The Patrol Method in the BSA

Boy Scouts of America Creates Leaders

Apr 21, 2009

The Boy Scouts of America use a method of teaching scouts leadership, responsibility, and resourcefulness: the Patrol Method.

The Patrol Method is essential for the development of young men in the Boy Scouts of America. Through the Patrol Method individuals learn how to cooperate, lead, and follow others.

The Patrol Method builds on the way in which boys, and all children, create like-aged “gangs.” These gangs are normal and in some cases cause great mischief in the community. The Patrol Method, coupled with the ideals of Scouting, takes the idea of a gang and turns the boys from idle mischief makers into an organization that the community can benefit from.

The Patrol Method relies on an action and consequences style of learning that follows three steps that all Scoutmasters should follow.

The Patrol Leader, a boy elected by his peers in his patrol, is given an order or responsibility from the Senior Patrol leader. From there, the Patrol Leader is given free reign on how to accomplish the task at hand. Through delegation and other methods, the patrol works together, without the aid of adults, to perform the task and combining with other patrols in the troops, to complete the penultimate goal of the Senior Patrol Leader.

However, the Patrol Method not only works for spur-of-the-moment or daily tasks, but also functions in the larger world. Troops hold Patrol Leader Conferences, led by the Senior Patrol Leader, which completely charts the direction of the troop for the year, quarter, and monthly meetings.

The goal with the Patrol Method is to make a troop completely Boy Led. This means that although adults, the Scoutmaster and Assistant Scoutmasters, are at a troop meeting they are not there to lead the meetings or the boys. Rather, the adults are there to supervise and maintain a level of security and safety within the unit.

The Patrol Method is the only way in which troops in the Boy Scouts of America should be led as stated in the Boy Scout Handbook, Boy scout Patrol Leaders Handabook, and Boy Scout Scoutmasters Handbook. Other troops that rely on adult leadership are not, in fact, representing the appropriate methods in which scouting uses to create upright, civic individuals.

Scoutmasters should train the boys how to lead, trust in the training and the responsibility ingrained within the boys without hovering over the scouts. The boys lead, and sometimes flounder, giving the boys the knowledge that they can succeed even if they failed before, that they will not always succeed the first time, and to trust their own judgment.

For more information on training on the Patrol Method or Junior Leader Training contact your local council or council's webpage. You can find your local council by visiting the National Boy Scout webpage.

The copyright of the article The Patrol Method in the BSA in Youth Development is owned by Thomas Strickland. Permission to republish The Patrol Method in the BSA in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.