Ok, now tell me why you didn't go to Eagle

[yarrow]

Everyone has a story. Many are Life for Life, an achievement in itself. There are probably some common reasons a boy does not go all the way to Eagle. Lack of strong parental support is probably the greatest reason boys don't finish. When I hear parents speak proudly of their multiple Eagles I am guessing that these boys were well supported and encouraged.

 

Please don't read this wrong, I am not saying pushed.

[NJCubScouter]

I can't, it's too painful. I am one of those Lifes-for-life. Basically I made at least a semi-conscious decision, sometime after I made Life (at about 15 and a half) that I was going to devote my time to other pursuits both inside Scouting and outside Scouting, and not put in the work necessary to get the remaining merit badges or do the project. It was a real disappointment to my father, and from time to time I STILL hear about it (and I am 46 years old!) I never really regretted it until I had a son in Scouting, especially after he crossed over to a troop. I have realized it would have been a better example for him if I had that Eagle knot on my uniform. However, this was not something I was thinking about when I was 16 or 17. I wish it had been.

[NJCubScouter]

Oh, and if it wasn't clear from my first post, "lack of strong parental support" was definitely NOT a problem in my case. My father was Scoutmaster for all but a couple months after I made Life, and was very interested in me making Eagle. (He made Star, back in the day.) On the other hand, he did not "push" me, either. He did what a parent should do, no more, no less, and left the choice up to me, and I made it. (That isn't to say he didn't ask me about it several times when I was 16 and going into 17, but it didn't get to what I would call "pushing." Maybe if he did "push" I would have done it, but then in a way it would have been his Eagle, not mine.)

 

Fortunately for me, my younger brother is an Eagle. That probably eased some of the disappointment. I am hopeful that in about 3 or 4 years my father will be able to attend an Eagle COH for my son, but... well, let me leave it at that. I'm hopeful.

[OneHour]

Quit after 2nd Class. Didn't have the money to continue. Both of my parents worked day and night to support 6 kids. We were barely settled in the States for less than three years. It was not fair to my folks for me to continue an activity that took resources away from the family, eventhough,I worked hard to pay for my ways to camps, selling candies, etc. My dad didn't mind at the time, but I did. Although, I did wish that he had time to spend with my brother and I. Looking back, my parents did a darn good job providing for 6 kids through some of the toughest times in our lives.

 

Man ... the kids nowadays have it great and have everything! All they have to do is to take advantage of it! It's too bad that a lot of them take these gifts for granted.

 

 

 

[bluegoose]

Being someone who almost didn't earn his Eagle, I feel that I can shed some light on this topic. My father often encouraged me and my brother to earn our Eagles, and would often lament how he dropped out at the rank of Star. While he never [overtly] pressured us to earn Eagle, I was constantly aware of hiw dissapointed he would be if we didn't. For this reason (I didn't want to dissapoint him, but felt it was overbearing at times) when I was a senior in high school, I decided that I was not going to earn Eagle. About two thirds of the way through the year, I (after speaking to many camp staff freinds who are Eagles) changed my mind, and decided that I was going to earn my Eagle. After a last-minute scramble to finish everything (including all of the personal fittness MB)I finally got my book turned in, and passed my BOR about a month after my 18th birthday. I feel that in addition to a lack of parental encouragement, another important factor is a feeling of 'suffocation' by boys who are subconsciously pressured to earn Eagle, and decide to simply not earn it in order to be 'individual.' Unfortunately, I'm not aware of a good soultion to this problem (if anyone has suggestions, I'd love to hear them.)

 

Peace always

[John-in-KC]

Life for Life. Short version why: Program in 68-74 time didn't facilitate advancement 1st Cl--->Eagle as it does now(This message has been edited by John-in-KC)

[Aardvark]

Was 3 merit badges short from my Eagle, one of which was swimming.

 

Was in Alaska at the time; sorta hard to go swimming (even in the summer!)

 

And a lack of ambition...

 

Now I moan the fact I didn't apply myself to the task...

[Eagledad]

Hi all

 

Great question. I am a Life lifer. But I guess I'm one of the few that have no regrets. Honestly I can't imagine how it would have changed my life more than what scouting already gave me. I've had, and still have a wonderful life with a family that many can only dream. Could I have done better? Sure, who doesnt have regrets? But I didn't get a 4.0 (barely a 3.3) in high school either and I still earned a degree in engineering.

 

I was a scout from age six to nineteen (Lion to Scuba Explorer) and loved every minute of it. I think I am a recipient of what the program was design to give. I was one of three adults who developed our present Troop. We all had about the same positive scouting experience in our youth and we and tried to duplicate that in the new Troop. We were shocked at the attention given to the Eagle. I guess we all came from that 70s program just mentioned. Not that we didn't think it important, but to us the Eagle was a result of a good program, not the cause.

