I've also been lurking for a while now, and it was this specific post that compelled me to join up.

I wish I could say I'm surprised by the parents' attitude toward their tender little hothouse flowers, but I'm not. I see it every day here in our university where parents call department heads to complain that little Johnny didn't get a good grade, even though Johnny blew off nearly every class.

I had the advantage of joining Civil Air Patrol when I was 14, and in addition to learning to fly, we did a LOT of SARCAP(Simulated Air Rescue) and bivouacing in completely primitive areas. What I learned out in the field was invaluable, not to mention the huge gains in confidence.

As a Webelos leader in West Virginia, we did a full day, full scale "survival day" where the boys learned just about every basic skill plus some unexpected (by them) complications when it came to triaging and evac-ing a "wounded" member out of the woods. Almost all of our boys came from families that hunted or fished, but we threw a few new things at them.

We relocated a few years later, and our new church-sponsored Boy Scout troop was planning a 50 mile hike at the same time as the girls were attending camp. The older girls hiked about 25 miles of rugged-in-spots Appalachian Trail, carrying all their gear including water, in the space of 4 days. I know my own twins started out well in excess of 40# of gear, and that was almost half their bodyweight at the time. (They wised up by the next year's hike)

Meanwhile, the Boy Scouts, who were the exact same age as the girls, completed their hike along a reclaimed railroad bed which was mostly flat and either graveled or paved as it's used by cyclers as well. They did NO COOKING on the trail, eating a cold breakfast and arranging for both LUNCH and DINNER to be DELIVERED to prearranged points along the trail. OMG!!!!!

Never guess which bunch I'd rather be stuck in the woods with... and btw, I'm a girl, too.

jane b