Compiling List of Scouts Who Have Earned All Merit Badges - Private Issue Knot

[scoutldr]

And sometimes even the wacky ones get approved, vis a vis the NESA knot and the current uniform design.

[Zahnada]

I dont understand the resistance,

To offering Troy kind assistance.

The negativity of some,

Make the forum less fun,

And soon scouters will start keeping their distance.

 

[hops_scout]

I don't think I made my point very clear in my previous post.

 

Why should the BSA look to increase the number of scouts "earning" all 121 merit badges? Just for the patch? And so they can say that they have done all 121 merit badges?

 

Those people drive me nuts. If scouts are working on all these merit badges, I'd be surprised if they have time to do much other stuff. If they can manage finishing all these merit badges and do other stuff, then I really have to question the quality that they are putting into stuff...

[hendrickms24]

Zahnada,

I'm not siding one way or the other about the knot because I only earned 27 merit badges and completed my eagle days before my 18th birthday. My question is how do you prove you earned all the Merit badges? I'm not even sure if National has a record of all the eagle scouts.

Thanks,

 

Mark M.(This message has been edited by hendrickms24)

[Zahnada]

Hops,

 

I knew a boy who almost earned all,

And his Scout Spirit was never called small.

Youre too quick to judge,

And hold such a grudge,

Cause that boy answered every call.

 

Mark,

 

Thats an interesting question you pose,

How to stop liars, nobody knows.

There are no patch cops,

At the scout shops,

Once people pay, then anything goes.

 

[hendrickms24]

"Thats an interesting question you pose,

How to stop liars, nobody knows.

There are no patch cops,

At the scout shops,

Once people pay, then anything goes. "

 

 

Your point taken!

 

Mark M.(This message has been edited by hendrickms24)

[pohsuwed]

Hops - Consider this idea when it comes to quality, constructive time spent by teenagers today. I bet that there are more scouts in the average troop that know better how to get past the first few levels on the shoot-em-up video game Halo than know how to tie and funcationally use eight basic knots. From experience I know that half of them could kill my Halo character before I could even figure out how to use the controls. And that half of the boys probably couldn't tie three basic knots--and if they were lucky enough to tie an actual knot, they woudn't be able to identify it! And sure, Nuclear Science may be "mindless" to many, but which would most mothers prefer their scouts to do? Learn the basic fundamentals of nuclear science or find where the weapons cache is on level 4?

 

Unfortunately, kids these days have plenty of time to do this other "stuff" and do it very well. I would think that more time spent on constructive, educational, and hands-on activity would do everyone good. (Interestingly, I saw a commercial on a children's TV channel the other day encouraging kids to play actively outside.) My wife is a stay-at-home mother, and she is very glad to have scouting (my oldest son is nine and working on his Bear badge) to provide an additional "curriculum" of broad educational activities and learning experiences. Regarding my youth, even though I was always in the middle of at least a couple merit badges, I had plenty of time to letter in multiple sports, take piano instruction through high school, date, work, and plenty more.

 

In the end, scouting is about learning and personal growth. If people who are into this drive you nuts consider learning how to play Halo or similar game. Your troop kids would probably be more than willing to start you off with a few lessons. I personally didn't make it past the first lesson. (If none of your troop kids know how to play these games consider yourself blessed.)

[scoutldr]

I don't think anyone is advocating earning every MB...just recognizing those who have, whatever their motivation. Personally, I think the palms are enough, but if Troy wants to pursue his dream, more power to him. From what we're hearing about the new uniform, it will be a moot point anyway.

 

I think this horse is dead.

[evmori]

How goes the quest pohsuwed?

[pohsuwed]

Thanks for the question. I am more than happy to update everyone on this.

 

I have been able to locate several more scouts for the list with one dating back to 1958. The list is now up to 36 scouts. I have one person who is looking for information on another five or six that he has known over the years.

 

I have also received some fantastic feedback from one scouter regarding their personal experience with National attempting similar efforts. It has been good to understand better what I am up against.

 

Otherwise, I am working on developing my presentation. I have had several ideas of what should information should be included and what should not be included as well as how to boil it down to the simplest form possible. When I get it done/near done I would be happy to share it with anyone who is interested. Just send me a message with information on how to get it to you. It will be a while, though, before it is to that point, I'm sure.

[le Voyageur]

For myself, I would prefer seeing a "blank". This way, one would have a patch that would allow one to wear their Palms without cluttering up their Eagle square knot. Would be much more impressive to see a rack of Palms.

The reason, just because one has 121 mb's dosen't mean one gets a pass to wear the 6 Silvers, and a Gold without doing the work, or the time for them...Palms says more about leadership, and giving back to the program then merit badges.

 

[pohsuwed]

We have received our shipment of knots. We have also updated our website and have 37 scouts in our registry with more being followed up on. Please feel free to peruse the site at www.meritbadgeknot.com.

