Why Do I Feel Like an Idiot?

[Eagle92]

Base,

 

He actually left a "high speed, low drag" troop because they were not camping enough. I honestly do not know why he procrastinated like he has.

 

I don't know if it was b/c of some of the Eagles he had seen who were in such units( he's made comments about that).

 

Don't know if he thought he couldn't live up to the standard set by some of the "old school" leaders ( he made a comment to me about not being ready for Brotherhood when I was surprised that he wasn't Brotherhood already, "Mr. Chapter Ceremonies VC).

 

Don't know if he was having too much fun doing Scouting, i.e. 2010 jambo, working on camp staff, camping, etc and lost track. (he made the comment he didn't realize he hadn't gotten a few MBs)

 

And I don't know if it was due to the medical issues he has.

 

But everyone is rooting for him. And I'm not worried about people giving it to him. I have a feeling Dad and Grandpa will stop that from occuring and encourage him to continue on, but not push, cajole, threaten, etc him into getting Eagle. In fact Dad is extremely proud that did a 180 and wants it now. But he will earn it.

[Scouter99]

This boils down to "letter" vs "spirit" kind of thing. If you've endured Eagle mills all of your life (or even a small fraction of your life)' date=' you switch into a bean-counting MC to prevent one more unfit candidate from skating by. If you are used to high caliber boys who are Eagle material letting an opportunity for recognition slip by, you are going to stretch the definition of BOR (or whatever single technicality is in the way) to make it work for that boy. There is little love lost between "bean-counters" and "stretchers" so don't expect the one camp to praise the other anytime soon. We probably endure one another more than actually win one another over. But if in the end every boy makes the most of his scouting experience, we all win.[/quote']

 

It's not a matter of being a bean counter. There are lots of things we have leeway on, advancement requirements is not one. Every boy has the same 7 years, this one suddenly wants Eagle, great, I've got one in the exact same situation. And if he wants it, he will meet the same requirements as every other boy because none of them is special.

 

There are lots of things I could do to help the boy out on a BoR. What's a month? Between 29-31 days, so, fine, he can't do it Monday, we'll do it Tuesday or Weds. He can't be there? Fine, we all own phones. Having it without him isn't one, that's not a BoR.

[Eagle92]

Sorry for the delay in response but I've been busy with work and prepping for this past weekend of "camping" aboard the USS YORKTOWN with middle son.

 

I remembered that the entire family took a 12-18 month sabbatical from Scouting due to some health issues the young man had some time back.. Long story short, something happened and everyone:mom and dad from both the crew and district level, he from scouts, and sis from the crew, basically told folks they need to spend some time away for health issues, transferred the records, keys, etc to folks taking their positions over, and essentially left Scouting for that time. When dad and scout came back in 2010, everyone was happy to have him back.

[Bando]

Not exactly the same, but you reminded me of something similar. The scoutmaster of one of the best troops in our district once told me that the best scout he ever had never advanced past second class. This scout was a better a camper, leader, and all around scout than any other scout or adult this highly respected SM had ever known. The scout just didn't care about advancement. A few years later I had a scout just like him. He is truely a natural leader and was an outstanding all around scout, but he had zero desire for any of the processes of advancement in the program. How could the best SPL ever not want to advance. He in my persepective was the epitome of the Eagle and I felt he needed the Eagle to represent the kind of person he is, even today. So I applied constant pressure for him to advance, and I hurt everytime when I think about how I drove him off. That SM was trying to teach me something, why didn't I listen? I changed my philosphy about adults setting goals for scouts after that. You know what the say about "assume". I bare many scares of its humily. Barry

The two best scouts I've known, two brothers, were the same way. One got to Star, the other got to Life. Couldn't get them interested in going any farther, and it was a miracle they got as far as they did. They were better campers than anyone, better hikers, spent their weekends building bikes and fixing kayaks... And they found advancement got in the way of doing the things Scouting gave them opportunities to do. They loved going outdoors with their buddies, and loved doing things like Philmont and Northern Tier. The older one was the best SPL we ever had. It drove the adults absolutely bonkers that they both just stopped advancing, but I'd argue they got more out of the program than any of us did. It's not what you earn, but what you use from the training Scouting gives you.

[Bando]

You can never figure them out... I had two brothers in the troop a while back. One is now a professional photographer. Never passed the photography merit badge. The other has an MBA in Music, and is the High School Band director. Yep - never got the Music merit badge. Go figure!!!

And the funny thing is that the Music MB is one that a kid can knock out in about an afternoon (or less) if he's involved in a school music program or has any modicum of musical inclination.