We're a few miles from Boer War hero General Lord Baden-Powell's conception of a paramilitary training scheme for young men, aren't we?

My scouting experience included large doses of hiking, canoeing, camping (in tents), and learning how to handle a knife and ax, shoot and handle a firearm, make a fire, make shelter, tie knots, use a compass and map, and administer first aid.

I learned lifelong skills and loved every minute of it.

Mr. Bovard:

Go buy a tan shirt, get trained, and see what's happening in Scouting from the ground up. I've been an adult Scout Leader for five years now, and it's been an exciting five years - and Kale has never been brought up once.

"Think Like A Boy" is an axiom of all scout training, and that means thinking in terms of robots and cellphones now. We are engaged in STEM, but that is a corollary program that is not essential to the mission of scouting. Girls are a reality, and they have been since the Explorers were introduced in the 60s and 70s.

There are many of us working to ensure that Scouting doesn't turn into the Komsomol, the John Birch Society or Captain Planet and the Planeteers.

There are still dutch ovens, rope bridges, canoes, fundraisers, highway cleanup, musty tents, dirty hands and blisters. To paraphrase St. Aaron Rodgers: "R-E-L-A-X, we got this."