A new tangent on 13 year olds

While we are quickly reaching the point of the discussion on 13 year old
eagles where each one involved with one has to explain the
circumstances, another potentially fruitful point was raised which bears
some examination. It was stated roughly thus: "If a boy isn't ready to
be an eagle, don't let him reach life" (OK, so I overstated it a bit).

As I am assuming the role of curmudgeon in this discussion, I say hear,
hear! But... How do we do this. It raises all the same questions that
the issue of holding back a boy from eagle brings out.

I will illustrate the dilemma with a real-life example. Last night a
boy came to me at our meeting to ask for a scoutmasters conference for
life. It caught me by surprise, because I had no idea he was that
close. It turned out he wasn't - he lacked two required mb's and
two months of leadership. But he is working on the mb's.

This boy earned star at a very young age in a troop out of council and
transferred in. He shows no leadership ability and is no more or less
mature than his 13 years would suggest. Since arriving in the troop, he
has been a sometimes scout. It isn't entirely his fault, for his father
is not supportive, is busy in his job as high school band director, is
divorced and actively dating (you may read more into that than the
words). What the boy is good at is doing the written requirements for
badges.

So now as to my choices... I have an easy out in this case: I just
don't make any effort to give him a leadership job for a while. We
elected SPL and PL's in August and appointed others at that time. That
gives me until the first of February to stall. But that really begs the
question. How do I develop this boy so that he is ready for Eagle. He
will probably not be a leader at 16 as it stands. The troop has 50
scouts, and we have eight life scouts, six other star scouts, and a cast
of thousands at first class. You can create only so many "leadership
opportunities." We place half a dozen den chiefs, have two aspls and
two qm's, a couple of guides and an instructor. An more importantly,
there is the issue of providing a good program. The boy is well liked
in his patrol and has a chance at PL, but he comes so irregularly that
he is a poor choice for the job.

Even I have problems with holding a boy back, so what most of us do is
overlook what we feel are inadequacies at the lower ranks in the hope
that somehow (divine intervention), the boy will be ready when he
reaches the last rank. We know better than to retest at boards of
review, so some eagles can't tie a square knot.

Boy did I get long winded! Anyway, I welcome creative, non-defensive
comment, and hope this introduces a useful discussion.

Charles Schmidt schmidt@unix1.is.tcu.edu
Scoutmaster, Troop 64
Longhorn Council, Fort Worth, Texas

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