Re: "MY SCOUT BADGE"
Patrick G Skelly (scoutldr@AOL.COM)
Wed, 19 Jan 1994 17:58:17 EST
for all, especially Bob McGwier -
I would be happy to send you a copy of the "My Scout Badge Book" ... if you
tell me you still want it. The program is set up ostensibly for "moderately
retarded" boys, though I've used it with all of our troop up to about three
years ago.
The real hooker is that it STILL requires the boy to earn some of the old
"Skill Awards" ... !Catch-22! ... BSA will not allow the boy to earn Skill
Awards.
I've complained to BSA about this problem numerous times over the past 5+
years. At the disabilities course at Philmont in 89 I was promised by a
National staff member not to be named that the "My Scout Badge" would be
rewritten/reissued in the summer of 1990. It still hasn't been rewritten.
That staff member then took all responsibilities for disabilities issues and
concern over to Learning for Life, where he coined the slogan "STAND TALL
..." in the L4L disabilities program. I later asked him if that would apply
to the boy in the wheel chair, and he said to me, "Don't take what we say
literally ..."
I hope none of the above shows any bias or disbelief on my part.
Happily, the responsibilities for disabilities issues and concerns have been
reassigned to the several program divisions, but there is no longer a
National Advisory Committee on Scouting for the Handicapped (NACOSH). So
what happens in the Cub Scout Division need not mesh with that in the Boy
Scout Division need not mesh with that in the Exploring Division.
As a followup to the disabilities course at Philmont 93, I was asked to
review adaptations for disabilities in the Cub Scout advancement area. My
response document addressing the full range of Webelos Scout requirements is
being studied right now by a project team of the National Cub Scout
Committee.
Returning to your immediate problem, work the normal Trail to First Class for
that boy as far as you can ... then get back to me with some specifics on
him, his disability, and the requirements in limbo ... and I'll try to give
you some suggestions. The approaches for spinal cord injury would be quite
different from muscular dystrophy.
- Pat Skelly, "Scout_Ldr"
Chartered Organization Representative
Troop and Post 520, Grand Canyon Council
Terry Howerton Sakima Group, Inc. SCOUTER Magazine Kansas City | 
