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"so do I, and I agree with your post, scouting works and every boy including minorities would benefit; however, scouting works well in middle class & working-class communities with nuclear families and parental involvement with good and active troop committees. In the poor, inner-city communities, where scouting is mostly needed; it’s a whole different world."

Indeed, that's a big challenge. The inner city schools face many of the same issues. Youngsters with involved, supportive parents have a better shot at academic success and a productive life. Many inner city families fail to provide this. To be successful in bringing kids into scouting, we'll need a variety of approaches. I see a lot of Hispanic families living in the borough adjacent to our township. They aren't in the inner city, and there are a lot of fathers around. Reaching out to their sons is a different proposition than dealing with inner city youth from single parent households.

The fact is that boys like outdoor adventures, no matter their race. “Boys will be boys” in the truest sense of the word. Maybe they just need to be introduced to the concept of scouting/made aware of the opportunities.

I hope the scouts try to appeal to them on that basis and don’t take some other tack. I’m surprised at some of the ignorant comments on here. These are kids we’re talking about. “Courses in fence jumping an trunk hiding?” Come on.

and let's face it, scouting is down in most economic, racial and ethnic groups. the nation and our youth are changing as recreation is changing, years ago, baseball and basketball were the main sports, today it's soccer. We now have video games, i pods and other electronic devices. It's just different times and nothing lasts forever. Scouting has tried many different programs: exploring, venturing and the like which includes females, skill awards, COPE, climbing, etc. Maybe some day it will all click or maybe it won't