Early Advancement

[King Ding Dong]

 

"So at the age of 12 years 3 months and 10 days Truman Cerney has become the youngest in US History."

 

 

Is he still Involved in Scouting or did Baseball take over in his life?.. Wonder what Happened to him afterwards.

Hopefully a scout made it. In that case it's a good start.

[jpstodwftexas]

I wonder if anyone has done a Survey on the correlation of Age Achieved Eagle and Retention in Scouting...also Rank Achieved vs Retention?

[christineka]

I wonder if anyone has done a Survey on the correlation of Age Achieved Eagle and Retention in Scouting...also Rank Achieved vs Retention?

My older brother earned eagle at 14 years old and was an active scouter until he went to college at 17. (He was always mr. high achiever of the family.) My younger brother earned his eagle at 17 and stayed in scouts till he went to college at 18. (He spent 5 years earning his BA.) Our father is a big scouter. I think both boys stayed because they had a lot of fun, going on adventures, and learning lots of stuff.

[jpstodwftexas]

Are they Still active? I am Interested in How Many Scouters who get ASAP EAGLES...Stay involved in Scouting for Years and Years to Come after they Eagle vs. Those who Barely Make Eagle by 18. I know more Scouters who have put in Decades of Volunteer work after aging out as Eagles "barely" than I do Scouters who ASAP'd Eagle and Stuck Around to Volunteer.

 

Can a Case be Made that ASAP EAGLES are there for Themselves and Not Scouting as a Whole more than AGED OUT EAGLES?

 

Wonder if it has something to do with when someone Eagles..Could an Easily Earned Eagle lead to less Return Volunteers?

 

[christineka]

Are they Still active? I am Interested in How Many Scouters who get ASAP EAGLES...Stay involved in Scouting for Years and Years to Come after they Eagle vs. Those who Barely Make Eagle by 18. I know more Scouters who have put in Decades of Volunteer work after aging out as Eagles "barely" than I do Scouters who ASAP'd Eagle and Stuck Around to Volunteer.

 

Can a Case be Made that ASAP EAGLES are there for Themselves and Not Scouting as a Whole more than AGED OUT EAGLES?

 

Wonder if it has something to do with when someone Eagles..Could an Easily Earned Eagle lead to less Return Volunteers?

Neither of my brothers continued with scouts past college entrance. The one went on to bigger and better pursuits and the other went on to become a slacker.

[jpstodwftexas]

Sorry to hear the Dropped Scouting from Their Lives

[Sqyire21]

So, officially, cubscouts is limited by the age and or grade of the student? If a student skips a grade, or is held back, he also skips or is held back in scouts?

 

 

JeffH: My son is 9 and is a Bear this year. I see the point you were trying to make, however not all school systems are the same. There are rules for ageing out of a Cub Scout year. So, while he could be a Webelos based on your comment, he's still very happy as a Bear.

[Sqyire21]

Some of this seems to be more about the person, and less about their age when achieving Eagle. i.e. A boy earns Eagle at 14...and then goes on to play ball or chase girls. Should we blame him for wanting to experience something different or new? Yes, the troop invested in him...but thats the purpose of the program. We're not building a company, we're building MEN!

 

Perhaps... years later, either before or after college, he re-joins Scouting. Perhaps as a parent or perhaps before marriage. Possible he tries to rejoin Scouting, but finds his youth inhibits him. (he's not yet a father, so other leaders question his motives for being there)

 

I've seen several adult leaders who come back to scouting for their own reasons...some earned Eagle, many did not. I've also seen several friends who earned their Eagles, who left scouting to never return. This part of the conversation would make for a great research project however.

[christineka]

Some of this seems to be more about the person, and less about their age when achieving Eagle. i.e. A boy earns Eagle at 14...and then goes on to play ball or chase girls. Should we blame him for wanting to experience something different or new? Yes, the troop invested in him...but thats the purpose of the program. We're not building a company, we're building MEN!

 

Perhaps... years later, either before or after college, he re-joins Scouting. Perhaps as a parent or perhaps before marriage. Possible he tries to rejoin Scouting, but finds his youth inhibits him. (he's not yet a father, so other leaders question his motives for being there)

 

I've seen several adult leaders who come back to scouting for their own reasons...some earned Eagle, many did not. I've also seen several friends who earned their Eagles, who left scouting to never return. This part of the conversation would make for a great research project however.

I do not know whether my younger brother in law earned eagle or not (I never heard about it, but I was in the picture for his entire teen years), but, being LDS he was volunteered into scouts and is now having a wonderful time with the boys. (Brother in law has no wife or kids- just a dog and a job.) My dad got involved when my oldest brother was a cub scout. My dad loved it, moved to boy scouts and has stayed. He has fun and has many friends in scouting. My father in law is LDS and was volunteered into scouting, but loved it and is very involved. He'd be involved even if he wasn't "volunteered".

