Homeschool Scouting

[yarrow]

We had a family locally that made Scouting a large portion of their homeschool curriculum. I take issue with this for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the benefit that a scout can gain from doing badges with other like minded scouts. And then there is the accountability question. Thoughts, anyone.

[FScouter]

Do you mean that Mom & Dad are merit badge counselors for their kids? If that were the case, the kids miss out on the interaction with an unfamiliar adult. That helps build character.

[sctmom]

Please see my thread about the benefits of scouting. I can see where it would be good to work on the merit badges in conjunction with homeschooling, the same way I have had my son work on Cub Scout requirements along with assignments from school.

Yet, as FScouter points out if the parents are the merit badge counselors, the boys miss out on some of the other benefits....I know these are the really important lessons that MY son needs to learn.

[andrews]

The original issue would only be worth consideration if they never worked on any badges with other scouts/counselors.

 

We don't heavily focus on it, but the merit badges are part of the work for my two boys. They have already done more merit badges than most, and may even get them all before they are done. Given that most boys don't do any more than required for Eagle, if even that many, I don't see the problem.

 

Both my boys have participated in merit badge college, summer camp, winter camp, and troop activities extensively. I don't see any conflict in this case.

 

Brad

[Chippewa29]

There is a very fine line that people walk when they act as a MB counselor for their own child. The standards of the MB need to be held very high in those instances and if other counselors are available for that MB, I believe the Scout should work on it with that other counselor. That doesn't mean the home schooled Scout can't work with their parent on it, but they should be reviewed by another adult. However, if the parent is the only counselor in the area for a particular MB or a group of Scouts from the troop are working on it together, then I don't see a problem.

 

A Scout in my troop has been passed for a couple of MB by his mom. However, he worked on those badges with at least one other Scout in the troop each time.

 

The case you don't want to see is what happened in my troop about 10-11 years ago. We had a Scout join whose Dad was a "lifer" that was a counselor for 5-6 badges (he had even worked with me on a badge when I was a youth). Within a year or so after joining, the son had every badge his dad counseled, with his dad signing off all but one (which he did a summer camp). About that time, renewal for MB counselors came up. Dad switched to six other MB's and Mom signed up for another six MB's. The son had all twelve of those MB's within a few months, all signed off by his parents, who then bragged about how hard their son worked and how he was going to get his Eagle by his 14th birthday. The Dad eventually PO'd enough people to be forced to resign from the troop (he had become SM about six months before). The son got his Eagle, but the district questioned the number of badges signed off by his parents and the Scout (nor his parents) had no credibility.

[andrews]

I am the only MB counselor in the house, and we have done few merit badges together. I "picked" Citizenship in the Community, Nation and World, Hiking and Camping. Both my sons did camping with someone else, and the youngest worked on CitW at merit badge college. I did do CitC with both of them, along with one or two other scouts (it was supposed to be a group of six or so) and CitW with the oldest, along with another scout who was redoing things from a previous MB college.

 

We plan on working on hiking together this spring, but since they both already have swimming, it is an "elective."

 

Getting them to call, and work with other counselors is painful at times, but I think that is worth it as well.

 

Brad

[sctmom]

Based on the people involved, some parents may be "tougher" on their own kids than other kids. My son accused me of such as a Webelos Den Leader. Yep, guilty as charged.

 

Based on other comments Brad has made on this board, I bet he's one of the ones that holds his sons to very high standards, regardless of who is teaching the merit badge.

 

Too bad others see this as a chance to let their kids take the easy route. Those are the boys who really lose out, not the ones made to meet the requirements.

 

[yarrow]

Right you are SctMom. My boy accuses me of the same. No one makes him work as hard or do as much for merit badges as do I. Prereq.s for MB Colleges are thouroughly done, and I know every badge that I have run, that he has done with me, has been quality with the experts brought in and high expectations. He does complain though about the work sometimes. Still when you are doing scouting as your curriculum and are hanging your hat on your kid earning every MB, one wonders. Somehow it doesn't sit well with me.

[andrews]

Given that they cover such a wide range of areas, what would be wrong with using them as a significant part of the curriculum? While some subjects would need to be supplimented (math, science in some areas, etc.), their wide coverage, and extensive amount of writing would expose a boy to a lot of different things.

 

Brad

[ozemu]

I understand that the homeschooling rate of progress is often accelerated ie on some sites parents are advised to do no more than three hours academic work per 'school' day. Therefore the rate of progress may be several times faster than traditional scouting expectations. If lots of merit badges are being done concurrently with a homeschool curriculum then the family may have problems accessing councellors.

 

Also homeschooling means that the work is done at home - if the badges are tied in to the academic work then they may have few options than to be very involved in the sons merit badge progress.

 

Also the other scouts are at school while the homeschoolers are at home working on badges - therefore they would have lots of problems accessing other scouts too.

 

Homeschoolers seem to argue that the children get to socialise with a wider age group than in a normal school class for six hours a day. ie other relatives, part time jobs, voluntary work, different community education classes / clubs. Is this family accessing other adults in the homeschool work (and therefore merit badges) and just not making a big deal about it?

