brettw777

You all just said a mouthful...especially "Things not practiced are soon forgotten." That goes for many things in life well beyond scouting.

Moosetracker' date=' I cannot imagine why, if there were an online database of merit badge counselors, they would not even want their email addresses revealed. That makes no sense to me. If a MBC does not want to be contacted, what is the point of him being a MBC?[/quote']

So, I take it that if you were a merit badge counselor you would have no problem with putting your email address out there for the ENTIRE WORLD to see, and send junk mail and/or porn to?

 

Merit badge counselors CAN be contacted. It is up to the District/Council Advancement Committee to keep a list of current counselors. Some will publish it openly on their District/Council website. Some have a "locked" space on the website that only folks with the correct code can access. Some only have hard copies that can only be gotten from the Council offices by the unit leader (Scoutmaster).

 

I suggest you contact the Advancement Chair for your District (or Council of the DAC does not help) and ask for names of counselors for the incorrectly completed summer camp merit badges. I would explain the reason behind your request as well. Better yet, because they might be leery about giving that information to a parent (not knowing if the parent is trying to pull something shady or not), and because it really is not the parents who should be looking for, and contacting counselors, have your SON, the Scout, contact his District Advancement Chair with the request, and explanation.

 

Just a note - Nowhere, in any merit badge, is there a requirement that the Scout MEMORIZE the material in the merit badge so that he can spit it out verbatim a year later. That is not how it works.

 

BSA requires the Scout to complete the merit badge requirements - AS WRITTEN. NO MORE - NO LESS.

 

I would have no problem giving my email address out to anyone. I already get spam but my hotmail filter gets rid of most of it before I even see it. Also, email addresses listed on a Scout website could easily be disguised to avoid spammers as in bobwhite at yahoo dot com.

 

Also, I am aware that there is not a requirement for boys to be able to recite verbatim his merit badge material a year or anytime after receiving the merit badge. I only mentioned it because I believe that many boys cannot tell much of anything about what they quickly crammed into their brain just a few weeks or months later after his merit badge class. I think it is up to the boy and his parents to make sure he LEARNS the material and does not temporarily memorize it. I guess I am suggesting that boys self police themselves on this. The last thing you want is a surgeon operating on your brain who temporarily memorized his med school curriculum, amen? You want him to know it well enough to teach it. Many merit badges worn by these boys are worthless to the boy. When an Eagle Scout cannot even tell my son how to tie a rope around a tripod group of sticks for the simple camp gadget, something is really wrong.

Our troop will not countenance any glossing over of requirements. Boys come home with partials. We're fine with that. Cloudy all week? Nobody earns Astronomy. Too much lightning? Nobody earns Lifesaving.

 

I think that is the way it ought to be. It is about ethics.

I don't buy that SMs don't have any control over the MB process. Bunk. If I knew a camp (or any other) MB counselor were cutting corners that wide, a) I'd be climbing the camp program director's clock and , b) we would not award the badge. I know that's not BSA policy, but sue me.

 

If things are as bad as your OP makes it sound, it's because the leaders in your son's unit are complicit in allowing it to happen at this scale.

 

I would do two things. First, I'd talk to your son. This is an opportunity for a life lesson the value of actually earning things. Here's your chance to guide him to do the right thing. Ideally, he may decide to return the badges to the Scoutmaster and explain to him how/why he didn't earn them. I would mark if up as a win if your son doesn't want to make a big deal, decides to keep the badges but complete the work to the best of his ability.

 

In either event, you need to close the loop with the troop leadership and have conversation with them about standards (advancement and otherwise) and the lessons they are teaching the scouts. The mission of the BSA is to teach young people to make ethical decisions by applying the Scout Oath and Law. Doesn't sound as if your troop is doing a very good job of that. If the leaders aren't horrified to learn of the state of their advancement program AND don't make immediate changes to fix things, then change troops.

Twocubdad, to answer your question, here is what my 13 year old son wants to do. He will not put on the merit badges until we as his parents feel that he has completed the requirements. I am very proud that he feels this way. The problem is that for some of these merit badges, I would not know how to make sure he does complete the requirements without spending a chunk of money on, for example, equipment to build an electricity model, something he should have gotten done at the last merit badge class for that. That was an instructor at Clemson University who was not a teenager and he still did not work on what was supposed to be the boy's hands on participation. I thought each boy was to be questioned about his knowledge of the subject matter and answer accurately before any counselor signed him off on the blue cards but that is clearly not happening. They just attend the class and get signed off. I know the leadership is aware of at least some of this due to the ridiculously high number of Eagle scouts in our troop. Some boys have so many merit badges, they are putting them on the backs of their sashes. My son may do what you suggest and give them back and state that he will would like to get them when he deserves them. The only problem is that I have already contacted the District Commissioner who is going to come to our next meeting to look into the books and merit badge advancements and talk to the leadership. He has agreed to keep me anonymous so I won't be labeled as the "troublemaker" but if my son gives back his merit badges, they will likely know I am the culprit. If nothing is done, I am not sure we will stay in Scouts but might still use the merit badge books for personal learning. I just have no desire to look for a 4th Troop.

 

Moosetracker, I cannot imagine why, if there were an online database of merit badge counselors, they would not even want their email addresses revealed. That makes no sense to me. If a MBC does not want to be contacted, what is the point of him being a MBC?

The problem with finishing up the merit badges with different counselors is finding a merit badge counselor. As you know, there is no database of merit badge counselors on any website that I know of and a local man who is high up in scouts told me it is a continuing problem finding the counselors. Whenever we ask about a particular merit badge counselor to our Scout leaders, we get the "we'll look in to that and get back to you." Nothing.

Hi everyone. This is my first post to this site. I am really concerned about the troop we are in. After one year of my son being in this troop, I am starting to see why there are so many Eagle Scouts in it. For the boys aged 15-17, over half of them are already Eagle Scouts. At this last court of honor, my son was handed 4 merit badges and he only finished the requirements on one of them! He was shocked and so were we. It seems that these camp counselors (from summer camp) who are all teenagers just sign off on blue cards without the boy even coming close to finishing the requirements and the Scoutmasters do not even question it. In other cases, the Scoutmasters are completely aware of the unfinished requirements and handing out the merit badges anyway. They cut corners on the 1st class orienteering requirement doing it in the parking lot of the church instead of the full mile requirement.

 

First and foremost, a merit badge is only a piece of cloth. It is meaningless unless the boy KNOWS the material. By knowing it, I don't mean he temporarily memorized it long enough to get signed off on the blue card with or without completing the full requirement. He should be able to know it a year later. Second, every Scoutmaster or merit badge counselor should not be giving away any merit badge or signing any blue card unless he questions the boy and finds out exactly what he did to complete the assignment. Imagine a boy getting a first aid merit badge that he does not remember how he got and finding himself in an emergency situation where someone needs first aid. One boy recently got a Wilderness Survival badge after he built his own survival shelter and he did not even spend the night in it (a requirement)! He was even around other boys doing the same thing and still slept in his tent but got the merit badge anyway. Again, over half of our older boys are already Eagle Scouts. Does that sound suspicious?

 

My question to all of you is this: Are you noticing the same thing in your troop? Have you asked your son (or yourself if you are a scout) if there are merit badges on your shirt that you really have not earned or learned it so quickly that you forgot most of it? Please ask your sons this. Ask him if he knows of other boys who have been awarded merit badges that they really did not earn. I want to find out how rampant this problem really is. Thank you.