jph1

I've lurked around this site for a while and felt I had to comment on this thread. I had the opportunity to witness many merit badge classes when my son was at summer camp. I apologize for the rant below, but this is a topic that is very important and I was disgusted with what I observed at summer camp. The quality of the merit badge classes which I observed was horrible. Every scout in the troop has signed blue cards for the ones they signed up for, but I don't think any of them actually completed the requirements for any merit badge. For example, I saw a 17 year old trying to teach first aid (no prerequisites were required prior to camp) and "completing" it in 3 sessions of 45 minutes each. There are requirements here that could not possibly have been completed (2d). I saw very similar issues with many other merit badge classes. Several boys took Emergency Preparedness and have signed blue cards. Looking at the requirements, I have a very difficult time believing that they actually finished it. The total time spent in class was 3 hours. I'm not a counselor for this merit badge, but I just don't know how all of them could have been covered in that time (especially the family meeting). I also attended the observation session (requirement 8b, "Plan and participate in a three-hour observation session that includes using binoculars or a telescope.") for the Astronomy merit badge. This is a subject that I am very passionate about and am a counselor for. The "3 hour" requirement was done in less than 10 minutes. Would anybody like to guess how many telescopes and/or binoculars were out? The "teacher" of this class also made statements that are incredibly easy to disprove if he would have just looked at the night sky. He also got annoyed when I pointed out his mistakes. I made my displeasure known to the camp director, but unfortunately, it seems like they are graded on how many kids get signed blue cards at the end of the week. The impression I have is that boys go to summer camp now to just get blue card sign offs. After a few years, they have all they need to become an Eagle Scout which is very discouraging to me. Whatever happened to having to contact the counselor and *gasp* actually doing quality work instead of just sliding by?