Chris:

In a situation such as Robinson described, would your priority be to start the fire (while dry wood was still readily available) or build the shelter (so you didn't have to do it in the rain?

I think the Scout leader in this case could have exercised some better common sense and split the scouts into two groups - one to build the shelters and the other to get the fires going.

It may have been a "character-building" exercise but if so, it should have been followed up with a "lessons learned" so the scouts would have an opportunity to see what they could have done differently/better.