For Fun: What was your favorite Merit Badge?

[WisconsinMomma]

Hey Scouts and Scouters -- what was your favorite merit badge and why?   Tell your story here!!   

[fred johnson]

I have very fond memories of very very interactive merit badges.  I don't really have a favorite badge as much as deep gratitude to MBCs who made badges interesting.  

• Photography - Scouts running around taking pictures and putting together a presentation.
• Chess - Big chess camp wide chess tournament.
• Metal work - Scouts bent, spot welded and powder coat painted their own tool boxes.
• Archery - Scouts made and shot their own arrows.
• Horsemanship - Scouts spent a week at camp taking care of the horses.
• Crime Prevention - Scouts toured the local FBI headquarters.  Run by a FBI special agent.
• Cycling - Year worth of long bike trips and bike related camp outs.
• Swimming - Year worth of swimming practice.
• Golf - Lots of trips to the golf course hitting golf balls.
• Canoeing - Long canoe trip.
• Water sports - Week long camp of the scouts learning to water ski, etc.

I've also learned being a MBC is tricky.  Ya have to make a connectin with the scout.  I've tried and failed coaching some badges.  I fear I've not always been inspirational. 

• A few times I think the scouts never wanted to see the subject again.  I failed.  They probably also contributed to the failure by not being interested.  But I just did not connect with the scouts and I feel bad.
• My best badge was Citizen of the Nation where the scout and I spent time at summer camp every day working through the topics sitting at the camp fire or under trees or on the beach.  It was unstructured free time at camp.  He finished the badge, but for years to come we'd sit at camp and discuss the related subject.  We even had other scouts join us in our discussions.   To this day, I miss those summer camp discussions.  

Edited March 19, 2018 by fred johnson

[blw2]

mine was sailing. 

I didn't earn a lot of MB's in my short time as a scout, but this one I remember.... I took it at Summer camp, camp Boddie on the Pamlico river (I really don't remember if that was the name of it back then or not...)....anyway, at some point, myself along with 3 other scouts, took the boat out for a sail on the Pamlico.  So we sailed down river...which also happened to be down wind.  we had all of course been through lots of training and practice...and knew the theory behind how to tack....

but

we couldn't get back.

and to make matters worse, one of the scouts bonked his head very bad with the boom on one of our attempted tacks.  Knocked him into the water as I recall...but my memory is a bit fuzzy after all these years.  We went into good scout mode.... teamed up and tended to him while me and the other scout maneuvered the boat closer to shore, where we could jump in and wade pulling the boat back to the dock.

 

Honestly, the only memory I have of other badges were how "lame" they all were...very controlled and no fun at all....

I remember doing the shooting badges and being bored our of my mind with such limited opportunity to really fire and practice, having grown up hunting with my dad I already knew ho to shoot....  and there was nothing here that helped me to either improve NOR have fun....

Edited March 19, 2018 by blw2

[fred johnson]

The more I think about it ... it's not the badge.  It's the successful connection with the scout and making it meaningful.

But I do very much like the badges that the scout can't get elsewhere.  Too many of our "required" badges have major overlap with school.  IMHO, I'd like to see SMs have the option to switch badges for the scout if he and the scout agree the badge doesn't have much meaning for the scout.  IMHO, I'd much rather have the scout earn meaningful badges.  

Example - Most 17 year old high school seniors find all the citizenship badges extremely simple and automatic badges.  IMHO, I'd like the scoutmaster to have the option to switch something out for them that would make the experience more meaningful.  Maybe Citizen of the Nation is meaningful for an eleven year old scout, but it's shallow for a 17 year old scout ... hopefully if our school system is worth anything.

 

[fred johnson]

2 minutes ago, blw2 said:

... being bored our of my mind with such limited opportunity to really fire and practice, having grown up hunting with my dad I already knew ho to shoot....  and there was nothing here that helped me to either improve NOR have fun....

BSA should focus on addressing this.  This is the most common experience with merit badges.  It gives scouts a bad name and it gives MBs a bad name.  This needs to be fixed.  

My sons have had this experience too.  MBs that are mostly lecture and little activity.   IMHO, it's like the canoe merit badge should be taught mostly while canoeing.  Golfing should be mostly taught while holding a golf club and golfing.