[FireKat]

Before you completely consider this topic a dead horse... I noticed alot of people argued against this because of thinking it is a waste of space. These are many of the same people that aqrgued for the other two new 'approved' Knots that are more based on money then what a boy accomplished. I see more logic to this knot as some who earn all MBs do not have enough time left to earn the matching number of palms.  As some one else pointed out you need to be an eagle at 13 to do it. How many 13yos do you think there are? How many 13yos are eagle maaterial at that age?  It would be nice to see this be offical for those that almost earned all palms.  I see this less of being egotistical than money based ones. (P.S. my son should be getting his eagle soon and we were planning to get him the life membership as a gift - he will wear the regular one as he also thought it was a foolish thing to have one based on paying for life membership in the NESA. THe other may go into his scapbook.)

[NeilLup]

Hello pohsuwed,

 

Congratulations on earning all merit badges.

 

As far as a square knot for earning all merit badges, frankly, I don't think that it's a good idea. Just as I don't think that earning all merit badges is particularly a good idea.

 

The merit badge program is, by and large, designed for Scouts age 11-15. Some exceptions, but not many. It is designed to give a Scout a serious introduction to a topic of interest so that Scout can then identify topics in which they can become more interested, make their life's work, etc.

 

I think that there are about 110 merit badges, but to make the math simple, let's call it 120. If one earned merit badges at an even rate over ages 11-15, that would mean 2 per month every month during that period. That's a lot of merit badge work, but I wonder what real in-depth learning and experience one has achieved. One also can continue earning many merit badges beyond age 15 but then, I wonder if it isn't like a Cub Scout continuing to earn lots of Wolf Arrow Points until age 10 so they can run all the way down his leg.

 

I don't want to be flippant, but it strikes me a little like the people who in one summer planned to see one game in every major league ballpark. How much real love of baseball was there and how much traveling for the sake of doing it? Could that person really appreciate the intricacies of baseball, the history of the game, etc.? It also strikes me a little like trying to get into the Guiness Book of World Records by being the person who does the most consecutive dribbles of a basketball. It gets you into the Guiness Book, but how much does the person learn about basketball?

 

It has also been my experience that the people I have met who have earned many, many merit badges have become extremely skillful at both knowing how to meet requirements with minimum work and in finding and arranging counselors who will smooth their path. It certainly is not necessarily the case with you and your brothers, but I have observed that these Scouts often receive a great deal of parental assistance with merit badges including parents serving as counselors for many merit badges, combining merit badges with schooling, etc.

 

None of this is in any way bad and if a Scout and his family choose to do this, it is one way to be. However, I do not believe that it is an appropriate goal for most Scouts and do not believe that it is such an appropriate goal as to warrant a national badge. You decided to earn all of these badges for its own sake. You did not need a national badge to make you want to do or to complete your task. I would imagine that most people who have such goals are similar. They don't need a national badge to make them do it.

 

I would rather have national badges for Scouting activities which are, I believe, quite frankly more appropriate for Scouting. I mean attendance at camp, participation in NYLT and possibly in NAYLE, serving as PL, SPL, JASM, etc. in their Troop. Dedicated conservation work as is recognized with the Hornaday award. Participation on a Jamboree.

 

You have decided to earn all merit badges and I honor you for it. But I would not want to encourage other Scouts to do that nor to think that earning all merit badges is a singularly appropriate way to travel the Scouting trail rather than following a more well-balanced Scouting path and a more well-balanced teen age life.

 

One man's opinion, for what its worth.

[pohsuwed]

Thanks for the comment, NeilLup. A couple items that may help you understand the concept better can be found on my website. It is the reference to the use of the knot as a device to represent a rack of palms earned by earning additional merit badges. I'm not advocating that scouts should be encouraged to earn all the merit badges. I'm just advocating that if a scout does it, don't allow the difficulties of wearing a bunch of palms force them to remove the recognition from their uniform, which recognition has been a part of scouting for many years.

 

And there will always be the argument that a boy earning more than 21 merit badges means that he has a non-balanced life. Plenty of assumptions get built into these statements that can hardly be applied universally. One that I will pick on is the issue of a scout then only doing the minimum required to earn a badge. How many Eagles do you know that barely earn their Eagle, especially with parent involvement? I know more of these any any that earned more than 30 merit badges. I'm not willing to apply an overgeneralization to these scouts that because they only did the required work to get Eagle that they took full advantage of the other areas of scouting and have a "balanced life". However, I'm also not willing to say that they don't have a balanced life.

 

One thing I will say is that if a boy has 100 merit badges versus a boy who has 21, chances are pretty good that the boy has had more experience and knowledge than the one who has 21. "Balance" can be defined any number of ways.

 

Regarding the baseball analogy, it could easily be argued that the person who travels to every ballpark would pick up much more other life experience along the way versus the person who stays at home studying the game. Likewise, I think everyone would agree that the purpose of a merit badge in scouting is to give scouts experience and general knowledge in the merit badge area, not make them experts in that area. Passing off a merit badge does not require a closed-book proctored exam for a reason.

 

Along the same lines, what is the fundamental concept behind the required merit badges? If they are going to earn the rank of Eagle, the boys must at least learn things in a few core areas. Then let them pick from other areas that interest them.

 

If the idea of being recognized for earning additional merit badges is unattractive, I would first suggest petitioning BSA to remove merit badges all together. If that is not an option I would suggest petitioning BSA to remove Palms. If either are removed, then a foundation of my petition to them is removed as well.