By John Tierney of The Atlantic. (The Boy Scouts of America Communications Department was not involved in the creation of this content.)

A visit to the headquarters of the Minsi Trails Council in Allentown, Pennsylvania, reveals the lasting influence of the organization—and some of the challenges of modern parenting.

I knew early on that I wasn’t cut out for the Boy Scouts. I was a Cub Scout for only a year in elementary school before the reality was clear to me: Those worthy attributes mentioned in the Scout Law were beyond my reach.

And now, more than a half-century later, those virtues are also beyond my memory. So, with my addled brain unable to call up the Scout Law from its dark, gray recesses, I Googled it. What I found rings a bell: “A Scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent.” To me, that sounds more like an aspirational statement than a law, but who’s to say?! Whatever you call it, that set of traits is still beyond my reach.

And yet, I’ve recently found my way back to the Scouts—specifically, to the Minsi Trails Council of eastern Pennsylvania and western New Jersey—this time, as an interested observer, rather than as someone harboring notions of ever being obedient or reverent. Read more