jstrainer

This seems to be the way alot of Troops are leaning towards it seems. The hold the carrot out there to keep older scouts involved and hope they don't just quit. The SM's that do this turn the this from a great time in the boys life to a mere graduation. I hope others will do as our Troop is trying to and see it as a rank advancement that he can keep achieving with palms and talk with the scout about dual membership in Venturing to keep his scouting life going and letting him sharpen his leadership skills by staying in the troop as a JASM.

Sorry all for this. I searched for a topic of interest and did not look at the dates. We are having this issue and wanted to see how others felt.

I have 2 sons that are very different. The oldest is your average teenager that is finally getting is eagle. We turned his packet in the day before his 18th birthday. My youngest is 13 and turn 14 in December. He is very self-motivated and is goal driven. I give him the opportunity to achieve his goals by taking him where he needs to go and paying for his materials and classes. He is active in our church, Pre AP classes(Advanced)in school and keeps straight A's, raises animals for FFA in school and strives for all 121 merit badges. What we as leaders and parentsneed to remember is that the scout will and should be able to advance at HIS pace, not what any adult thinks is best. These boys are not clones and they are not the same. Some are very driven and by slowing them down all we do to them is a disservice by imposing our believes and views of what is right and can in many cases hurt them severly without knowing it.