Scout to Merit Badge Counselor Ratio

[John-in-KC]

I’d report this event to the local council Advancement chair and if applicable, the host council Advancement chair.  What is described is simply not acceptable. 

At an out of district event once, I was asked to “teach” and sign off on a MB in two hours.  I asked coordinator if he was nuts. He told me this was what they promised the youth.

i told him goodbye. 

[qwazse]

@Summitdog, I was hoping you were asking because you were a soon to be counselor hoping to get it right, and not another victim of some wannabe counselor who didn't ask any of us how to set boundaries on his session.

Boys like yours are especially why we want patrol based and individual based counseling. When I was a scout, Environmental Science took a couple of hours of counselor time. I loved the sciences, but as a kid I had no patience for books. I watched nature shows and went out in the woods looking for the things they presented. We had woods and streams and lived on a hillside so erosion experiments were second nature. So, by the time I took the badge at camp, I sat down with the counselor and told him everything I knew no worksheet involved. He then told me that instead of coming to class, go find a spot in the woods for an hour or two and note everything that I saw and heard. (This was before buddy system, and it amazed me the critters that drifted by when it was just me.) I came back the next day, watched a few demos, did some service projects, and shook the counselors hand at the end of the week. Little if any paper was wasted in the process. And that is the one life skill that I got out of that badge ... going out and sitting and listening.

I hope your son finds a counselor and buddies who will help him do just that.

Edited January 12, 2019 by qwazse