 

Eagle is very admirable and they have my deepest respect. I've yet to meet an Eagle I didn't feel represented its honor. But have I've met a few proud Eagles who hated their scouting experience. Whatever their rank was when they finished scouting, I hope my scouts never have reason to cringe when they look back on their scouting experience.

 

Have a great scouting week.

 

Barry

 

[SMT376Richmond KY]

Life for life like many others enjoyed the outdoor program in the 70's alot. I was involved in football and then the three G's (guns, gas and girls). I did manage all the merit badges for Eagle just quit without doing my project as Scouting wasn't as much fun anymore as the three G's were at the time. Besides the Troop didn't go camping as much anymore. In fact, they didn't do much high adventure stuff either for those of us over 16.

 

Now my sons just about ready to sit for his BOR for Star. He say he wants to make Eagle but that's up to him. I hope he does. Looking back I wish my dad would have encouraged me a little more. He wasn't involved in Scouts as he was disabled and in the 70's you hardly saw disabled folks involved in Scouting.

[German_Beaver]

There seems to be a lot of us Life for lifers out here. I had all of my merit badges for Eagle, but not my service project. To make a long story short, I moved from a very active/productive troop to a very small/unproductive troop as a Star scout ready for advancement to Life. I was instantly the most experienced scout in the troop and was looked at to be in charge of almost everything. I did not see eye to eye with my Scoutmaster. I dropped out.

 

Looking back, I regret not following through with to Eagle. I had great parent support when I was a Cub(father Cub Master, mother Den leader), but as I got older, I was left more on my own to persue scouting. If I had known what I know now, I would have contacted the district or council office to ask for advice before I dropped out, but I did not.

 

I do, however, realize how much I gained from scouting and I still have a love for it that I am estatic to see in my son(Wolf scout). The values that I learned in scouts have guided my life and the skills that I have learned have a given me great variety of interests.

 

As I get back into scouts with my son, I hope that he follows through to Eagle. He has talked with a few Eagle scouts and has said that he hopes that he is one some day(but that is an eight year old talking). I will be there with him the entire way as a scouter/volunteer. I hope that he gets as much out of it as I do.

[Eamonn]

Eagle Scout is as far as I know the top rank only in the BSA. I was a member of the Scout Association in the UK and did reach Queen Scout, which is the highest rank over there when we have a Queen, when we have a King, it changes to King's Scout.

At this time I am the father of a Lad who has been a Life Scout for a very long time. As his only American Uncle is an Eagle Scout and his American Grand Dad was an Eagle Scout, his mother is really pushing for him to make the grade.She has gone as far as buying the napkins and has the guest list ready for his Eagle COH.

He has everything done and is a really good Scout. He has at his disposal an outstanding net work of people who are ready and willing to help and support him, but he still needs to do the Leadership Service Project. He is too busy doing other stuff right now and when he hasn't been too busy has gone through periods of idleness. He tells me that he is going to do it when he gets time. I think he will. If and when he does I will be a very proud Dad.

If for some reason he doesn't, he will still have been a good Scout and will have got a lot out of Scouting. He has already voiced the idea that he would like to be a leader and does like working with Scouts. He will be 17 in July. I kinda think that he might wrap this up before the Jamboree, but that's up to him. He knows that I think that this is his goal and his Eagle if he wants it he has to go for it.

Eamonn

[Lenape]

I'm a Life for life. I was in Scouting from 1965 until I turned 18 in 1971. I have no regrets, and am now the proud father of two Eagles, and have been active in Scouting since they were Cubs.

 

Yarrow hit in on the head. In my experience, most boys make Eagle who have strong parental involvement and support. My father worked two jobs 7 days a week. I love him, but finances were such that he couldn't be there for me in

Scouting. Neither could my mother. They never discouraged me in Scouting in any way, just that I never got any of the support and involvement that boys who made Eagle did.

 

John-in-KC is also right on the money, and he put it very diplomatically. The advancement program of today is much different from that of 35-40 years ago. What I am about to say is definitely not meant as a complaint or criticism in any way, I'm just stating what I have observed.

 

When I was a youth, there was no such program as "First Year-First Class." There wasn't even a Scout rank, the first badge you could earn and sew on your uniform was Tenderfoot. In our troop, which no longer exists but was successful in my time, boys advanced on average a rank per year. In the six years I was in my sucessfully run troop, we had only three Eagles. If my faulty memory serves me well, two were high school seniors (17), and one was a junior (16). Eagles younger than that were unheard of. One of our Eagles had a father on the Troop Committee, and another had a father who was an ASM in the troop. So I have to agree with Yarrow; parental support and involvement makes a crucial difference.

