The big question

[Stosh]

Considering wearing the uniform at Scouts is optional, it should be the same at school.

[Oldscout448]

I confess I've never heard of this question being asked at any board of review eagle or otherwise. Nor do I see why it should be. When I earned eagle, some forty years ago ,I stood six feet talk and weighed 175 but to wear a scout uniform to my high school would have been asking for a beating from multiple people at the same time.   I think I knew every scout in that high school and none of us ever wore our uniform in those halls.  

 

Was I proud of being a scout? Absolutely.

 

Was I stupid? No.

Edited December 5, 2016 by Oldscout448

[Sentinel947]

Might be a district thing. My district doesn't ask that question.

 

I graduated high school in 2012. I wore my uniform to high school exactly once. I was in a color guard for an immigration naturalization ceremony held at my high school. I was a senior and got no grief for it.

[Tampa Turtle]

EBOR's here, questions about uniform are rare. Back in the day, the question would be meaningless as scouts wore their uniform to school.

 

Questions about reverence or continuing in scouting (giving back) worry our scouts.  

 

YMMV.

 

'Questions about reverence or continuing in scouting (giving back) worry our scouts.  ' What do you mean?

[T2Eagle]

'Questions about reverence or continuing in scouting (giving back) worry our scouts.  ' What do you mean?

I don't know that they worry my scouts, but they pose a challenge because they sense that truly candid answers would not be appreciated.  

 

The reverence one is pretty individual, I know that some of them are becoming less observant in their religious practices, which I think is pretty common at their age, but telling a handful of probably fairly observant adults that you don't really care about going to church or other religious practices is not going to go well.

 

As to the continuing in scouting, again it's individual, but for some of them, seniors in high school, turned or turning eighteen, realistically they're not going to continue scouting until they have kids of their own.  But again that's probably not what the scouters at an EBOR really want to hear.

 

I try to get them a little bit ready for the scouting question by asking them to think about how they're going to continue acting as scouts or using their scout skills as they enter college.  I remind them how much fun they've had as a scout, and encourage them to be sure to get involved in at least one volunteer org or activity at college because it will give them the same experience of both fun and enrichment.  

Edited December 5, 2016 by T2Eagle

[Tampa Turtle]

OK...I thought you had some unusual experience. 

 

I have heard one of our scouts who I was pretty sure was an atheist get by with a 'I search for truth in the universe and if that leads me to God or not, so be it'. He passed. Another who basically stated he would never step in scouting again and would not let his kids be one because it was a lot of wasted time conceded that he would use some of the skills he learned in other aspects of his adult life. He passed.

[The Blancmange]

There was no "big question" in my area as a scout. And there isn't one now. Must be a regional myth. The one myth I recall was the secret requirement in Wilderness Survival that you had to eat a deer turd to get the merit badge.

 

That's not really a requirement?

[bsaggcmom]

EBoRs aren't about telling a bunch of old guys what they want to hear. Its about answering their questions honestly and articulately. Being able to stand up for your point of view and respecting theirs. If you can't say for certain that you'd get back involved when you have kids of your own or when you are done with college and have a stable life then you should be able to back up your point of view with reasons. I'd rather hear that a young man wants to include his wife in the choice, or that he was forced into scouts by his parents and really didn't enjoy it. I'd accept that career and family needs will play a role in the decision as to whether he returns/stays with scouts. What I don't want to hear a line of horse hockey to 'please' me.

 

We are supposed to be fostering the ability to think for one's self and support your thoughts in the program. Not teaching them to BS (and I don't mean boy scouts) their way through things. If that's the skills they've received in the program shame on the leadership of their units. My son learned how to talk to and with adults from scouting. He learned to justify his opinions and how to ask questions. To the point that as a beginning high school junior, he wowed 2 college admissions advisors with his maturity and composure. Part way through their chat one of them asked if he was an Eagle Scout, she said she could tell by the way he handled himself.

 

If EBoR members want to be 'pleased' by answers then they need seriously reconsider why they are willing to sit on an Ebor. I sit there to find out how the program is going in my area. To find out what makes a good program and maybe swipe and idea or two. I'm there to make the boys think about what they've done to date and what they are going to do with their lives to come.

[Eagle94-A1]

The big question in my EBOR was "What would you say if we didn't approve you being an Eagle Scout?" Talk about being surprised and angry! Long story short I calmly, to the best of my ability at the time, explained to them that it was approved and completed. If they did not like it was too late and that I would find out how to appeal any negative decision.

 

I did receive my Eagle without having to appeal.

[krikkitbot]

I wore my uniform to school once in 7th grade to a catholic school with no uniform for boys. I believe it was some sort of national event. The amount of flack I got from that ensured that I never wore it to school again. 

[krypton_son]

I confess I've never heard of this question being asked at any board of review eagle or otherwise. Nor do I see why it should be. When I earned eagle, some forty years ago ,I stood six feet talk and weighed 175 but to wear a scout uniform to my high school would have been asking for a beating from multiple people at the same time.   I think I knew every scout in that high school and none of us ever wore our uniform in those halls.  

 

Was I proud of being a scout? Absolutely.

 

Was I stupid? No.

 

 

My thoughts exactly.

[Cambridgeskip]

I had a hard time at what we would call secondary school (11-18 year olds), stemming mainly for being the working class kid at a very middle class school and being academically actually quite good but in an academically excellent school.

 

What I learned from that experience was how to make myself invisible.It's a skill an awful lot of kids have to learn just to get by as teenagers.Those that have had to do it know exactly what I'm talking about.

 

Those that dish it out do so to the easy targets, those that they can easily pick out to being different to them. To survive I learned all the tricks of how to blend in. And there is no way on God's earth I would have worn my scout uniform to school. I may as well have worn a sign round my neck saying "kick me".