Re: Advice needed(long but serious)

Has anyone else noticed that the Scout Spirit and Leadership requirement
for Eagle are topics which produce a wide range of opinions? I have two
concerns related to these two requirements: 1) It seems as though the
degree of leadership required for the Eagle rank is much higher than for
other ranks. Think about it, why aren't we seeing posts that say, " Help
needed in deciding whether to sign off on leadership for Star rank?" Is it
really fair of us Scouters to define leadership in one way for Star and
Life and to hold higher, probably not well communicated expectations for
Eagle? 2) Should a Scout be made aware of his lack of Scout Spirit well in
advance of his Scoutmaster conference? If so how? I've tried keeping
records for both leadership and Scout Spirit and have found that it's just
too much for one person to do!

Ok, I know I said two concerns, but here's one more. We all have an image
of how we think an Eagle Scout should conduct himself and, for the most
part, these images are based upon our past experience with an Eagle Scout
whose exceptionally fine qualities stood out. This seems to be easily
recognized. For example, given the description of the Scout in the original
post, I'm sure few Scouts or Scouters would look at him and say, "Ah yes,
that Scouts deserves to be an Eagle!" In other words, there's probably a
high rate of consensus regarding those elusive qualities. Yet, I'm not sure
whether this is captured in the requirements for Eagle. Is Scout Spirit for
Eagle the same as Scout Spirit for the lower ranks? There's nothing that
indicates otherwise.

Maybe we're just too hung up on rank. Let's face it, there are Scouts who
have those evasive qualities who, for whatever reason, don't make Eagle.
Maybe, like wanting to judge a book by its cover, we want to judge a Scout
by his patch?

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