MB.com Worksheets

[John-in-KC]

Shouting!!!! RANT!

 

WHY DO YOU WANT TO SUBJECT YOUR YOUNG CHARGES TO SCHOOL???!!!???!!!???

 

Dammit.

 

Talk with your young charges. WORK with them. They are taking the merit badge to discover a new skill, perhaps even their lives' work. Why in the Sam Hill do you force them to treat YOUR SUBJECT, that YOU SHOULD CARE PASSIONATELY ABOUT, like 6th grade Math??? THAT IS WHAT YOU DO WHEN YOU MAKE THEM USE WORKSHEETS!

 

Now, there are a few times where a Scout will best use writing his information down as a learning tool. Generally, that is part of the requirment for a badge, to wit, Environmental Science Requirement 1:

"Make a time line of the history of environmental science in America. Identify the contribution made by the Boy Scouts of America to environmental science. Include dates, names of people or organizations, and important events."

http://www.scouting.org/scoutsource/BoyScouts/AdvancementandAwards/MeritBadges/mb-ENVS.aspx

 

Get off your leaden behinds. Work with your youth. Hands on is far better than writing. Photos are far better than writing. Helping a young man learn to work his brain and recall information directly is far better than writing. MERIT BADGE COUNSELORS ARE PART OF THE GAME WITH A PURPOSE!

 

If you don't care passionately about the subject, and want to teach school, may I suggest you drop your MB Counselor status and go and get your teaching credential? You are coaches and mentors in a 2-3 to 1 environment, not a deliverer of information in bulk at 15, 20, or 30 to 1.

 

Twocubdad is spot on. Engage your youth in eye-contact based conversation. Work with them hands-on at the machine for those

 

/ Rant(This message has been edited by John-in-Kc)

[John-in-KC]

A further point:

 

Merit Badge Counselors, IMO, should use, in order:

 

- The www.scouting.org website. Requirements and resources for MBs for you to be sure you are on track with the program.

 

- The www.usscouts.org website. Many volunteers cross-walk the badges, edition to edition. Very useful when Billy shows up with an old edition of a MB Pamphlet, thus has the wrong requirements.

 

- Never ever use meritbadge.com. From experience, the guy became unreliable a few years back. I no longer trust this site at all.

[clemlaw]

There's one thing that I'm very curious about.

 

Can most Merit Badge counsellors rightfully say that they are an "expert" on the subject that they are counselling?

 

Maybe I'm wrong (I hope I'm wrong), but I get the distinct impression that these days, a lot of MB's are counseled by parents in the troop who are able to do the requirements, and they are therefore qualified to be a counselor.

 

But if this is being done, then this is shortchanging the scouts of an opportunity to meet with and interact with people who are experts.

 

For example, there's a Dentistry MB, right? The requirements are such that any boy aged 11-17 is able to fulfill them, if he sets his mind to it. Therefore, it stands to reason that any parent, if they set their mind to it, is going to have enough minimal skill to understand the requirements and sign them off. So if Junior wants to get Dentistry MB, is there a temptation to send him to Mr. X, the Assistant Scoutmaster, because Mr. X knows how to brush his teeth, and he'll be able to see if Junior meets the requirements?

 

If any troops are doing this, then please stop it! Junior will get infinitely more out of the program if Mr. X instead uses that time to talk to some dentists and recruit one to counsel the MB, if the Council does not already have one.

 

One of the MB's I earned as a Scout was Atomic Energy (or some similar name--it's changed over the years). Yes, there was probably someone in the troop who could have figured out the requirements and signed me off. But I got a heckuva lot more out of it by having to call up an adult who worked in that industry.

 

Now, there are obviously some MB's where many adult leaders are indeed "experts" just by virtue of the fact that they are involved in Scouting--for example, camping, hiking, etc. So those are special cases, and it's probably a good idea to use a "troop counselor" for those. But for merit badges that don't specifically relate to scoutcraft, you're really doing your kids a big disservice if you don't let them find bona-fide experts to counsel the badge.

[Beavah]

Yah, OK, you're all probably goin' to laugh at me. I had never realized what da Meritbadge.com worksheets were (not MB.com, BTW, which gets yeh to Mercedes Benz ). I always just assumed that they were just a printout of the requirements like yeh can get off of scouting.org or the USSSP site.

 

So now I'm lookin' at one of these things, and by gum, it actually is a school worksheet. Makes me want to crumple a bunch of 'em into a round disk and get my shotgun. Pull! BLAM!!!

 

Da first thing I notice is that for the requirement "SHOW first aid for the following" each injury/illness has two lines under it to fill in. Someone's goin' to have to explain to me how a lad shows first aid for hypothermia by writing two lines.

