« Back To BSA Innovation Engine

538

538
Member since : Mar-09-2009 (Verified)
2 Ideas, 2 Comments, 105 Votes

User Activity Stream

Ideas Posted

If we're supposed to be turning out the best of the best as Eagle Scouts, can anyone tell me why Scholarship Merit Badge and Public Speaking Merit Badges are not required for Eagle rank?

Scholarship goes without saying. An Eagle Scout should be a decent student who works hard in school. To not make it required suggests that the Organization doesn't value good scholarship in our youth. If you don't do well in school, don't worry, you can still be an Eagle Scout.

Public Speaking should at least be optionally required with something else. How many Eagle Ceremonies have you been to where the new Eagle Scout got up to speak and had no idea what to say, or how to properly present himself? I'm not saying we can create the perfect public speaker, but we should encourage our young men to learn the basics of talking to groups. It's a skill that will carry on with them their whole lives.
Instead of us all proposing individual new merit badges on the site, how about a total revamp of the system. I believe that Merit Badges should be categorized: Careers; Hobbies; Sports & Physical Fitness; Scoutcraft (or something like that). In particular, we should be encouraging youth to explore careers through merit badge work. We have hundreds of careers that aren't even covered by a merit badge. In a revamp, a boy earns, say, 10 career-oriented badges, 5 hobby merit badges, 3 physical fitness, and say 5 Scoutcraft for Eagle Rank. In any event, the natural outcome of revamping would be that many more careers an hobbies or recreational merit badges could be added.
Total Rows   421
Displaying 1 to 25
12345678910….1617Next »

Comments Posted

538 4 months ago
I respectfully disagree with the other posted comment. Comparing Scholarship in a young man and, say Golf or Basketry is apples to oranges. The silvers are the ones that the Organization says are important in the growth and development of young men. To minimize Scholarship in that mix is an unsaid way of saying we don't feel good grades in school are important. The other merit badges you named are laudible and are available to those who want to earn them. Getting a good education is not comparable to learning about American Heritage. Scholarship is not "specialized." We should require it from all Scouts - in fact, we do, when we say "keep myself...mentally awake".

As for Public Speaking...that's why I reccomend it as optionally required. It tells people that we value that development in a youth but not above some other things.
538 8 months ago
The Chief Cornplanter Council located in Warren, PA is one of the smallest Councils in the Counctry. 3 yrs ago we served 50 boys a week for 3 weeks and it was boring. Then we made a major change that other Councils could adopt. We went to just one week of camp with a fully volunteer staff (you know, like Bade Powell did??). Our staff comes right from our merit badge counsellor list. The average age of counsellor is about 60 years old. The combined experience is about 1,000 Scouting years. No more "sign-offs". Our camp is now filled to capacity and the quality of the program has skyrocketed. We're able to offer merit badges such as Railroading, Aviation, Nuclear Science, Automotive Maintenance; Public Speaking. It's certainly a paradigm shift, but it certainly works! It was a leap of faith for our Executive Board to explore, but after two highly successful (and profitable) summer, this Council will be running summer camp this way for many years to come.