more advisory (think more Junior Assistant Scoutmaster than Senior Patrol Leader).

If your kid is excited about joining, I'd tell you to go for it. It's also a great way to be involved in the local community (if you aren't already).

I think a lot depends on who the leaders are. "Your mileage may vary" so to speak. But for a gifted kid it as a lot to offer (a range of ages and activities, and the opportunity to really dive deep into things that are interesting - there are merit badges for just about everything ...).

My son (7, diagnosed with ASD) is a Cub Scout (and my daughter, 11, is a Girl Scout). Overall, I think it's a great program. Our local pack doesn't push the religious aspect at all - it would be much more of a problem for us if they did. It has been a really nice opportunity for him to spend more time with his dad, and he's been able to develop some skills that would otherwise probably have languished (#3 popcorn seller in the pack!).

Cub Scouts has been absolutely wonderful for my DS11, he's been in it since 1st grade and this year (his last year as a cub) he is working on his Arrow of Light award. No dogma in our pack, nice parents, and kids are great (and many gifted).

I think that it's also good for boys in general, because by and large, they teach boys control but allow them to be, well boys while they are doing it.

A new mom at one of our meetings was looking at the very youngest scouts who were running around like crazy playing tag and it was stressing her out. She was saying she never let her son behave like that (truthfully, they were just being boys, so I think her viewpoint was skewed by her own son's temperament which is pretty reserved). I said well, the youngest ones were running around but look at the oldest ones (who were helping the den leaders with the younger kids and setting up the race track for Pinewood Derby.) They have gone from being the running around type to the helpful and responsible type, and that's part of what they learn in cub scouts.

Also, my son is really really proud to be a scout. He gets to spend time with his dad, and learn all sorts of things and hang out with a lot of different kids. He is really looking forward to moving up to Boy Scouts next year.

Anyway, I highly recommend it, and if you join and don't gel with a particular pack, don't be afraid to try a different one. But our experience has been an incredibly positive one.

We've had a lot of fun with scouting! I was my older son's den leader for 5 years and helped with the other one's, in cub scouts. They are now in boy scouts.
They both have gotten a lot out of boy scouts- learning how to socialize with boys who may not share your interests; camping; outdoor skills... It isn't perfect but they really like it! They go to the weekly 1 1/2 hour-long troop meeting and camping one weekend a month.
Recently, at a district-wide camping jamboree, my two kids with their friend took first place on a one-mile orienteering course out of 20 teams! Some of the teams were in high school (mine are in grade school and junior high).
We volunteer a lot with boy scouts- it's like everything; you get out what you put in. My kids have done a lot of the science merit badges, which can be interesting and challenging.

My DS11, now in 6th grade, enjoyed being in Cub Scouts from 1st grade to 5th. Our pack had really great and involved leaders. My DH is the "sports coach" in the family/area so it was nice for my DS to be led and guided by other male figures for once. DS decided not to bridge to Boy Scouts because of the time commitment in middle school but I am very happy about the experience he had up until then. Lots of varied activities and stuff we wouldn't have done otherwise because we are not a very "camping" type family.
Good luck with your choice!

If it's a well-run pack or troop, strongly in favor. The best ones cultivate leadership skills and life skills that are otherwise rarely taught to kids these days.

The kids start cooking in 2nd grade; by 4th grade it's bigger cooking projects; and by the time they are Boy Scouts they have to plan the meals for their own campouts.

Boy Scouts are organized into patrols, which have to do a lot of planning for their activities, under adult direction. This teaches a lot of important skills (consensus, taking care of practical details, working with people who have different opinions, etc.)

Definitely positive experiences overall. Most of the kids happen to be gifted.

Be willing to volunteer at least a little bit, because it is all volunteers, and if they burn out, the troop suffers.

See if you can visit different packs/troops and then decide which to join. This is expected.

Your child can just have fun, or they can put more into it (maybe with some direction from you) and get more out of it.

I think the best part of scouting is the focus that is put on service projects. And like DeeDee points out, they learn to do things for themselves, which is not often expected nowadays.

DS10 was a Cub Scout for several years. We wound up pulling him out because his Den Leader did not get him, even after we explained, repeatedly, what DS's challenges were. DS was not liked in the pack, and I know a number of parents were happy when we left. In retrospect I wish we had either switched packs or quit earlier, but, like school, we kept thinking we could get it to work. DS enjoyed the overnights and community service, but was not motivated to earn belt loops or pins.

