George, I agree completely with what you say, but I think you see a different goal here than I do.

My assumption is that this is planned as merely an introduction to woodworking, tools, and boatbuilding, and not a comprehensive education.

: "assembly line" approaches teach very little.

My experience with scouts is that they are young and inexperienced. Projects presented to them should have some challenge, but still be suited for their age and lack of experience. Initial leathercraft projects, for example, use prepunched kits. they go on to designing their own projects -- punching their own holes and cutting their own designs -- only after they get familiar with these.

Many scouts have used hammers, but they probably have never seen a wood plane, much less held one or used one. I used one for a pioneering project two years ago with my son's troop, and most of the scouts were unfamiliar with it.

I'm not thinking about them becoming boat designers, they are probably too young. I'm more concerned that they can use this project as an introduction to the safe and proper use of tools, and that the amount of work being done by the leaders is kept to a minimum. This should be a project for the boys, not an effort for their parents or their scout leaders.

: Most learning comes from solving problems. If you have an assembly line,
: there are fewer problems to solve and lessons to learn per person.

Fewer problems to solve is exactly the point. You and I agree that this process -- and I guess i shouldn't call it an "assembly line" -- is going to reduce the number of problems the scouts face. There will still be enough for them to solve. If these scouts are like those I know, you could eliminate ALL known problems, and they would invent a few new ones just to keep you on your toes.

They can focus on solving JUST those few problems, and let the leaders take care of the original designs and setups. That is one of the tasks of the adult leaders. The scouts will learn something. The lesson may be small, but no one wants to confuse scouting with school. They do something, they learn something, they end up with a kayak. I'm sure there is no intention to provide a complete education in boat building, but it is a start. Should one of these scouts decide that he wants to know more about building boats, he can write to this board and we'll tell him plenty

: When you are done, you will have many kaayks but no one will have the skill
: to build a kayak.

True. The troop will have many boats. That is one of the goals. The scouts will have picked up some of the skills needed for boat building. Since we know this is an addictive enterprise, I suspect they will pick up more skill from their next project. Perhaps by the time they get out of high school they will be bitten by the bug and be ready to actually go after the entire project from scratch. That seems to be about the age group that Gil Gilpatrick has had success with in teaching canoe and kayak building. I'm not expecting younger kids to be prodigies. I just hope they can have a good time and be safe.

PGJ