 

Aside from rank requirements being much different than today (I had to do three 5-mile hikes for second class, and stars were required for first class, among others), merit badges were handled different, and requirements were different. I went to scout summer camp for four summers. Always for two weeks. Every troop then went for two weeks. So the merit badge programs were set up for two weeks. You couldn't earn many in less than that. Now, most troops go for summer camp just one week, and as such the camp's merit badge program is set up for completion in one week. Just a few years ago I overheard an adult of similar age to me complaining that boys were earning Lifesaving in one week, and when he was a youth it couldn't be done in less than two weeks. I remember that too, but I'm not complaining; I understand the changes that have occurred over the years, and why the changes are necessary. Also, when I was a youth, Lifesaving was required for Eagle, not an either-or with Emergency Preparedness. If you couldn't do Lifesaving physically (which I couldn't), you couldn't do anything else and so couldn't get Eagle. I know many Eagles who get Emergency Prep because they are hesitant to go for the physical challenges of Lifesaving, even if they get Swimming. And when I was a youth, Swimming was required, not either-or with Hiking and Cycling. Similarly, Personal Fitness was a required badge, and the requirement was meeting the 50-percentiles. For a number of years, Personal Fitness wasn't required. When it was brought back as required in 1999, they changed the requirements: Meet the 50 percentiles after a 30-day program, or show improvement over personal best after a 90-day program. My sons, as well as most recent Eagles I have known, have done the 90-day personal best improvement requirement, and not the 50 percentiles. And when I was a youth, there was no way to apply to council for alternate badges or requirements (at least not that I remember).

So I didn't make Eagle because no one was supporting me to go for the remaining five "hard" badges: Swimming, Lifesaving and Personal Fitness (too physical for a non-athletic overweight kid), and Conservation of Natural Resources (what became Environmental Science) and one other than skips my mind right now (Nature?), because they were considered the "hot and dirty" badges to get.

 

I had a great time as a scout, and count going to the 1969 National Jamboree as my highpoint. I was proud to make Life (a month before I turned 18), and was proud in my last year to be JASM.

 

If I have a criticism of today, I would say that there is a much greater emphasis on making Eagle now than there was when I was a boy. And I think the numbers reflect that: Approximately 49,000 Eagles a year out of a registered Boy Scout membership of approximately 1 million. That's almost 5% a year, which is much higher than the maybe 2% a year when I was a youth. While all Scouts should be encouraged and supported to go as far in advancement as they want, neither should they be made to feel that anything short of Eagle is failure.

[DougWaterfield]

 

Count me as another "Life for Lifer". I did have parental encouragement up to a point. My dad was our Scout Master and I can never thank him enough for doing that. We even went through an Ordeal together and joined the OA. Over the last few years I've certainly learned a lot about what he did for my brother and I.

 

I say "up to a point" because I think my father burned out on Scouting. We had an active troop, one of those that was mainly interested in camping over merit badges and rank. For several years we were doing really well and were growing. Then we seemed to hit a slump. We had a number of the older Scouts leave the troop. Very few new members were joining. My dad had a falling out with his ASM. In a few months the troop just folded up and was gone.

 

I think my Dad under other circumstances would have fought harder to keep it going. It probably didn't help that my brother and I were both getting into other things. I recall being very upset about it, though, and having a long talk with my dad about wanting to make Eagle. He said that I could try but that it would be really hard and besides I would have to go through a board that might dispute some of the troop's records. Looking back on it, he may have been trying to challenge me but it did not seem that way to me at the time. I gave up Scouting and concentrated on school-related activities.

 

I regret very few things in life, but I do regret that decision. I don't blame my dad for it but I do wish he had been a little more encouraging at that point. I don't think it would have taken much for me to keep going.

 

Now that my older son is a Cub and my younger son is dying to become a Tiger, I find myself thinking a lot about how I will deal with it when they want to quit Boy Scouts. I'm sure the day will come when it is no longer cool and there is a sport or activity that they want to pursue that gets in the way. I'm not sure how I'm going to handle it. I won't force them to stay in but I don't want them to look into their sons' eyes someday and wish they had earned their Eagle.

 

 

[Hunt]

Somehow I just wasn't able to get those last 20 merit badges...

 

Seriously, I dropped out of Scouting after about a year when it stopped being fun.

[yarrow]

I remember talking to one older gentleman at a COH for Eagle who said he just couldn't pass semaphore............Wow that has not been required in a long time.