This week, we had the Scouts consider who they wanted to be.
Part of the World challenge badge is to consider what you value most in yourself and in a person. There is a fantastic book I’m reading at the moment called Wonder. Its about a boy called August who due to some complications at birth suffered a lot of face deformations to the point where he an outcast at his new school, Beecher Prep. He meets a teacher called Mr Browne who gives him a lesson about precepts.
This is summery of what I read the Scouts last night:
Mr. Browne writes a word on the chalkboard: precept. Nobody knows what this means, so he explains that it is a rule about something important. He asks the class to brainstorm things that are really important, and he writes down everything they suggest. They come up with ideas like school, family, the environment, and sharks.
Mr. Browne says all of these are good ideas, but he adds that one thing is most important of all. He writes this down on the board: “WHO WE ARE!” He says that they all need to spend time asking themselves what kinds of people they are. This is, in fact, the subject of Beecher Prep’s motto, “Know Thyself.”
When Jack interrupts to say he thought they were in this class to learn English, everyone laughs. Not missing a beat, Mr. Browne says, “Oh, yeah, and that, too!” With that, August decides he likes the man.
Continuing his lesson, Mr. Browne writes a precept down on the board: “WHEN GIVEN THE CHOICE BETWEEN BEING RIGHT AND BEING KIND, CHOOSE KIND.”
After a game, I read Scouts the above extract. We then moved on to have a Life Auction.
The premise of a Life Auction is this: The participants upon entering the auction lose all of the things that make them them. They then, with the money randomly allocated to them, have to bid on the qualities that are most important to them or the ones they want back the most.
We had an amazing auction, led by the best auctioneer I know, Bosun.
Below I’ve attached all the things that were on sale, the programme for the auction and a spreadsheet Skip very kindly made. The spreadsheet can show you who ended up with what, when cross-referenced with the other resources.
I’m so impressed with how everyone engaged with the auction. Before we closed the evening, I left the Scouts with one more precept from Wonder:
Your actions are your monuments.
There is no Scouts next week due to Caving. Hope to see you in 2 weeks time.
Ellis
Big thanks to Ellis for planning this and leaving us all with a challenge… our actions really are our monuments! and also Bosun, our master auctioneer!