Re: Frosted about Advancement (was Re: MIssing or withheld Blue
Robert Wright (rayadorob@YAHOO.COM)
Tue, 30 Mar 1999 04:58:46 -0800
Rave on, Neil. You hit the nail on the head! We were given plenty of
warning about the changes.
Also, in our public wailing & petitioning for exclusions, I can't help
but think about what we are teaching our Scouts.
(now ascending the soapbox)
In today's society, lots of people are looking for someone else to take
responsibility for what is happening to them. When, usually, they are
just trying to dodge personal responsibility for their actions, or
inaction.
Letters from Scoutmasters, etc. will cover legitimate tardiness on
completing the Eagle requirements. Everyone else has to learn to "deal
with it".
(speaker has been forcibly removed from the soapbox and is currently
being marshmallow'd and graham crackered)
I may be ignorant; but I'm responsibly so!
Rob Wright
--- NeilLup@AOL.COM wrote:
> In a message dated 3/28/99 1:17:01 PM,
> hhammons@LAUSD.K12.CA.US writes:
>
> <<Then have them provide you with copies of the ones
> where your
> son's merit Badges appear. This is legally binding on
> BSA and all units.>>
>
> Phil, I apologize in advance if I seem to be flaming
> you. I rather think that
> a lot of personal steam has built up within me and I
> am venting a bit of it.
> I do apologize if I offend anyone.
>
> LEGALLY BINDING!! Good grief. This is Scouting, not
> the Supreme Court. This
> is a kids program. The purposes of it are:
>
> Citizenship
> Character
> Fitness
>
> and also
>
> FUN!! for both youth and adults.
>
> I believe that I have posted before and others have
> posted too that the Eagle
> is only one part of advancement, which is only one of
> eight methods of
> Scouting, which is only one of several programs of
> the BSA. Yet we have
> twisted and allowed others to twist that one part of
> one method to be of such
> preeminence that one of our skilled, distinguished
> leaders finds it necessary
> and proper to use the term "legally binding" to
> describe the the significance
> of a unit advancement report!
>
> I hope that if some parent or leader came to me with
> an advancement report and
> described it as "legally binding" that I would be
> able to hold my temper and
> count to a high enough number that I wouldn't tell
> them to roll that report
> into a tight spiral and put it into an appropriate
> place. Rather, I would
> hope that I would invite them to a cup of an
> appropriate beverage and discuss
> the aims and methods of Scouting, including
> advancement, merit badges and the
> Eagle.
>
> I believe that BP called Scouting a "Jolly Game."
> All of the early leaders of
> Scouting that I know about also understood the
> romance and fun of Scouting.
> The idea that someone would be hauled into court and
> a judge expected to order
> someone to be advanced a rank in Scouting because
> they did or did not have
> proper paperwork filled out is such a perversion of
> what the movement should
> be that it causes me great personal sadness.
>
> And while I am venting, as I wrote earlier to one
> leader today, I have never
> seen or imagined such wailing and moaning about a
> change in requirements as I
> have about the April 1 change. In my Scouting time,
> I have been through at
> least two massive advancement rule changes, including
> the change in the early
> '70s which introduced the Skill Awards and in which
> every requirement of every
> rank was totally changed, including requiring a Merit
> Badge for Tenderfoot and
> requiring 3 more Merit Badges for the Eagle (a total
> of 24.) There was a
> change date given and that was it. The new
> requirements then were the new
> requirements.
>
> Rather here, we get posts that almost seem like
> (exaggerating a little) " Our
> family moved to Guam. Doesn't my son get an extra
> day with the old
> requirements because Guam is on the other side of the
> International Date line
> and he lost a day when he crossed it?"
>
> I have learned that our current youth members have a
> saying, "Deal with it."
> When I ask questions of youth about tattoos,
> piercings, grades, etc., I am
> told "Deal with it." That seems an appropriate
> saying now about this. The
> new requirements are here. Deal with it. You have
> to earn Personal Fitness
> now. Deal with it. You have to earn Swimming or
> Cycling or Hiking. Deal
> with it. Earning the Eagle is more difficult and
> some few youth may not earn
> it at all who would have under the old requirements.
> Deal with it.
>
> I hope that I am not too much a curmudgeon about this
> but sheesh!!! Our
> council is going to run a course "Introduction to Fun
> for Commissioners" and
> I may need to go twice. One great thing about Cub
> Scouting types is that they
> seem to have a lot more fun while some of us Boy
> Scouting types work out of
> grim sense of duty. And I don't think I have ever
> seen anything so grim as
> this picky, picky, picky bit about advancement and
> the Eagle in particular.
>
> So I hope that I can remember that it's a kids
> program and if it isn't fun for
> the kids and the adults, they don't come back.
> They don't get citizenship,
> they don't get character, they don't get fitness and
> they don't get
> advancement.
>
> Thanks for listening and letting me vent.
>
> I feel better.
>
> (BTW, in a private post, I suggested to that leader
> also that they go to the
> council office and obtain copies of the unit
> advancement report which would be
> HONORED by any unit and any council. The counsel
> was exactly right, Phil.
> But it is use of the term "legally binding" which set
> me off.")
>
> Best wishes,
>
> Neil Lupton
>
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