Eagledad

>>Hey Unc, I agree wit-cha. I've heard the negative comments about young Eagles and in my experience they've always come from adults who were Scouts and didn't make it.

>>That just results in one less Scout. I imagine the following dramatized conversations:

>>Off base because I stick up for a 14 yr old Eagle who really earned it on his own?

Well, as my grandpa use to say, better reel in the hook son, your minnows dead. I respectfully must say I think you guys are way off base. I don't know if any you guys where a Scoutmaster, but while I was a SM, I had to deal with a lot of adults who pushed for a program of older Eagles, and most of these adults were themselves Eagles. They weren't evil or trying to show up non Eagles, they were simply trying to protect the public respect of thier honorable fraternity. Go read Dugs comments on the Eagle post. As for head strong teenagers, my experience is they are no match for the h

>>scout had the character and maturity of an eagle scout at the level of the eagles past, then he would get the conference.

>>Im also not saying we as Scoutmasters should be going around denying scouts BOR because of his age. Im saying the program dictates the age AND character of the Eagles. Challenge them to the fullest extent they can handle and build the best Eagles you

Ewwwww! OK, been there and done that. But I didn't enjoy it.

>>And BTW, what does unloading the gear have to do with making ethical decisions?

>>However, the lack of clear rules was a necessary pre condition for the fiasco.

Hi All Anyone who has helped at a church youth camp with youth in this age group would understand that a boy run type program would be impossible. Barry

>>Sometimes boys (or anyone) need to be told what to do. Nothing Wong with that.

Nothing meant by it, it just seems like some of the discussions in our house. OK, OK, it seems like conversations with my wife. OK, OK, I admit it, she usually starts these kinds of discussions with, "Focus Barry, Focus. Now....". Glad your not ADD.

>>And I'm not trying to make it hard! Just trying to point out there are time things need to be told 1st & explained later.

>>If the boy is in the gray area of "active", hows about the Scoutmaster meeting with him to talk about it and agree between themselves whether he has been actively serving?

Hi All >>I feel that putting the responsiblility of the actions of the each member of the patrol to the entire patrol

Hi All >>So why not take the short cut and just tell them what to do? Because it is not trustworthy, helpfull, friendly, courteous, kind, cheerful, or brave.

This is a fun question. I love this program so much, I have often thought of its future. These are not what I want, just how I see how the winds are blowing. I will always long for the program I was in as a youth. On the Cub side, I think we will see a couple more interations of Tiger program changes before the overhead of required number of trained adults pushes the BSA to remove Tigers from the Cub program. I do think however, the BSA will develop a seperate program designed better for that age of boys. The other change that is possible, but I think less likely is lowering the Troop age

One way I like to explain our program is the adults should be reactive to the scouts, not proactive. Practice of making decisions and working with a team are the best teachers of developing habits that lead to making ethical decisions, not lecture. The hardest part of having a troop of reactive adults is getting the scouts to trust that we will not be over-reactive. Once an adult starts over reacting to a scout's failure, they lost that trust. Barry

>>You or I might think that someone is a sub-standard Counselor. But as long as they are on the list they are Counselors and are approved.

>>You or I might think that someone is a sub-standard Counselor. But as long as they are on the list they are Counselors and are approved.

>>In the meantime if the troop loses his paperwork the scout has a reciept signed by a troop leader showing that he turned in the completed merit badge form to the troop.

>>The second signature which goes on the Scout's portion of the blue card acts as a signed reciept so that the scout can if needed at a future date show evidence that the completed card was returned to a trool leader to record and send to council.

Hi All We had two families with full intention of being their sons (five sons total) counselors for all the MBs just so they could fast track the sons to Eagle. Our adults felt this was not giving the boys the best opportunity to practice making ethical decisions. To suggest it doesnt happen is silly. To suggest how to handle the possibility would help serve the purpose of the forum. >>And what if he picks the wrong counselor? How bad could this be that an adult must step in first to prevent it?

Hi all >>Teachers and administrators do not want to have to actually evaluate things. Much easier for them to overreact.

>>Hey, Eamonn started it!