Min age to EARN the Eagle Rank

[NeilLup 13]

Hello ScouterPaul,

 

Sorry that it has taken me a little bit longer to respond.

 

How do merit badge mill Troops justify their program? I think the answer is that their "vision" of a program which produces citizenship, character and fitness is one where meeting the letter of the law requirements of merit badges is something which needs to be done as quickly and efficiently as possible. If anything, they would say that their youth have met all the physical and mental skills required by merit badges and this is probably true. They do not believe that there is much benefit to having the Scouts go through the effort of arranging counselor meetings, etc. Besides making those arrangements is such a pain for parents, plus there is the matter of rides, etc. It is so much more efficient to do everything at Troop meetings.

 

I have run into a similar problem in my own council. We run "Eagle Week" at our summer camp which causes me serious problems. However, when I ask about it, I get several comments:

 

1)The parents and Scouts want it (certainly true for the parents)

2) If we don't offer it, camps run by other councils in our area do offer it and the boys will just go there (painfully true)

 

I wouldn't have a problem if "Eagle Week" were a JLT program to improve the boys' leadership. But, needless to say, it is merit badge week where it commonly is possible to earn 5-7 merit badges in a week.

 

The posts from Eagledad and BobWhite suggest that the districts care only about numbers. In some cases, that is true, but a more serious problem is responding to the desires of the "consumers" the parents and Scouts. They want this "efficient" advancement and expect it to be delivered. From one point of view, we can only hope that while earning these badges, the Scout is exposed to some influences which improve their citizenship, character and fitness.

 

What to do about it? Tough question. If the Scout truly has not met the requirement, one can always counsel him and have him voluntarily agree to slow down his advancement. But it his Troop is pushing him and one is only coming in as a district level member of his Board of Review, it's very tough. One then can just try to have better training on advancement done by the district and slowly hope to turn things around.