How White Stag Compares to
Scouting's National JLT Program
White Stag utilizes a set of leadership competencies, which are more fully articulated than
those distilled into the National BSA NYLT and Wood Badge programs. We are
formally organized into a six-year, phased structure, allowing people to participate and
enhance their skills over a number of years.
In the 1970s, the National Council of the Boy Scouts of America used
the White Stag Leadership Development program as the basis for the nationally
mandated adult Wood Badge program and for its Troop Leadership Development Staff Guide. Then, until the late
1980s, the National Boy Scout of America Junior Leader Training Program
and Wood Badge were adaptations of the White Stag Program.
Unlike NYLT, White Stag is not a one-shot deail. We assume that as teens grow, they are ready to learn more complex concepts about leadership. White Stag is also coeducational, hands-on, outdoors, individualized, and has a number of other differentiating characteristics. In short, we
don't try to teach everything to everyone each year, but a portion of
it as appropriate to the learner's readiness, age, leadership position, and
so forth. We encourage participants to return the next year for a bigger
portion of the pie.
Béla Bánáthy, the founder of White Stag and man who conceptualized the
leadership skills, wrote:
The significance of instruction is not questioned here at all.
The point that is made here is that the learning task is the nucleus around
which to design instruction. The role and function of instruction should
be viewed in its proper relationship to learning. It should be planned
for and provided for accordingly. Instruction is a means to an end and
not an end in itself. Its function is to facilitate learning. [1]
According to Resources for Leadership:
The Emphasis is on Learning
A "manager of learning" is not simply a teacher. Teaching connotes
activities too typically requiring a lecture hall and a large number
of desks. The phrase manager of learning is carefully chosen. The emphasis
is on learning, not on what the instructor teaches. Your job, as a manager
of learning, is to help the participants to become more effective leaders.
Managers of learning are different from "teachers" or "instructors."
They know that people learn as individuals, not as a class or group.
They know each individual is important; therefore, each individual leader
must learn or all will receive an inferior program. Whoever accepts
the responsibility for managing learning must use unusual techniques
to get unusual results.[2]
The program also employs many years of accumulated spirit
and traditions. These are extremely important to the success of the
program. These spirit and traditions are designed to affect individuals
emotionally, securing in their hearts a desire to become better people.
While enabling learning on an intellectual level, White Stag also positively
influences people spiritually and emotionally. Individuals typically return
again and again to participate in the White Stag program. And with that
repeated exposure individuals begin to integrate the leadership role into
their personal lives.
For More Information
[1] Bánáthy, Béla. The Design and Management
of Training. A Systems Approach. Boy Scout World Bureau, Geneva: 1969.
47pp.
[2] Phelps, Brian. "Resources for Leadership,"
Livermore, CA: 1998. 267pp.
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