Eagle App has some poor wording and grammatical errors

[acco40 95]

Let's call it what it is - Eagle Leadership Service Project Workbook. Callign it the "Eagle Application" is lazy and confusing. It is not the Eagle Application.

 

The ELSPW may be hand written, typed, use the provided paper publication, various electronic forms or written from scratch - by hand or electronically. The important part is the project contain the necessary information andbe the Scout's best effort.

 

We are not mandating perfection of either the Scout or Scouters involved.

 

[DancesWithSpreadsheets 10]

Actually there are two forms:

 

Eagle Scout Leadership Service Project Workbook (512-927) and

Eagle Scout Rank Application (512-728)

 

Both are available at www.nesa.org.

Both are in Adobe PDF format and ARE fillable.

 

Regards,

DWS

[Kudu 186]

Shortridge writes:

 

Communications skills are indeed critical to leadership. The most highly skilled Patrol Leader isn't going to have much luck taking his patrol on a wilderness trek if he can't articulate the plan to anyone.

 

Seemingly no adult would disagree with those statements, but they form a non sequitur, don't they?

 

The implication is that if we teach "Communication Skills," then Patrol Leaders will "articulate plans" to "take their Patrols on wilderness treks."

 

Since the introduction of "Leadership Skills," how many Patrol Leaders can still do that without adult EDGE supervision?

 

One in a thousand? One in ten thousand?

 

Before the invention of Boy Scout "Leadership Skills," the purpose of BSA Patrol Leader Training was exactly that: To teach a Patrol Leader how to take his Patrol on treks.

 

That was accomplished not by teaching "Communication Skills" but by forming a "Green Bar Patrol" with the SM as Patrol Leader, the SPL as APL, and the Patrol Leaders as Patrol members. To learn by doing:

 

A setting like this is practically a duplication of the conditions these boys have in their own Patrols. the result is that the boys can put the training you give them to immediate use in running their weekly Patrol meetings, taking their Patrols on hikes, and doing Patrol camping [capitalization in the original].

 

Note that the goal of Patrol Leader Training is very specific: unsupervised Patrol Meetings, Patrol Hikes and Patrol Camping:

 

Patrols are ready to go hiking and camping on their own just as soon the the Patrol Leader has been trained and the Scouts have learned to take care of themselves, have learned to respect growing crops and live trees, to avoid unnecessary danger, and in all ways conduct themselves as Scouts...It should be your goal to get your Patrol Leaders qualified for hike and camp leadership at an early stage.

 

The BSA called a Patrol that hikes and camps on its own a "Real Patrol."

 

"Communications Skills" are designed for office cubicles, not wilderness treks. That is why "Leadership Skills" advocates keep Patrol Leaders on such a short leash:

 

In general, Patrol Leader training should concentrate on leadership skills rather than on Scoutcraft Skills. The Patrol will not rise and fall on the Patrol Leader's ability to cook, follow a map, or do first aid, but it very definitely depends on his leadership skill.

 

http://inquiry.net/leadership/index.htm

 

In fact the "Patrol Method" presentation of Scoutmaster & Assistant Scoutmaster Specific Training eliminates the Patrol Leader altogether, and replaces him with pointers on adult EDGE supervision.

 

Shortridge writes:

 

But that's really not what we're talking about here. We're talking about a formal project proposal much like is done in the business world. It's not a test of a Scout's communications skills with his peers, but rather a question of how well he can communicate with the adults who must approve the project.

 

Exactly. In Baden-Powell's Scouting the final project is a 50 mile Expedition with his peers. With the introduction of indoor "Communication Skills," Eagle Scout has been dumbed down so far that any indoor boy can earn it without ever walking into the woods with a pack on his back.

 

Such Eagle Scouts are not worthy of Baden-Powell's First Class badge, which requires the 15 mile unsupervised "First Class Journey," and the constant retesting of Scoutcraft skills.

 

Yours at 300 feet,

 

Kudu(This message has been edited by kudu)