What is the most useful MB a Scout can earn/you earned.

[CalicoPenn]

SpEdScouter started a topic asking what the most difficult merit badge to earn was.  Stosh suggested asking what is the most useful merit badge a Scout can earn is.  I'd like to take it even a step further and make it a two part question with the second question being what is the most useful merit badge you earned (if you earned any - if you weren't a Scout as a lad or a female scouter, I'd still love to hear your answer to the first question).  They may be the same answer, or they may be different answers - I think that would be interesting too.

 

I'll start...

 

I think the most useful merit badge a Scout can earn is First Aid - or is that so obvious that we should stipulate that it is the most useful and disqualify it from the question?  Let's go ahead and say First Aid is too obvious and say the most useful merit badge other than First Aid, in which I would say Cooking which is a skill everyone can use.

 

The most useful Merit badge I earned?  I would say Landscape Arcitecture had I gone with my first instinct and pursue it as a career but I would have to say Bird Study which stated me on a lifetime hobby and halpes mw sharpen my observations of the natura

world.

[RememberSchiff]

Most useful a scout can earn: either Public Health or Safety. I recommend both to my scouts..."Safety First" particularly as the older teens become more carefree dudes.

 

Most useful that I earned: Lifesaving (1968?). I earned Public Health and Safety as well, but I rescued 3 swimmers as a lifeguard later. Back then in my community, Lifesaving MB was earned by completing the Red Cross Senior Lifesaving course at the town pool. For me, it was also the hardest merit badge to earn though Personal Fitness with its pull-ups was close.

 

First Merit badge while useful was mostly review. 

 

My $0.02

[Krampus]

First Aid. I have had to use it to save a life (my own son), as well as to save a life as a scout. I have used it on countless occasions and it was all due to my initial training as a scout.

 

Second would be orienteering or astronomy. Being able to navigate keeps you safe.

 

Third would be cooking. I developed my love for cooking as a scout. Got me my wife and the skill has been passed on to my kids.

Edited December 4, 2015 by Krampus

[qwazse]

Useful to whom? I'd have a friend at the bottom of 8 ft at a youth-group pool party if I hadn't learned the signs of drowning. Dinner came and I was the next to the last one out. Lifesaving training kicked in: scan the surface, identify distressed swimmer, approach from behind, reach. Get food like nothing happened.

[skeptic]

Useful for everyday life would seem to me to be Personal Management, then Cooking and Communications.  Second level would be Family Life and Home Repairs, while the Citizenships are good background for succeeding in public interactions if they engender enough awareness in the scout.  A case can be made for numerous badges that might lead a specific scout to a lifetime vocation; but that depends on the specific scout, and how much he is encouraged to go beyond the basic to advanced knowledge and skill.

[JoeBob]

Pioneering

[Stosh]

1) First Aid - 15+ years as a Nationally Certified EMT-A volunteer in a small town where there were no medical services when I started and I founded the ambulance service over the course of the first 2 years.  I have no idea how many lives I may have saved over those 15 years.

 

2) Personal Finance - my credit score is 0 and I owe no one anything and no one owes me.  Moving into retirement with more money than I need.  Shakespeare had it right.

 

3) Cooking - LOVE to cook, love to eat even better. 

[Oldscout448]

With four boys, first aid came in handy on a weekly ( at least ) basis, but I am forced to go with rifle and shotgun shooting.   When a rabid animal is near your pets and children..... 

[qwazse]

I meant to +1 @@JoeBob. Sorry, all thumbs!

[jpstodwftexas]

all of them

[resqman]

Like several others, I became an EMT based on the first aid training I learned in Scouting.  Helped lots of other people.

 

Instead of a single MB, I think the MB program is the best.  It encourages scouts to achieve something.  It gives them a goal. 

 

I stood in amazement one troop meeting.  I gave the PL a box of rope cut into lengths, two dozen dowels about 5 feet long and 1.5 inches in diameter, a rope making machine, a ball of twine and the pioneering merit badge book.  The scouts taught each other knots, lashing and how to make a rope.  That one hour of boy led fun taught many skills beside simple knot tying.  They may not remember how to tie every knot the rest of their life, may not remember the specifics of every type of lashing, but they learned how to work with others and teach themselves a new skill.  They learned to rely on each other and help each other.  Those lessons were more important than the specific MB tasks.

 

Similarly, the PLC chooses a specific theme for the Saturday evening meal for each campout.  Patrols can cook anything they like in any manner they like.  But there is a competition.  It started out as a way to encourage better cooking.  First time, adults came by and sampled from each patrol.  Next campout, the patrols made presentation plates and delivered to the adult area.  Not because there were required, but they thought it might help them win the competition.  Cooking skills improved considerably.  Gone were hot dogs.  Scouts were cooking salmon on cedar planks, bringing a myriad of spices and flavorings to coax the food to perfection.  Box ovens, Dutch ovens, propane cook stoves, turkey fryers, all were fair game.  Cooking merit badge was no longer a chore and now was seen as too easy.

 

If first aid is ruled out, then swimming MB needs to be in the top 3. 

[TAHAWK]

Communication.   A skill he will probably need every day.