The Joy of Teaching the Square Knot

A first-wave Baby Boomer, I grew up In Miami Beach. I was a Cub Scout (1953-56) and Boy Scout (1956-62), Eagle Class of 1959. I was inducted into the OA in the Fall of 1961, but a deep plunge into scholastic debate caused me to drift away from Scouting, as often happens when a boy is sixteen. I had been a camper and then a counselor at Camp Sebring (South Florida Council). I loved Scouting and deeply regret not staying active then.

As a graduate student in American Civilization at the University of Pennsylvania, I began a research project using the archives of the Philadelphia Council, on one of the earliest Councils. That work was a trial run on a dissertation for my doctorate, but I wrote on a different topic. Once I became a Professor of American Studies at the University of California, Davis (1971-2009), I began writing about the BSA. Over the next two decades I wrote several scholarly articles about Scouting, and eventually published a book for the general audience based on research with a troop in Northern California. That book is ON MY HONOR: BOY SCOUTS AND THE MAKING OF AMERICAN YOUTH (University of Chicago Press, 2001).

I know that I became a teacher out of the pure pleasure, as an older Scout teaching skills, like how to tie a square knot, to younger boys. The joy of teaching.

Submitted by: Jay Mechling of Alameda