How did they do it?

[Mrjeff]

In 50+ years of Scouting I have only met one young man who earned every merit badge.  This young man is exceptional in every way and is on his way to the Olympics.   At the time, he was an older tean and had been in Scouting for years.  If he couldn't find a registered and legitimate merit badge councilor in his area he would travel to other parts of the country to find one.  Now, it seems that earning every merit badge has become the norm and I just read where two Eagle Scouts from the same troop have accomplished this.  I also read where one Scout did this in just over a year.   Wow, thats impressive but can someone explain how this is done,  especially if each councilor is an expert in their field and registered as a councilor?

 

[T2Eagle]

I know a kid who gets up at 5 o'clock every morning and goes to the rink to practice hockey.  Most days of the week he also goes after school or in the evening for more practices and games.  His parents are then willing to have the family, or some part of the family, travel just about every weekend to tournaments, camps, etc.

Keep in mind there is actually a team of kids, probably about 20 souls, who are doing this with him.

Insert merit badges for hockey, or swimming, or gymnastics, or spelling bee,  in terms of time commitment, and it doesn't seem that hard to get to all of them.

So the answer to how they do it is time, attention, and effort.  Is this "normal"? No, but in a great big country there's plenty of outside the norm.

 

Edited July 19, 2021 by T2Eagle

[Mrjeff]

Well, I agree that they can be really successful engaging in one activity.  But I don't understand how a expert in every subject covered in the merit badge program can be located,  all of the requirements met, and accepted by that expert who is a registered merit badge counselor.   Hmmmmm..................Environmental Science-Welding-Motorboating-Climbing-Personal Management-Rifle Shooting???????, 

[Armymutt]

There's a difference between "expert" and having the "skills and education" as required.  I'm a veterinarian, but far from an expert.  I'm still qualified to be a MBC for Veterinary Medicine, even if I haven't touched an animal in 2 years.  For the 6 you listed, 3 are hobbies, 1 is a basic adult skill, one is a common profession, and the last would probably require a bit of extra study on the part of the counselor.  I look at my paltry 22 MBs and 2 were taught by legally qualified people (Vet Science and Aviation), 2 were taught by folks in those fields (finger printing by a cop and firemanship by a fire fighter).  The rest were taught by people who learned it the best they could with the resources of the time period.  

[Eagle94-A1]

The rise of Merit Badge Universities (MBUs) has increased the number of MBs folks are earning. With COVID, Virtual MBUs with 100+ kids taking an online class has from all over the world has. Some folks recently were averaging 7.5 MBs per week. From what I have seen, experienced, and heard about, I got real questions about the thoroughness of these virtual sessions.

[sri_oa161]

Most MBUs have become a numbers game.  How many can we get through and how many badges.  Many of the instructors just talk through the requirements and as long as the Scout sits through it all, they are then "given" the badge.  The Scout goes in expecting they will be given the badge.  They have been taught this by their parents.  Have seen too many youth and adults who fully expect the Scout to get the badge just because they sat in on the class.  If the instructor tells them that they will have to do some work for it, then the Scout might start to argue back, but then come the parents.

With COVID there came an abundance of on-line courses from councils around the country.  Many from my area went on-line and took the classes.  Did they really learn the badge?  Probably not.  Did they earn the badge?  Most likely not.

It's become a give me-give me generation.  Don't have to do anything but show up.

There are still a few Scouts who will do the work, but not many.

[Eagle94-A1]

This topic has come up with the Scouts in my troop. One is so disgusted with the "merit badge inflation" that he is no longer considering  completing his Eagle because he believes it is meaningless now. The rest were ticked off at the the unbelievable number of MBs that folks got since COVID hit. Yet when you comment on it on other sites, you get attacked for raising questions and concerns.

And I also met someone with all 130+ MBs back in the day. It took him until he was 18 to do it though.

[Sentinel947]

30 minutes ago, Eagle94-A1 said:

This topic has come up with the Scouts in my troop. One is so disgusted with the "merit badge inflation" that he is no longer considering  completing his Eagle because he believes it is meaningless now.

My Answer to him is the same as the "I need Eagle for my College Application." The journey each Scout takes to earn Eagle is far more important than holding the award. If he decides it's not meaningful to him, he shouldn't bother, but that should be because he's prioritizing something else in life more meaningful, not because other people are taking shortcuts. Will he drop out of high school or college when he finds out classmates are cheating on quite literally every assignment? It doesn't matter what those people are doing. 