[christineka]

I thought I'd also mention- I homeschool my kids. One of them does schoolwork a grade ahead of where she'd be based on age. When I have to state what grade she's in, I go by what grade she would be in in school, based on her birthday. Just because she is academically advanced, does not mean she is socially advanced. If she were a boy in traditional cub scouts, I would put her with the boys, who were in the same grade as she would be per age. I believe cub scouts is about having fun experiences and learning about a variety of topics, while having fun with other boys. It should not be like school!

[qwazse]

I thought I'd also mention- I homeschool my kids. One of them does schoolwork a grade ahead of where she'd be based on age. When I have to state what grade she's in, I go by what grade she would be in in school, based on her birthday. Just because she is academically advanced, does not mean she is socially advanced. If she were a boy in traditional cub scouts, I would put her with the boys, who were in the same grade as she would be per age. I believe cub scouts is about having fun experiences and learning about a variety of topics, while having fun with other boys. It should not be like school!

It's a balance. My daughter was academically advanced. Started taking a full load of freshman engineering courses her senior year in high school. Son #1 talked her into staying in the dorms rather than commuting since she was gonna be there so much. I wanted to throttle him! But, turned out she was socially mature as well. Dad just needed to have a little faith .

[5yearscouter]

Some of this seems to be more about the person, and less about their age when achieving Eagle. i.e. A boy earns Eagle at 14...and then goes on to play ball or chase girls. Should we blame him for wanting to experience something different or new? Yes, the troop invested in him...but thats the purpose of the program. We're not building a company, we're building MEN!

 

Perhaps... years later, either before or after college, he re-joins Scouting. Perhaps as a parent or perhaps before marriage. Possible he tries to rejoin Scouting, but finds his youth inhibits him. (he's not yet a father, so other leaders question his motives for being there)

 

I've seen several adult leaders who come back to scouting for their own reasons...some earned Eagle, many did not. I've also seen several friends who earned their Eagles, who left scouting to never return. This part of the conversation would make for a great research project however.

Christina,

we say they are VolunTold to show they were told they have to volunteer.

[Baseballfan]

Are they Still active? I am Interested in How Many Scouters who get ASAP EAGLES...Stay involved in Scouting for Years and Years to Come after they Eagle vs. Those who Barely Make Eagle by 18. I know more Scouters who have put in Decades of Volunteer work after aging out as Eagles "barely" than I do Scouters who ASAP'd Eagle and Stuck Around to Volunteer.

 

Can a Case be Made that ASAP EAGLES are there for Themselves and Not Scouting as a Whole more than AGED OUT EAGLES?

 

Wonder if it has something to do with when someone Eagles..Could an Easily Earned Eagle lead to less Return Volunteers?

our Troop only has one ASM who was a Troop Eagle... the one who had his BoR well after his 18th birthday. He had the BoR at camp because he was shooting sports director and didn't want to take time off. Unfortunately most of our Eagles "Eagle out" and are not seen again, at least not very often.

[perdidochas]

IT seems to me that advancement in cub scouts is less about responsibility and hard work, and more about what grade you are in. This confuses me greatly, and seems to contradict the stated goals of the program. Is it true that you do not need to complete the requirements of the program in order to advance? and that you advance if you advance a grade in school? Is, fundamantally, making a full orbit around the sun the only requirement for advancing?

Is it possible to advance through the ranks faster? Can a child push through all the requirements and move onto the next rank in half the time, or does he need to then sit on his hands and wait for the sun to catch up with him?

Very confused.

If that is the case, then how can this happen?

"So at the age of 12 years 3 months and 10 days Truman Cerney has become the youngest in US History." http://www.prlog.org/10853450-youngest-awarded-eagle-scout-in-us-history-is-promoted-in-columbia-south-carolina.html

 

 

In Cub Scouts, advancement is from doing the requirements for the badge. The badge you work on is dependent on your age. Tiger cub aged boys work on the Tiger Cub badge. When they get older, they become Wolf Scouts. Wolf Scouts work on the Wolf badge. They only get the badges if they meet the requirements. If they don't finish the requirements in that year, they don't get the badge, they just start working on the next badge. So if that Tiger doesn't earn the Tiger badge, the next year he starts work on the Wolf Badge. A tiger who finishes the Tiger badge can't work on the Wolf Badge. It's not a continuous model of advancement, it's more of a quantum model.

[perdidochas]

So, officially, cubscouts is limited by the age and or grade of the student? If a student skips a grade, or is held back, he also skips or is held back in scouts?

 

 

It's up to the parent/leader/scout to decide. We held my oldest son back in the 2nd grade (wolf). In his second year in 2nd grade, we advanced him to Bear. Then, basically, we decided that it would be better for him to be in Scout with his grade level peers than his age level peers, so we kept him in Bears a second year. Since then he's progressed normally. It's good because the boys in his grade cohort were nicer kids than the boys in his age cohort. He's now finished his Eagle Project at age 15, and is basically fairly close to the advancement level of his age cohort in the Troop. Slighly ahead of his grade cohort, but that's partly because he's more mature than they are. A good friend of mine also held his boy back in 2nd grade. He loved the age level cohort, and his son has stayed with them.