Eagle mill or running the program as designed

[NeilLup 13]

My council has had a very successful Merit Badge University for a number of years but we follow several basic principles:

 

1) We do not offer Eagle required merit badges. We rather offer the hard to obtain ones. We are fortunate to be able to use the facilities at Harvard University.

2) There are two sessions about 4 weeks apart. The Scouts come on the first week for a one hour session and learn about the merit badge. They have the 4 weeks to do the work. They then come back the second week and, if they have done everything, they get the merit badge.

3) There are three 1 hours sessions offered from 9AM to noon. A Scout can take a maximum of 3 merit badges.

 

As far as the Eagle mill, as Barry has suggested, that's hard to be specific about. A couple of the things that scream "merit badge mill" or "Eagle mill" to me are:

 

1) Merit badge classes at Troop meetings

2) Strongly stated expectation that if you show up, you will make Eagle

3) Parents talking about "our Eagle" referring not to their son, but to the family effort to get the award

4) Focus on the specifics of the requirements rather than on the Scouting experience. If you're out 10 minutes on a hike and hear "OK, we've identified our 10 animals, it's time to go onto something else", then those are the mill wheels turning

5) Focusing on advancement to the exclusion of some of the other methods of Scouting. Mandating, for example, that every Scout First Class and up have a job because they need it to advance.

 

Eagle Scout is, in my opinion, supposed to be hard and to require initiative on the part of the Scout. He is supposed to do things that are difficult and are physically, mentally and maturity challenging. It is HARD to phone up a stranger and make an appointment. That's the whole point of the exercise. It's hard to do. So if a unit subverts that part of the advancement process, they are doing some of the things that I think Eagle mills do.

 

The reason that Eagle Scouts of yore developed the reputation that they did is because they had to do these hard things. If our current Eagle Scouts don't have to do them, then they likely will not perform as the previous generations of Eagle Scouts did.

 

It's very hard to be specific, but after a number of years in Scouting, I can say as Justice Potter Stewart said about pornography "I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced . . . ut I know it when I see it . . . "[1]

[shortridge 184]

Eagledad,

 

Thanks very much!

 

I agree wholeheartedly with your view of summer camp. MBs, sure, but fun activities, too.

 

My camp has added such offerings as Golf, Graphic Arts and Auto Mechanics in recent years. To me, that's a bit much.