Advancement (was "Easier Eagles" and "Boards of Review"),
Timothy J O'Leary (tjo@CPTCHR.AFIP.MIL)
Fri, 28 Jul 1995 16:50:31 -0700
<Mount Soapbox>
The discussions about achieving Eagle, the purpose of boards of review,
and so on have left me a little uneasy. It seems to me that the
Scouter's role is not "quality control" but "program quality assurance."
As a Scouter, I believe it's my job to help the boys use Scouting to
become people who make the Scout Oath and Law part of their everyday lives,
and who have developed some knowledge and life skills which make it possible to
put the Oath and Law into action. It seems likely that I will have done
that job best for those Scouts who eventually _earn_ Eagle.
If a Scout is a little shaky on map and compass, the solution is not to
fail him at Board of Review, but rather to provide him with many chances
to improve. He will - practice really does make perfect. Although the
troop and patrol must be boy led, the Scouter can, and should, use his/her
influence to give the boy those chances to improve his skills. If I do
well, the Scout who is most marginal with map and compass when he
"passes" this requirement, will be quite strong a year later.
For this to be possible, the troop needs to have a well-qualified cadre
of merit badge counselors, with whom the troop regularly interacts
(another job for the troop committee/Board of Review).
The Board of Review gives some adults other than the Scoutmaster and his
assistants an opportunity to see how well the troop program is
succeeding, to identify those boys for whom it is not succeeding, and,
when we are not doing as well as we should, to find out why. The Board
provides another viewpoint, to complement that of the Scoutmaster and his
assistants.
The most valuable Board of Review sessions may well be with Scouts who
are not "up" for another rank.
Another function for the Board is encouragement. When we look at the
advancement requirements for _any_ rank "through a boy's eyes," they are
hard! A new Scout who looks at the requirements for Tenderfoot, Second
and First Class is going to believe that he can't make it. Eagle is an
impossible dream for that boy. After he has earned Tenderfoot, though,
Second and First Class don't seem quite so daunting. The Board has an
opportunity and a responsibility to congratulate the Scout, and to point
out that "Second Class really is in site, and we see that you've already
completed some requirements...."
"Through a boy's eyes," the Eagle-required merit badges look hard. The
Eagle project looks absolutely impossible! The specific requirements
are all details, since the required merit badges are almost all hard,
and there are an awful lot of them, when viewed "through a boys eyes."
When a Scout has earned four for Star, though, Life and Eagle become
possibilities. They are still hard, but we can help him to see that he
can do it.
And if we are truly successful, in less than seven years we will have
helped a young man to believe that his "honor" is worth preserving,
that "to do my best" means nothing less, to understand his duty to God
and Country, to have not only the honesty but the competence to be
trustworthy, the value of loyalty, an innate desire to be helpful....
I hope all our Scouts become Eagles....
<Dismount Soapbox>
Tim O'Leary, Eagle '65
CC, Troop 772, Wheaton, MD
Terry Howerton Sakima Group, Inc. SCOUTER Magazine Kansas City |
