I don't mean to paint B.S.A. and G.S.A. with a broad brush of condemnation. However, my experience with scouts was somewhat jaded. In Cub Scouts, I got on the wrong end of a fixed Pinewood Derby. I was going to join Boy Scouts, but the guys who I'd have been going in with wanted to do nothing but look at Playboy magazines on the campouts. I tried to get my sons interested, but they turned up their noses. Their read on who was involved was negative.
As a result, I took it upon myself to teach them what I could about camping, hiking, survival, etc. They've turned out all right. I don't regret not forcing them into scouting. My #2 son is already instituting my "Emergency Camping Trip" ritual in his family. That was a thing I used to do back when he was a sprout. At 10 AM on a Saturday morning I'd declare an Emergency Camping Trip, and everyone had to be in the car in an hour. We'd then head to a state park and camp overnight. It was a fun, exciting way to teach preparedness.
Over the past 40-some years, what I've seen is that good families produce good scouts. Families that seem to produce mall rats and soccer orphans don't. I've also seen that the same goofy politics that infest churches tend to bleed into their scout troups. It boils down to too many people using church and scouts as a career replacement.
As I said, I don't want to condemn scouting and I don't want to condemn scouts. I'm just saying I did not have the best of experiences with them. My advise has been to do as much as you can as an extended family first. That is what has worked with me and mine.