 

Then there's a line and a quarter after the requirement to pass the swim test. Hmmm....

 

Then, as several folks have mentioned, for "discuss" requirements we now have writing lines.

 

Blech.

 

Like clemlaw says, the whole point of merit badge counseling is for an adult expert and enthusiast to share his/her enthusiasm and knowledge with a boy or two. To have a real dentist spend time talking and working with a boy interested in dentistry. To have an expert paddler who builds his own canoes go out paddling with some boys in different canoes, having fun, learning, sharing the joy of da discipline.

 

Not sittin' on a couch being made to write a paragraph on how the length and shape of a canoe affect its performance. Tryin' it, feelin' it, talking about it, playin' with canoe trim and a crosswind.

 

There's all the difference in the world between a real expert sharing his/her time with a boy and some tom-fool school marm making him sit and do worksheets then pass a test. Real MB counselors inspire lads to a real career or lifelong hobby, eh? That's how powerful a good MB counseling relationship can be - it can change a boy's life.

 

Don't settle for a worksheet off some random website when yeh can do so much better.

 

Beavah

 

[John-in-KC]

Clemlaw,

 

Back in the day...

 

When I took Atomic Energy, it WAS a district-wide thing, because we had a Rockwell International nuclear facility near where I lived. The GM and the engineers on site came together to provide the resources ... which were not readily available to the community.

 

There was round-robin work, because I think about 200 Scouts in the District took advantage of the opportunity. At the end of the day, though, we worked 1/1 with a professional as we presented our models of reactors, and our understandings of theory, and...

 

I tell counselors when I train them that they have self-selected themselves because of special skill. I often ask if there's anyone who feels they're not qualified for a badge. A couple times I've heard public tales of units which push Mrs Smith to cover down on X, when she doesn't know diddly. More often they approach me privately. I tell them if they're not comfortable with the material, don't counsel the badge.

 

Beavah: Thanks. As always, you can take my frustration and tone it down a notch, while communicating the message.

[Twocubdad]

John, dude, it's okay, really. I feel your pain. But here. Sit down, drink this. You'll feel a lot better in a minute. You have one to, Beav. On the house.

 

Yeah, you guys are on track with the problem. But here's my frustration. It tends to be THE SCOUTS who drive this.

 

I think there's two things at work. One, yes it turns merit badges into another homework assignment, but that puts it squarely in the middle of the boys' comfort zones. Just add camping merit badge to the stack and I'll do it right after I finish the essay on the Peloponnesian Wars. Many boys, particularly by high school age, can knock stuff like this out in no time.

 

Secondly, when you plug that into the equation, sitting down with an unfamiliar adult becomes the greater burden and outside the Scout's comfort zone. They would rather sit silently while you "grade" their paper than engage in a conversation.

 

Unfortunately, a number of counselors look at all the paper work and take the attitude that writing out all the "explain" and "discuss" requirements is a lot more work, so they accept it -- in any other situation that's not an unreasonable assumption. But I cringe when I walk past the conference room and see a Scout staring at his shoes on one side of the table while the counselor reads the paperwork.

 

I think I'll have one of those drinks too.

[Beavah]

Now there's TwoCubDad, gettin' us into the spiked egg nog a wee bit early...

 

Yah, of course the scouts are comfortable treatin' it like school, eh? Most Boy Scouts know how to manipulate school.

 

Just like we always say when it comes to plannin' outings, boys are a conservative bunch. They tend to do only the things they're familiar with that they know they can succeed at. New stuff is scary.

 

I reckon that's why it's so important for MBC's do do a real job of it, eh? Because we want boys to become confident at engaging with a new discipline and really learning. To get good at engaging with new people and really doing stuff.

 

It's not for us to just reinforce their old skill of "getting by" on a school worksheet or wheedling adults for what they want.

 

OK, off to the egg nog!

 

Beavah

(This message has been edited by Beavah)

[clemlaw]

>>>>>When I took Atomic Energy, it WAS a district-wide thing

[IM_Kathy]

for 2 of the MB's (swimming and lifesafing) there is no need for the sheets... let's in the pool and do the work.

 

for the others I leave it up to the boys... some use them, some don't. I usually hand them out for family life because of the sheet for tracking their chores.

 

but what I do is when they come to chat with me and they have those sheets - I take them and use them as a reference as we chat. Like if a boy stumbles on something I'll mention "well you wrote __________ what did you mean by that"

 

the other interesting thing about the sheets is it does help you see how much of the work the boy did and how much was helped by "well meaning" parents. when they use big words and spell those words right when they are the kid that wouldn't even know what that word means you know something is up. and yes, I call them on that too. and depending on their answer I'll decide what needs done on that matter.