Remember the Skill Awards

[CHLees3rd]

Brotherhood's comment got me thinking about skill awards differently. I'm still pro-skill awards, but why did they go away? Did many Scouts and Scouters not like them? Are there any of them here who would not mind commenting? I know there has been research done that showed Scouts who did not make First Class within a year generally dropped out of Scouting. Were skill awards a major obstacle for them to make First Class? Since most of the skill award requirements are still in the current ranks, were the skill awards themselves causing Scouts anxiety and impeding their advancement? I'm just curious because I always viewed skill awards as a stepping stone to merit badges. I doubt they will ever return considering the new uniforms, but one never truly knows.

 

Chazz Lees

[Eagle92]

I do not know why they did away with Skill Awards as I was a Life Scout at the time, but I can tell you that there were a lot of ticked off scouts over the change. Those awards showed that you mastered basic scout skills. As an older scout, I and others didn't like the "new" advancement requirements because A) it did away with the time requirements which we thought were vital to allowing the new scouts to master skills and "quit acting like Cub Scouts," B) scattered the skills all over the ranks so that instead of allowing a scout to focus on one specific skill to master and adavance, they got bits and pieces of the skills, and C) made teaching a tad bit trickier b/c instead of PLs and Leadership Corps working on one skill at a time, we had to work on multiple bits.

 

Today I know of plenty of SMs and ASMs who still believe that SA should be brought back for the reasons cited above.

[DancesWithSpreadsheets]

Speaking just for myself, as someone who had to earn the required skill awards to get to First Class, I liked (and still like) the idea that you could focus on one set of requirements and earnd the recognition that you had acheived a certain level of mastry in the subject, and also had a springboard toward the related merit badge requirements.

 

What I didn't like were the beltloops. They were noisy and made it difficult to put on your belt. If you picked up your belt the wrong way they fell off. I'm pretty sure I stopped wearing them as soon as I got to 1C, if not sooner.

 

By all means, bring the skill awards back, but leave the belt loops for the Cub Scouts.

 

Regards,

 

DWS (whose Wolf Cub son refuses to wear the belt loops he's received, and no I had no input on that decision).

[emb021]

I earned skill awards and enjoyed them. I worn them until I went to Philmont and have been wearing a leather Philmont belt since.

 

what was also neat was other belt loops made for things like NOACs, Jamborees, some high adventure bases, etc.

 

when I was at the 81 jamboree, I met a group of scouts from Japan, who were impressed by my scout belt with skill awards on them.

 

[prairie]

I was given some of those belt loops when I was working on my 1st class, 2nd was earned under old system, I never wore the durn things, all I wanted was my 1st class patch, which was old pattern not the ovals of most of the 70s. Thing is none of the older boys who I looked up to had then so I didn't care either.

[BrotherhoodWWW]

Bitter, yeah whatever! Thanks Chazz for understanding what I wrote. I had to earn Skill Awards to make it to First Class. I liked mastering the skills part or I must have since I still have them. As a youth I was not advancement driven nor were my Scoutmasters, including my last one who was an Eagle Scout. I was all about the outdoor adventure. During my college years I served as an ASM and I do not recall folks in that unit especially liking Skill Awards. I moved away for college. As a youth I was in two vastly different Troops. Neither as I recall were anything other than hohum about Skill Awards.

 

From my viewpoint there is really not much difference between post '72 requirements and those of today. Skill Awards were started IIRC in"&@ when National butchered the program. We've been in decline since those times as our national population has increased. Even today the requirements for the skills do not say "do once and done" although sadly this appears to be what happens in some units and at some summer camps that offer T-2-1 fast track programs. When I compare the requirements over the revisions I see that they have progressively gotten much easier. I also see that as instant gratification has increased (instant recognition) so has the # of Eagle Scouts and advancement only programs. The purpose of Boy Scouts is not to make Eagle Scouts.

 

Ya'll have detailed some good points about Skill Awards. I just happen to not like them. Nothing bitter or even sweet about that! By the time boys are in Boy Scouts I think their attention span is a bit longer and does not need monthly awards to keep them coming.

[Eagle92]

B'hood,

I can understand about your feelings about the 70s, whoever decided to do away with traditonal scouting should have been fired, oh wait he was if memory serves. However i do like the skill awards, and it's the only thing I can think of that I like from that period, except the colored oval patches. I like those too.

 

Also agree with the 'do it and done" mentality. Seems like that is the case in a lot of units. I prefer the "do it, master it, teach it" approach personally. That is kinda how it was done with my troop. The did the Show Tell Do approach ( or was it tell show do) of teaching, then allowed you to do it on your on, earning the SA. Then you were expected to teach that skill. It would take some time to earn the SAs, not only a month if memory serves.

 

One thing I do have to comment on is membership. I agree with you that Urban Scouting of the 1970s nearly destroyed the BSA and only GBB coming out of retirement was the only thing that saved the BSA. I also think we are still seeing the repercussions of that with new leaders who were never involved in scouting and have little to no experience with the outdoors. But I honestly believe that we need to take past membership stats with a grain of salt because of incidents like Greater Alabama. I thik it was more widespread than was found. Also think the current stats are more representative of membership.

 

I can tell you that the district I served i as a DE 10+ years ago has more active scouts today than when I was a pro. I honestly believe is growing.

[duechtlands]

I was a scout during the 1980's. The scout master I had must have been an idiot. He gave us a choice of those or our merit badge. Also in my troop you had to show that you knew all the requirements to get the badge or loop. I also remember how much of a pain those things were to get through the loops on the pants. I do not know if any other scout masters were confused on what they were issue for. but that would explain why they disappeared.

 

I remember having to light a fire with two matches, proper hand ax handling, and some of the first aid you had to do. What turned me off to scouting is transferring and being forced to attend a catholic church to stay in scouts. Also a new scout master that would not give out merit badges even though you finished them. I turned away from it and never looked back till my son was of age.

[DarrenHood]

Looks like the Skill Awards started in the 1970's. I have read some of the changes they made back then had a negative impact on membership, or maybe it was just a sign of the times. Maybe Moms and Dads didn't want their boys going out into the woods wearing uniforms and insignias, when there were slightly older boys in uniform on TV and in the newspaper going out into the jungle and getting killed. Anyway, just my opinion, don't want to get political.

I joined in late 1989 and they were in the handbook as requirements up to first class (I still have my books). I earned at least 7, at least that's how many I have in my little cedar box. In the start of 1990 we used a new handbook that did not include the skill awards for rank requirements. I remember my scoutmaster saying that we could earn them as long as they were in the troop inventory or sold at the scout store, but there would be no more afterward. I guess it was kind of a good idea to give the newer scouts something physical they could easily earn and wear. Although the requirements seemed a little easier with the new handbook. I still have both my handbooks with my scoutmasters (R.I.P.) signature, up until first class in the old book, and first class until Eagle in the new book. Always bothered me a little that my accomplishments were split between two books, especially that I liked the artwork in the old book better (Norman Rockwell vs modern photographs).  Anyway, my son is now a 'Lion' and they earn something that is about he same size and shape. I did happen upon some skill awards at a flea market a few years ago and maybe they were 2 dollars each, but I passed on them not feeling all that great about buying someone else's award.

[RememberSchiff]

@DarrenHood welcome to scouter.com

[perdidochas]

On 6/15/2010 at 8:43 PM, BrotherhoodWWW said:

If Skill Awards are so awesome why is it that it seems to be such a poorly used feature in Cub Scouting?

Well, the Pack my boys were in up until 2010 (when they aged out) used the belt loops extensively.