[BAJ]

I have a scout-daughter who has earned a lot of merit badges in a short time — nowhere close to all of them at this point, but more than 50.  She (and by saying she I am revealing the timeframe over which it occurred) has done them in all of the available ways: one on one with a counselor, a virtual one on one with a counselor during COVID, in person MBUs, camporees that had merit badge programs, summer camps, virtual summer camps with small class sizes (similar to in person camps), and virtual merit badge classes with large numbers of participants in the class (the 100+ example mentioned.)  I observed a sample of all of them in my leader capacity (or wandering through the room for the virtual ones in my parental one).

I don’t think I ever saw a good implementation at 100+ people, but it was my scout who said they were awful and that she wasn’t interested in taking anything from that Council ever again.  But for the rest there were good and bad, based entirely on the quality of the volunteer who was running them.  I have seen MBU classes that were extremely well thought out and covered badges well.  I have seen terrible ones, and ones done for MBs that were simply incompatible with doing in a couple hour class session.  I have seen ones with more contact time (the 5 hours or so of summer camp sessions or at a Camporee) that used that time to go in depth on some things in really productive ways (supported by real pre-req requirements that the scouts truly had to do or would end with a partial).  And I have seen ones that essentially had the scouts sitting around for a lot of that time because the class was so badly thought out.  And yes, I have seen amazing one-on-one MB counseling sessions and ones were so-so at best.

As a result, I think there is some categorical criticism that is valid — there may be merit badges that can be successfully and productively taught in an online class of 100+, but there aren’t many of them (only fingerprinting, perhaps?).  But for the other venues and class sizes up to a a point, it comes down to how much work went into actually doing it… 

And I also bristle a little bit about categorical criticism of scouts who “earned so many MBs during COVID.”  Sure, if they just stacked up sitting through 100+ person classes and now can’t remember the names of the badges they earned during that period that are on their sash, that is legitimate as an extension of criticism of that model.  But there were scouts (mine among them) for whom focusing on working on merit badges during COVID was part of what gave them a goal and mission during very tough time in their lives (which seems like a very good thing for Scouting as an activity to do).  And so if someone who had “something else they did during COVID” just looks at the number of badges they earned and decides there must be something fishy since they didn’t earn as many, that seems…. A bit off to me.

[Mrjeff]

If a person is educated in a specific area and has practiced that field professionally then I would consider that person an expert.  Weather the field be in medicine,  law enforcement, or nuclear energy.  Some merit badg councilors can get by with reading the book and covering the subject and doing the best they can, but others just can not.  I wouldn't  want Mr. Jones teaching on the subject of lifesaving, welding, or firearms unless he is truly qualified to do so.

[malraux]

A fair number of the esoteric merit badges are really basic introductions to a subject. Sure, the camping MB is a long term badge, but the painting or geocaching MB is easily done with pretty minimal work, or retention. 

[Mrjeff]

I guess I'm the only one who thinks thats its impractical and even impossible to legitimately earn every merit badge in just over a year.  I have seen Eagle Scouts who can't build a fire, tie a knot, or cook a meal.  I have also heard kids say that they can get a quick military promotion by earning Eagle.  Those who do the promoting expect those Eagle Scouts to know something and if they don't they find themselves in a less then favorable position.  Does anyone remember when an "Eagle Scout is a First Class Scout who has earned a specific number of merit badges?"  

[mrjohns2]

3 hours ago, Mrjeff said:

I guess I'm the only one who thinks thats its impractical and even impossible to legitimately earn every merit badge in just over a year.

I agree with you. I think it would be neigh impossible to do in 3. My daughter, who is very bright and hard working, agrees as well. For girls who got Eagle and 50+ MBs in covid in 22 months, hummmmmmmm…..

[BAJ]

[Deleted]

Edited July 20, 2021 by BAJ
Never mind. Not worth engaging.

[qwazse]

2.5 MB’s a week. If each MBC in your district counsels 5 or more different MBs, that’s 25 people to contact. Even without any “high-speed, low-drag” adults in the vicinity, it sounds doable for a scout who starts at a more mature age, and this is his/her sole hobby.

My wish is that one in ten of those badges sticks with the scout and forms a hobby or occupation for the rest of their life.