badges that should be eliminated

desertrat77 · March 17, 2009

Jo - greetings and concur with the rodent observation!

The badge is only as educational or lame as the counselor makes it. My wilderness survival mb experience in 1976 was superb. I didn't "explain" anything...all demo, out in the boonies. It wasn't easy but I completed it and lo, these many years later, I still feel some of that pride.

Merit badges that require effort to earn are worth the most. Counselors don't have to haze or add requirements to accomplish this. They just have to make sure the scout earns it fair and square.

As for the odd ball/obscure/rarely earned mbs: I'm all for keeping them. Studying my first scout handbook circa 1974, it was the edition with all of the mb requirements in the back. Sadly though, it was the end of an era for many farming merit badges...they got the axe a year or two later. Didn't earn them but found the requirements interesting. Forage crops? Farm design? Had no idea the subjects were that complex.

If we are seeking to broaden perspectives, having a variety is the best route.

RememberSchiff · March 17, 2009

In my day... A scout, in order to broaden his scout experience, had more restrictions on elective merit badges. He had to "elect" six merit badges from certain Merit Badge Groups. I think there were 15 groups.

1 from Conservation group

3 from Citizenship group.

1 from Outdoor sports

1 from any of the following:

Animal Husbandry,

Plant Cultivation,

Communication,

Transportation, or

Building

With 10 required merit badges, that left just 5 truly elective merit badges for a scout to earn for Eagle. Seemed a good system then, exposed me to some tech trades and kept fellow scouts from seeking the 11 "easiest" merit badges to fulfill electives.

Another point, merit badge requirements then were decided with little consideration towards summer camp marketing. Then, it was common that Canoeing, Rowing, Marksmanship (real scouts shoot offhand), Archery, Lifesaving, etc. would take more than a week or even season to complete. Then, go back to summer camp to complete partials of hard mb's. Now, go back to summer camp and get more easy mb's, in fact, we will even add classroom mb's at summer camp as a further draw.

My $0.02

le Voyageur · March 22, 2009

I'd drop the following

Fingerprinting, and merge it into a new badge....Forensics

Oreinteering, and Hiking....replacing with Land Navigation

add...

Avionics

Search and Rescue

EMS (age restricted)

Change Climbing to incorporate options, i.e. Rock Climbing or Alpine

shortridge · March 22, 2009

How would you envision Avionics as being different from Aviation?

clydesdale115 · March 22, 2009

I don't have any "back in my day" experience, but I really was drawn to Schiff's note about how MBs were grouped in the past and how Scouts had to earn 1 from this group, 1 from that. In the Cub world, Bears and Webelos do this already. Plus individual MBs have requirements that say "do 2 of the following 5" for different categories.

What a great way to give Scouts a more rounded experience! Sseems like a win-win to me: boys get introduced to a wider world to expand their knowledge, plus they would still be free to take all the "fun" or "easy" ones they want. We already set MB "musts" by having Eagle-required ones. I wonder why the change?

As for badges that should be eliminated, there are certainly some that wore out their usefulness and probably some now that have little relevance. But as long as BSA works to keep the requirements current and appropriate and timely, it would be fine with me to have even more added to the list, as long as we can get counselors for them.

clyde

fgoodwin · March 22, 2009

Mafaking writes: "I would eliminate wilderness survival. Its not any more than, hug a tree, blow a whistle and don't eat anything until help arrives."

Would you mind pointing me to the requirements for the WS MB that involve hugging a tree, blowing a whistle and not eating anything until help arrives?

le Voyageur · March 23, 2009

The aviation mb wouldn't be dropped..avionics and aircraft electrical systems would form a seperate mb.

cheffy · March 23, 2009

Cooking as Eagle YES!!!

I'm still looking for a couple of Scouts that want to practice their painting MB skills on my fence.

They really do need to rewrite the cinematography MB book. it still uses VHS tape and a cassette recorder.

Bring back taxidermy. I can't wait to go out an but my "Offical BSA home Taxidermy kit" including one dead crow.

oldsm · March 24, 2009

I'm not sure which MB's I'd drop but, unlike some posters, I would not combine the 3 Citizenships into one. Each of these addresses a different aspect of citizenship, and there is a very logical progression from Community to Nation to World. There are some very different concepts. I strongly recommend that my scouts start with the local and work up to the global view.

Consider, too, that the critical thinking required for World is quite a bit higher than that for Community or Nation. It makes sense from a developmental standpoint to steer younger scouts (6/7th grade) to Community, 8/9th grade to Nation, and 10th/up to World. Doing this provides the amount of mental challenge appropriate to his age. It also has the benefit of making citizenship training a continuum instead of a one-shot deal.

TAHAWK · March 24, 2009

"We've had boys go to camp and do "Communications" badge. Instead of actually being required to go to a public meeting (city council, school board, debate), the group had a mock meeting during one of their sessions where they pretended to be the meeting."

Then the camp is one of the all-too-common Merit Badge "mills." The "boys" did not, in fact, meet the qualifications for the MB. A camp cannot change the requirements. Should we allow this sort of travesty to happen when we know of it? Trustworthy? Honor?

As for Wilderness Survival, it OUGHT to be a good one. The Scout should learn not merely "modern" survival techniques but also a general approach to use in most any crisis.

Unfortunately, it's a mess, with silly requirements (Needs for survival can only be listed as priorities [i.e. order of importance] IF the survival situation is specififed, not in the abstract and a fire started with a butane lighter [literally not "matches"] is hardly an addition to skills).

The 2008 (really 2007) pamphlet has several significant contradictions ("stay put" but numerous specifications for a suitable site to stay put + no imfromation on navigation/ movement).

It also contains simply incorrect or very misleading information (re PSK's [vs. "essentials"], water purification, fire-by-friction, clothing for the wilderness, and fire by natural flint and steel, for just some examples).

Half the websites in the bibliography were dead for years before 2007 and others have no substantive information -- just sites to sign up for commercial courses. The Angier book cited was written in the 1950's, and he wrote more up-to-date books years later.

Not to mention the conflicts with other official BSA publications on outdoor skills and the books cited in the bibliography. (Which the author(s) probably never read.)

The pamphlet should be written by those with expertise and an ability to write clearly.

And why a "Citizenship in the World" badge when the phamphlet clearly and accurately explains why no person can be a citizen of "the world." Namely, "the world" is not a nation state and citizenship is bestowed by nation states. Perhaps it could be replaced by a badge that requires that the Scout learn about the history of world Scouting and BP's hopes for what worldwide "Scouting for peace" might achieve.

TAHAWK · March 24, 2009