USA TODAY reporter Del Jones recently interviewed Robert Mazzuca, chief scout executive of Boy Scouts of America. Overall, his grammar was sound, but the 60-year-old showed signs of fatigue toward the end of the Q&A when he told Jones, “It’s time to reintroduce the American people to the Boy Scouts and quit letting other people define us.”

It’s clear what Bobby Boy Scout was going for here. But his sentence (and, some would argue, his policy on homosexuals) is backwards. When introducing one person or group to another, the person who goes first is the person you are introducing, the person being illuminated. To say, “It’s time to reintroduce the American people to the Boys Scouts” suggests that the scouts have forgotten who the American people are.

Proper language falls under a number of the 12 points of Scout Law. Helpful and courteous, certainly. Thrifty, in some cases. And — perhaps the funniest virtue — clean. Get that dirt under your fingernails; get that dangling modifier out of your sentence. Come on, Boy Scouts, clean up!