Merit Badge Counselor Instruction Styles

[qwazse]

Okay, here's an excersise for former scouts or older scouts. It might be a fun reflection and fire the brain cells in a different direction. (But, it may mean leaving your terminal for a bit.)

 

1. Go find your merit badge sash (or blue cards if you were really that much of a pack rat).

2. Look over each badge and try to recall your MBC and how he/she instructed you.

3. Post some of your memories (methods you liked/didn't like, what worked/failed).

4. I'm trying to think of a fourth step, but it wouldn't spell anything anyway.

 

That's it. Have fun.

[shortridge]

I've found that the badges I remember most clearly all had lots of hands-on work.

 

Lifesaving - The instructor was a big burly summer camp lifeguard who believed in water time - very little standing on the side listening to him talk. We surface dove for those weights again and again, and had to wrestle out of his death-grip for rescues. Hardest and best MB I've ever done.

 

Wilderness Survival - Again, lots of hands-on work coupled with an incredibly memorable overnight. The instructors were young first-year staffers who shouldn't have been teaching it anyway but nevertheless knew their stuff (one later became National OA Vice-Chief).

 

Computers - For several weeks, a Scout friend and I visited a neighbor of his who was a tech guy at a local chemical company. We wrote BASIC code, he showed us his laserdisc player (cool!) and we visited and toured his company and saw the gigantic tape recorders turning, looking like something out of WarGames. It was great - hands-on and real-world.

 

Environmental Science - An awful experience. One utterly bland instructor for about 40-odd Scouts crammed into the nature lodge at summer camp. The only reason 95 percent of the Scouts were there was because it was Eagle-required - there was no attempt to make it interesting. I was so uninspired I didn't do the observations and never earned the badge.

 

Basketry - By far, the instructor* of this merit badge was the best I've ever had. He was on top of his game, knew his stuff and inspired his students to greater heights. He managed limited resources (two stool-weaving kits for a group of 20 Scouts) and put on a truly excellent class.

 

=====================================

 

* Me. I had to learn myself Basketry in about an hour, having never done it before being assigned to "teach" the class as a summer camp CIT. I got a big boost of self-confidence, but I'm sure the class was atrocious for the students.