How critical is the duty to god requirement? We aren't a religious family and I certainly want to instill respect for all religions in my son but I'm worried without us being church goers he'll be excluded. We are in the PNW if that makes a difference.

It probably depends on the pack, but in ours there is a mix of religions (and non religious) and there is no problem at all. In the handbook there is some religious wording but it is mainly couched as "your religion" not specifically Christian. We are Jewish and do not attend temple, but our sponsor is a church. I also wanted to add that at I agree in that I feel strongly in the need to respect all religions (and the choice to be non-religious) and I would have a very hard time in a heavily dogmatic situation.

You can be spiritual without being religious. We aren't super religious but we do belong to a local church. Last night, my kids volunteered at a homeless shelter our church sponsored. They got permission from our scout leader to volunteer there as part of a scouting volunteer thing - they wore their scout uniforms to the shelter.
That is kind of your "duty to god." 1/3 or more of scouts are Mormon, so that may be where a lot of that comes from.
Your church/temple may sponsor helping at a food bank, or they have a work day at the church/temple where you pull weeds. That is helping your community ad doing your "duty to god."
There are a lot of ways non-religious people can still be involved in scouting.

This is what our experience was in Boy Scouts. We also found that there are *so* many BS troops in our community - each with an different "group personality". I would talk to the adult leaders of troops you're considering, be up front with your question, ask questions about all the other things you're curious about (camping, community service, whatever) and also let your ds attend meetings at a few different troops.

Best wishes,

polarbear

In our house, the largest part of the education of our kids is to teach them how to think for themselves. This includes making their own decisions about religion. My kid choose to be agnostic/atheistic in spite of close family members who aren't (meaning that no one has inculcated them one way or another). They looked at the question from different perspectives and made up their own minds. IMO, teaching kids to weigh evidence before making any decision --- including whether or not to join the Boy Scouts --- is an essential part of any education, and it plays to the strengths of the gifted mind.

The Boy Scouts and their policy are blatantly discriminatory. Their official policy is that my kids can't join and be honest about their beliefs. If they had joined and hidden their beliefs, they would have been subjected to a message telling them they they weren't worthy. My kids understand this fact.

I'm deeply disturbed by an organization that tells children that they can't be "the best kind of citizens" if they don't believe in a god. I've talked to my kids about this kind of idea and the message it sends. We used it as a basis for talking about discrimination, and how people couch their prejudices in terms that describe the disfavored group as the one that's doing wrong, and is therefore deserving of discrimination or of being excluded ("he's a second-rate citizen because [insert random trait]"). We also discussed (still discuss) how this kind of thinking can lead people to justify all manner of harmful acts, from the mundane to the extreme ("can you think of other groups who were or are classified as not being the right kind of citizens, and what happened to them?"). Understanding how prejudice can drive behavior helps my kids understand the world they live in.

Personally, my feeling is that the scouting brand of prejudice inculcation is far from "wholesome," though it is a banal sort of thing. But that is my opinion.

The national policy is viewed as a problem by many both within and outside of Scouting.

Local practice, however, is another thing. Many troops are extremely flexible in their interpretation of the national policy, or even ignore certain elements of it in order to make Scouting as welcoming an experience as they can.

I think of the term "Boy Scouts" as shorthand for a whole bevy of youth organizations with an outdoor activity orientation. If the Boy Scouts are not one's cup of tea (for whatever reason) there are a lot of other (more obscure) alternatives (google turns up many many results).

At the 30,000 foot level for a gifted kid, a group (like scouts) with a range of ages and a lot of flexibility in terms of activities could be very positive (provided there is good adult leadership at the local level).

If you are interested in getting your children involved in scouting, but disagree with their discriminatory and bigoted positions, you should check out the Baden-Powell Service Association. It's secular and coed.

http://bpsa-us.org/

Just following up on this thread to say we are giving cub scouts a try and DS8 loves it. It is a really small group and early on DS really clicked with one of the other boys.

I had a chance to talk to the boy's parent and he is 2e and PG! The boys love playing together and will be doing a week long day camp together this summer.