Re: Personnal Fitness MB & Eagle
Todd Tingblad (tingbltn@HUDSON.K12.WI.US)
Mon, 8 Mar 1999 15:38:39 -0600
Have been watching this one for a while until Jim Miller, Sr. added this item:
>First we should deny Eagle to any who do not score in the 90th
>percentile or above on standardized tests. Now I know that some of you
>will argue with this standard. It's far too low. If our purpose is
>really to limit the number of Eagles to 2.00% of the population then we
>should require potential Eagles to score in the 98th percentile, but we
>have to start somewhere. We should also require Eagle candidates to be
>in the top 2% of their class, since that would further assure that none
>of those lazy 3 or 4 percenters could become members of the Eagle
>fraternity. This would insure intellectual fitness.
>
This hit a core about the advancement program for the BSA. I am sure you have been hearing in the news, both national and local about graduation standards. Folks, as I see it, the BSA advancement program is just that, a set of education standards from day one. I don't care how many meet the standards for any rank or badge, just that they were properly fulfilled. If that means we move from 2% to 4% or 10% of our scouts getting to Eagle, so what. It is the standards that were meet that are important.
The standards are high as a goal to be set and work towards. I have used that standard of Eagle to turn a couple of High School students that were not following the standards set by becoming and being an Eagle Scout. Instead of me being the "bad guy" in finding out the computer stuff they were doing wrong, I have become an Eagle Scout that reminds them what it means to be an Eagle when I remind them of simple things like the meaning of Obedient.
The Trail To Eagle is a character development trip that continues long after the Eagle Badge is pinned on the uniform. It is through the Merit Badges, basic Scout skills, the Service Hours & Projects, leadership skills and the failures that we have that teaches us how to become an Eagle. Do I need a badge to know that I am an Eagle in my heart...no. But it is the heart that starts us down that road. The Eagle Award is only a symbol that the BSA has development as that program's highest award in that character development program. There are many who will never have the chance to be an Eagle with an Eagle Award, but they still soar with us Eagles because the Eagle...the Spirit of the Eagle...is in their heart and soul.
Will making the requirements for Personal Fitness harder really a solution? Not really. Getting to the Eagle Award is the work or tasks as a whole that shapes you to become an Eagle. If it were as simple as making Personal Fitness harder, than we need to redo a lot of the Merit Badges to make them all the same level of work to complete (All MB's must take 3-6 months to complete, all require 500 word reports, the same number of projects or learned skills, and on and on). That way we would know that all MB's on an Eagle Application were at the same level of difficultness and time.
There are a number of checks from the start of the trail, all the way to Eagle. If someone is not meeting the standards (requirements), then they do not advance. If a Scout does not know the meaning of the two stars on the scout badge, how did they even get to that Eagle BoR?
<fontfamily><param>Arial Black</param>Todd N.
Tingblad</fontfamily><fontfamily><param>Arial</param> --
mailto:tingbltn@hudson.k12.wi.us
</fontfamily><bold><fontfamily><param>Arial Rounded MT
Bold</param><smaller>District Technology Coordinator -- Information &
Technology Management
School District of Hudson Voice: 715 381-5199 Fax: 715
386-4928</smaller></fontfamily></bold>