[mashmaster]

For my son it was easily Aviation.  He got to go up for a flight and they handed him the controls.  Between the hands on of doing the preflight check and flying, nothing even comes close.  After that it is the usual: shot gun, rifle, archery, blacksmithing, and lifesaving (The instructor was a very cute co-ed in a bathing suit, the 4 boys just drooled the entire time)

Funny, the most hated merit badges are the Eagle ones.....  Cit in ...  Family Life

[walk in the woods]

Beekeeping!

[DuctTape]

Wilderness Survival; the experience of trying out the different techniques to learn was great. But the best part was how the counselor tested us, we actually went on a 2 day trip and used the skills and knowledge. As we demonstrated a skill he would sign it on the blue card. If we needed to discuss, he would ask us questions as we were doing it. He was skilled enough to go through all of the requirements with each of us without us realizing he was doing it. It was only looking at the experience after the fact that I came to the realization. He gave us back our signed blue card and paper with a comment/note about each requirement. I still remember for one he wrote, "cool shelter. great use of surroundings". 

[NJCubScouter]

It's a little hazy after more than 40 years, but I think my favorite may have been Public Speaking.  (Don't make fun of me.)  I think that is because it was something I was already very interested in, was involved in my high school debate/public speaking team all four years, had already won awards in it, etc.  So it was really applying knowledge and skills that I already had to a set of requirements, so maybe it wasn't the MB that I got the most out of, but it was one of my favorites. And the counselor was pretty good.  (I laugh a little when I think back on it because I remember that it was just me and him, a 30-35-ish year old man whose kids were too young to be Scouts, and me a 16- or 17-year old, sitting in a room in his house, no buddy, no nobody.  Different times.)

I remember liking Architecture as well, and that was probably because I had a very good counselor. (My father.  He was SM or ASM my entire time in Scouting and was an MBC for a number of badges, but that was the only one I got with him.

The rest of them are just part of the blur of the past.  I liked camping, but the Camping MB itself does not really stand out, probably because it is just what I was doing in Scouting anyway. (I think I probably got about 15 MB's, so I am a Life for Life.)

As for my son (who did make Eagle, and under current rules would have received one palm as well), he liked Aviation - though some very heavy fog on the day he was going to take his flight (which is not required for the MB) kept everybody on the ground.  (It was probably the heaviest fog I have ever seen.  It wasn't really safe to drive, much less fly.)  He liked the Law MB, although unlike his father, there was no possibility that he was going to go into that profession.  I assume he liked Engineering, since he was already heading in that direction as far as a career.

Edited March 19, 2018 by NJCubScouter

[Jameson76]

Railroading.  There was a clinic.  We did some prep work, then some class review.  Then went to downtown, got on a train, did more MB stuff as the train rolled along.  They has some RR enthusiast along

[Jameson76]

1 hour ago, mashmaster said:

Funny, the most hated merit badges are the Eagle ones.....  Cit in ...  Family Life

Because certainly that is why every 11 year old eagerly joins Boy Scouts;  just hoping and hoping to be able to:

• Attend a city council meeting
• Have a family meeting
• Make a 12 week budget
• Keep a list of chores
• Write your representative

Edited March 19, 2018 by Jameson76

[SSF]

I remember having fun doing Pioneering. Lifesaving was the most meaningful for me though

[ItsBrian]

Easily EPrep. The last day or so at summer camp we did a fake “mass causality” scenario in the woods and we actually had to do first aid and carry them out on a backboard. I have to say, the other scouts in my class were fantastic actors.

[The Latin Scot]

Earning the Atomic Energy merit badge at the San Onofre nuclear power plant was incredibly exciting, but personally, my favorite was actually Mammal Study - I have always been a passionate naturalist, and so this badge was right up my alley. Same with Reptile and Amphibian Study, when I got to take care of a neighbor's pet tree frog for a month! And of course Reading was fun, since I have always been and always will be a major bookworm, so this was an easy and exciting badge for a reader like me to earn.

[Eagle1993]

 #1 By far lifesaving was my favorite.  I was a fairly accomplished swimmer but diving into a deep lake with 0 visibility to retrieve a 10 pound weight felt like an amazing accomplishment.  I still remember diving down ~10 feet seeing nothing but blackness and placing my body flat against the muddy bottom in an attempt to feel the weight.  Nothing stuck with me like that experience.

#2-45...remaining badges

#46 .... getting hit by a truck

#47....basket weaving.  I remember soaking the materials in water and spending hours at summer camp weaving a basket. I dreaded that class (as did the MBC).