Community Groups

Habits of Mind, Scouting (BSA) and Challenging Outdoor Personal Experiences (COPE)

The Habits of Mind are developed early on in a boy’s scouting experience as they begin to pursue the various merits badges as well as take an active role in troop activities.  The Boy Scouts of America seek to develop in our young men the skills of interdependent thinking as they encourage them to acquire the ability to work as a member of a team; learn to listen with empathy and understanding as they work on merit badges such as Citizenship in the Nation; develop the ability to persist as they strive to become an Eagle Scouts; and gather data through all their senses through the experiences of camping, rock climbing, and treks.

These behaviors are furthered through a Scouting program called Project COPE.  While not exclusive to Scouts, the Challenging Outdoor Personal Experience invites people from all walks of life to engage in taking responsible risks, managing their impulsivity while persisting in working with a group to achieve what they thought they could not.  Through debriefing sessions – a metacognitive activity – the participants develop the skills of communicating with clarity, thinking flexibly, and remaining open to continuous learning about self and others.  Once again, a primary focus is the development of teams and thus thinking interdependently, listening with understanding, and questioning skills  are emphasized. The purpose of a challenge course (i.e. COPE) is to allow a participants to leave his/her comfort zone, affect new learning and to transfer that new learning into everyday life. The eight goals of COPE are the development of: trust; teamwork; communication; leadership; problem solving; decision making; planning and self-esteem…all in an atmosphere of fun! This is a guided discovery where the process is more important than the product. Both the purpose and goals of COPE mesh together very nicely with Habits of Mind.

These are but a few examples which highlight the scouting experience and the Habits of Mind.  We believe when they are made explicit individuals will be able to transfer these behaviors into their daily life experiences.

Howard Liebmann – HOWL@aol.com

Rosemarie Liebmann – RosemarieL@aol.com