Eagle94-A1 Posted July 10, 2015 Share Posted July 10, 2015 Little Free Libraries for an Eagle Project? CCCCOOOOOOOLLLLLL! Wife headed up one of those for the homeschool group. Beneficiaries, besides the community as a whole, would be the individual locations if they are not owned by the same entity. If it was in my neck of the woods, I'd suggest the mayor, but he's an Eagle and extremely supportive of Scouting. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
desertrat77 Posted July 10, 2015 Share Posted July 10, 2015 Little Free Libraries for an Eagle Project? CCCCOOOOOOOLLLLLL! Wife headed up one of those for the homeschool group. Beneficiaries, besides the community as a whole, would be the individual locations if they are not owned by the same entity. If it was in my neck of the woods, I'd suggest the mayor, but he's an Eagle and extremely supportive of Scouting. +1! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
qwazse Posted July 10, 2015 Share Posted July 10, 2015 Hmmm. I never made it past First Class myself.... More background - There has been a lot of turmoil in this scout's life lately. Dad was hospitilized for several months, problems with the school not following his IEP, and feeling overwhelmed as acting SPL without good support (my opinion) from a very new SM. I am trying to see what support to offer that would not be crossing a line as advancement chair. So, what I said earlier ... advice to the family if they need it. For the boy, tell him you can coach in a number of ways, ask him what specific help he would like from you. I personally would offer to coach the SM and him into a better SM-SPL working relationship. This would boil down to asking "What one thing in your job would you like to do better next month?" You might want to advance-warn the SM so that he might be prepared with his own goal (e.g., better prepared SM minutes). Get him to manage the troop a few more months, and that should help him put the other pieces together. But if you have strengths as an educator or something else, you might be able to offer to coach one of those outside-of-scouts problems. Regardless, pick one thing. Chip away at it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SeattlePioneer Posted July 10, 2015 Share Posted July 10, 2015 As a Scoutmaster, I considered 1st Class to be the most important rank in Scouting. The promise of Scouting is to make boys modestly competent at hiking, camping and outdoors activities ---skills that are the core of the journey to 1st Class. BSA tends to offer special support to boys on the journey to first class as well, just as I did. After that, boys decided what else they wanted to do in Scouting. If they asked me for help, I was glad to do so. If they were happy to stay 1st class, that was fine too. In my opinion, boys have the opportunity to learn what Scouting means by 1st class. Star, Life and Eagle are fine, but you are really just continuing to polish the apple. I also pretty frequently encounter adults who APOLOGIZE for not having been an Eagle. I tell them my opinion that 1st Class is the most important rank, and most are RELIEVED by that. Eagle is fine, but over rated. Because it is overrated, FAR too many boys are carried into the Eagle's Nest by their parents or other adults. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DuctTape Posted July 11, 2015 Share Posted July 11, 2015 If memory serves me, First Class was supposed to be the highest rank; the complete outdoorsman. Everything beyond that was just to fulfill the boys desire to learn more about specific areas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NJCubScouter Posted July 11, 2015 Share Posted July 11, 2015 If memory serves me, First Class was supposed to be the highest rank; the complete outdoorsman. Everything beyond that was just to fulfill the boys desire to learn more about specific areas. I think that stopped being the case more than 100 years ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eagle77 Posted July 11, 2015 Share Posted July 11, 2015 As a Scoutmaster, I considered 1st Class to be the most important rank in Scouting. The promise of Scouting is to make boys modestly competent at hiking, camping and outdoors activities ---skills that are the core of the journey to 1st Class. BSA tends to offer special support to boys on the journey to first class as well, just as I did. After that, boys decided what else they wanted to do in Scouting. If they asked me for help, I was glad to do so. If they were happy to stay 1st class, that was fine too. In my opinion, boys have the opportunity to learn what Scouting means by 1st class. Star, Life and Eagle are fine, but you are really just continuing to polish the apple. I also pretty frequently encounter adults who APOLOGIZE for not having been an Eagle. I tell them my opinion that 1st Class is the most important rank, and most are RELIEVED by that. Eagle is fine, but over rated. Because it is overrated, FAR too many boys are carried into the Eagle's Nest by their parents or other adults. I will kind of disagree with you on this. Yes 1st Class is one of the most important ranks there is. Because once 1st class you have learned all the basic skills needed. Star, Life and Eagle concentrate on the other important part of scouting and that is leadership. Yes I know one can be any rank and hold a position, and I call them learning teachers although they may have some of the skills they are still learning the others needed to get to 1st class. For the higher ranks you are now asked to take those skills and begin to run the program and lead the younger scouts. Yes I do agree that in certain ways Eagle is watered down, but because of the leaders and parents that pencil whip their kids through to be Eagle. Summer camps that have become merit badge mills, merit badge colleges and troop wide merit badges. Being the only Eagle ever in my family I take a lot of pride in my accomplishment. Oh I did not earn Eagle for any other reason then to prove my dad wrong. He told me I could not do it and being the rebel teenager that I was I just had to prove him wrong. So he got what he wanted and I got what I wanted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NJCubScouter Posted July 11, 2015 Share Posted July 11, 2015 (edited) Oh I did not earn Eagle for any other reason then to prove my dad wrong. He told me I could not do it and being the rebel teenager that I was I just had to prove him wrong. So he got what he wanted and I got what I wanted. Hmmm, maybe that was my problem. My father told me I could do it. Maybe I was rebelling against that. (In reality, I could have, I just didn't.) Edited July 11, 2015 by NJCubScouter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
resqman Posted July 11, 2015 Share Posted July 11, 2015 I was a Life scout by age 13-14. Didn't earn the rank of Eagle until couple of months before age 18. I was in scouting for the fun and adventure. Rank was not terribly important to ME. I was earning merit badges because there were lots of opportunities to earn them. My unit was very active and did some really cool things. One weekend we went Soaring (powerless flight airplane). That only took a few hours so we also white water rafted. We had to travel to another area to participate so also camped out that weekend. Busy weekend. Just as my parents made school grades important, they felt scouting was important. They allowed me to dawdle along but prompted me more as I approached age 18. Like most teens, I was more interested in having fun than working on the more academic related merit badges like personal finance, citizenship, etc. Who wants to keep a record of every expenditure for 90 days? No one. As long as the scout is active in the troop, I would not worry. At age 17, then as a parent I would have a discussion about finishing up what they started. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oddball Posted July 14, 2015 Share Posted July 14, 2015 (edited) and I've met mediocre non-Eagle Scouters. Like me - was a Bear and Webelos I 45 years ago. Sometimes, we're all that's available. I do the best I can, but I'm learning it as my son does. I just have to not let the boys know I am only one or two steps ahead of them. Edited July 14, 2015 by oddball Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stosh Posted July 14, 2015 Share Posted July 14, 2015 Like me - was a Bear and Webelos I 45 years ago. Sometimes, we're all that's available. I do the best I can, but I'm learning it as my son does. I just have to not let the boys know I am only one or two steps ahead of them. Hey, being two steps ahead of kids at this age is a really good thing. Don't knock it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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