 

Then again they may be cheating outrageously. Impossible to tell without being very direct with them. If they don't want help when it's offered I would be suspicious.

[KoreaScouter]

The MB program may not have been conceived with a homeschool curriculum in mind as a theory, but it has certainly moved in that direction in the application, considerably so in some troops/areas.

 

Brad mentions having to supplement the pamphlets primarily in the math & science areas, and I agree. If a family homeschools, I see nothing wrong with using MB pamphlets to supplement the curriculum, but I'm not sure I'd use them as the foundation of the curriculum. First, as good and as comprehensive as they are, they aren't a complete curriculum and BSA hasn't designed them to be a holistic education curriculum. Second, the cognitive abilities of an 11 year old boy are significantly different than those of a 17 year old boy. Which pamphlets (badges) and therefore which subject matter is appropriate for the 11 year old? The 17 year old? Many parents are probably smart enough to figure that out themselves. However, there's only one set of MB requirements, and there aren't suggested ages for completing them. Third, and this may land me in the hottest water on this forum, I read the posts of homeschool families who complain of discrimination, mistreatment, misunderstandings, nasty looks, etc., from people who don't homeschool, in part because they think homeschoolers are somehow "pulling a fast one". I know many homeschoolers here, and almost all of them use the standardized curriculum/testing services, which, it seems to me, deflates the argument that homeschoolers aren't really teaching anything. Doesn't using the MB pamphlets as the curriculum invite that criticism?

 

Don't get me wrong, I use them to supplement and tie in with classroom lessons, too (especially Environmental Science with spring science projects coming up). I just don't understand why, with the supplementation you'd have to do to make them work as a stand-alone curriculum, a family doesn't just subscribe to one of the curriculum services...are they somehow deficient? I don't homeschool, so I don't know, but I do know that our homeschool families here use the services...

[lasteagle83]

I'll throw my two cents in here; not as a homeschooled student, but as a former (1983) public school graduate.

 

While in high school, I was enrolled in the gifted program, which required students to select, create, and achieve a certain set of educational goals in a subject of the student's choosing; with close guidance from the instructor, of course.

 

I regularly used many of the Eagle required badges (and several elective badges) as the basis for my curriculum; my instructor required me to go beyond the requirements of the badge for the "school credit" portion (as any good instructor would, of course), but she herself asked for copies of merit badge pamphlets for future coursework planning suggestions for her OTHER students not in the gifted program (she was a social studies teacher in addition to the gifted program instructor and was especially impressed by the requirements of the Citizenship badges at that time).

 

Using the badge requirements as a basis for the curriculum, I had a desire not only to earn the badge, but also to pass the quarter's coursework; consequently I did BOTH with a GREATER DESIRE TO LEARN because "it wasn't just school anymore".

 

"Double dipping"? Perhaps - but did I learn the subject matter? You bet. Did I earn Eagle because the merit badge work became part of the school curriculum? Yes. Did I graduate with honors because the merit badge work encouraged and taught me to work harder on my entire curriculum? YES. Isn't our goal here the full development of the boy, whether through schooling or Scouting?

 

My final thoughts to homeschoolers on this subject: Use the merit badge requirements as a "foundation" or "accompaniment" to the curriculum; but to make it the sole basis of the curriculum teaches the boy to "do no more than is required to get the badge" - certainly not anyone's goal for Scouting, or for life.

 

My apologies for the verbosity, friends, but I had not yet seen anyone who had "student" experience versus "instructor" or "parent" experience. I hope this opinion helps.....even if it is 20 years old!

[Rooster7]

lasteagle83,

 

Amen to each and every thought expressed. Your sentiments are right on target and well appreciated.

 

As a home schooling Dad of four, and a Scouter for 10 plus years, I have yet to meet a family that used merit badges as a foundation for their school curriculum. Some have used the badges to supplement their curriculum, but never as a foundation. For the reasons noted in this forum and some others, it would not be wise. Yet, to complement or supplement existing curriculum, it makes excellent sense to do so (for the reasons lasteagle83 sited already).

 

As for the jealousy factor, I have seen this too. It is fairly rare. However, some folks cannot get over the fact that home schooling permits one to bring merit badges into the curriculum, and consequently, one's son can acquire badges rather rapidly.

 

[TomBeeb]

On the point of the homeschooled boy missing out on the interaction with other scouts while working on a MB...

 

If the homeschooling parent(s) is a registered MB Counselor, (and I hope so), then they could also be counselors for the local troop. Then their son(s) could work on badges with other scouts.

[andrews]

And nothing says a boy has to work on badges with other Scouts. I worked on very few of mine in groups. Of course I would be surprised if a boy got to Eagle without working with others on several badges, but many boys are just not motivated for merit badges alot of the time, and a boy who wants to go beyond the basics will frequently have to work on his own. (Under the guidelines of the G2SS, but that doesn't require another boy work on it, just that at least 2 youth are present when with the counselor.)

 

Brad