Spotted Bear

I take strong exception to Yarrows comment assuming that a young Eagle Scout probably has a pushy parent. I was a thirteen year old Eagle and I earned it. I am in my forties now and hold my eagle metal more important than my college degree. Instead of tearing this Scout down, may be you should go meet him, he just may be president some day.

When you obtain the rank of eagle, much will be expected of you from that point on and you had better be prepared! Rank is very easy to earn and it has not changed very much since the 60s. It has more to do with the size of the troop and the level of activity the troop plans. It is very easy for a scout to make it to First Class in 6 months if there are two activities a month. But, in order to make it to eagle you must be a leader and hold the scout-like spirit in your heart. It takes a good role model and lots of nurturing to teach a young man these skills. Its not pushy parentsa pushy parent can get his son to First Class, but not from Star to Eagle.

The Scoutmaster, the Board of Review are there to make sure the boy is worthy of the rank. The Eagle board of review is a district function. The parent should not be permitted to sit on any of these boards. If you troop allows parent of the scout to sit on his board of review, you need to change your by-laws.

Here is a story that will send chills up your back if you are a scoutmaster.

The noisy 4% held a scoutmaster responsible for the behavior of the boys. The troop was young, had no older boys to help lead the boys, the parents rarely showed for meetings, and the Scoutmaster was left with most of the work.

One unhappy mother felt that the scoutmaster was wrong in pursuing the concept of a boy run troop using the patrol method. She was a Girl Scout and felt her son was not able to pack his own backpack, make a menu or food list, or call his patrol to find out who was going on the next campout. She began to spin her web of half-truths and out right lies. Together with three Webelos parents, they indicated that they wanted to start a new troop because they did not want their boys associating with boys of the troop.

The troop committee felt that the town was too small and the scouting program was still too weak to support two troops and packs. A meeting was held to discuss the pack parents problems when their initial concerns were addressed it quickly turned to an assault on the scoutmaster in front of the Cub Scouts. He explained what was being done about the behavior and that the committee has tied his hands. Despite his performance, his commitment, despite the fact the problems were being addressed and improvement was being made--he was removed.

This is a classic example of parents not putting the boys first. It also stressed the importance of good scout-like behavior of the boys (and parents) when Scout uniform is worn.

At what point should boys be removed from the troop because they do not behave or when the parents start unsubstantiated rumors designed to undermine the current leaders?