fotoscout Posted June 23, 2003 Share Posted June 23, 2003 Peer mediation is a technique that is being taught in the schools around here. The kids learn to diffuse their own problems. It falls into the category of learning how to avoid confrontation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saltheart Posted June 24, 2003 Share Posted June 24, 2003 SEWING... I've said this for years, and even taught it (as I see it) from time to time.... Plain ol' sewing...like sewing on your own paatches so MOM doesn't have to do it. Or sewing a patch in your tent...or your pants or socks while on a hike in the outback. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
packsaddle Posted June 24, 2003 Share Posted June 24, 2003 KWC57, I owe it all to cuisine...nearly any one you can name. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matuawarrior Posted June 24, 2003 Share Posted June 24, 2003 Saltheart, ditto on the Sewing . . . Advance First Aid (First Responder or EMT) Matua Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dsteele Posted June 24, 2003 Share Posted June 24, 2003 Saltheart -- BOY DID YOU HIT A NERVE WITH ME !!!! It's a good nerve, so relax. I've wanted to create the Sewing Merit Badge for years, but just haven't had a chance to do it. When I was a kid, my mother quickly tired of sewing my badges on my uniform. It became a weekly project. So she taught me how to do it. I think we need a sewing merit badge, but for the sake of manly pride in young men, it should not be as easy as sewing on a new patch. I've taught myself how to sew and make quilts by hand for recreation and have made many of my wife's outfits and some of my own. Here are some of my proposed elements for the sewing merit badge I'd like to see: a) they should learn something about the history of fabric arts and sewing. b) they need to know the basic elements of hand-sewing. c) they need to know fabrics and their uses d) they need to create a garment for themselves or another e) They need to know how to buy fabrics, patterns and notions without looking like a fool. Stuff like that. It shouldn't be an easy badge. It also shouldn't be learned at summer camp. Has anyone looked at the requirements for Textiles Merit Badge lately? That one isn't easy either. But I have to admit that there's something to be said for the little feeling of glee I had when my wife saw me sorting through the ironing basket for the first time (I do the ironing around here.) She asked what my three piles were. I said 100% cotton, poly/cotton, and 100% poly. I listed them in reverse order according to ironing temperature. She said, "You're not even looking at the tags. How can you tell?" I was surprised by the question. She was surprised by the answer. The answer was "by feel." DS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mk9750 Posted June 24, 2003 Share Posted June 24, 2003 In my idea for the home economics MB, sewing would be a main requirment. I agree it should not be basketry level, and that's why I wanted to make it include more than just sewing. I'd include washing clothes, and ironing, and even grocery shopping. We have a boy in our Troop who is getting ready to go to college. He has to start in the summer, so he's just about ready to leave. I asked if he was ready, and he said that he was almost done packing, but he was waiting for his mom to finish the last few loads of clothes. I asked him why he was waiting for her and not doing them himself. His answer just SHOCKED me. "My mom won't let us touch the soap." Mom was so worried that Johnny was was going to ruin his clothes if he washed them himself, she wouldn't let him touch the soap, for Pete's sake! This kid is an Eagle Scout, yet when he goes of to college, I'm going to be worried about whether he can wash his own clothes. Sure wish I had the chance to get him through Home Economics MB! Dave, I do all of the ironing at my house, too. It was a deal my wife and I made before we got married. I detest cleaning bathrooms, my wife hates ironing. It's been a deal for 20 years now. I kind of like it: I set up the ironing board down in the basement all by myself and turn on a ball game. No one bothers me. And being able to brag that I do all the ironing has earned me a lot of respect with my wife's freinds. Their husbands aren't too happy about it, but, oh well! Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OldGreyEagle Posted June 24, 2003 Share Posted June 24, 2003 Please Please Please, no more talk about a Sewing merit badge, its unseemly and un masculine.... Now, what I think would be a good idea is the Tailor merit badge, (as they say on the food channel, presentation is everything) sample requirements would be a) they should learn something about the history of fabric arts and sewing. b) they need to know the basic elements of hand-sewing. c) they need to know fabrics and their uses d) they need to create a garment for themselves or another e) They need to know how to buy fabrics, patterns and notions without looking like a fool. (thank you DSTEELE) The badge would be a figure sitting on a bench with a needle in an outstreched hand with a thread Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mk9750 Posted June 24, 2003 Share Posted June 24, 2003 OGE, I'm betting you don't have much of a problem motivating your guys to get stuff done, do you? Nice going. Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fotoscout Posted June 24, 2003 Share Posted June 24, 2003 How about if we made the Tailoring MB the 1st badge that a new scout had to earn. It would be OK for him to be out of uniform until he earned the badge. To complete the badge requirements he would have to make a complete BS uniform. It would satisfy the affordable portion of the uniform question. And just think for a minute how good all those scouts would look in their own handmade uniforms. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saltheart Posted June 24, 2003 Share Posted June 24, 2003 OGE, ...it's unseemly and un masculine.... LOL...ahem....harumph................ Would it make a difference if males learning to sew used a much bigger needle? Would it be more...manlier...to use a very larger needle? I'm told by some that size matters........ (This message has been edited by saltheart) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eagle90 Posted June 24, 2003 Share Posted June 24, 2003 While not a new badge, I have always thought that Cooking should be an eagle-required badge. While most of us may never have a chance to save a life, or save the environment, etc., at one point in their lives every boy will eventually have to fend for himself and cook a meal. It sure helps to be able to cook yourself a good meal instead of relying on fast food or a constant diet of PB&J. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fboisseau Posted June 24, 2003 Share Posted June 24, 2003 As someone that worked in a department store that did alteration for suits in the Men's Department I would add to the Tailor merit badge the requirement to know how to properly mark a suit for alteration. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SR540Beaver Posted June 24, 2003 Share Posted June 24, 2003 eagle90, Careful buddy, you're stepping on some mighty big toes with that comment about peanut butter!!! I consider it one of the major food groups, right behind chocolate and coffee! LOL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dsteele Posted June 26, 2003 Share Posted June 26, 2003 Thanks all for the support of the sewing/tailoring merit badges. Now please indulge me by going into a little discovery channel bit of the differences between the two: Sewing is making seams that are pretty flat. It's an assembly process. It's important in putting badges onto fabric, sticthing two or more pieces together, etc. Ladies were most often seamstresses. Sewn garments include most ladies dresses, napkins, handkerchiefs, skirts, etc. A tailored garment is much more complicated. These are more like sculptures. Try to get a man's (or woman's) suit jacket or blazer to lie flat. They don't. There's shaping and 3-dimensional seams. Tailors know how to mark suits and make the alterations. Seamstresses (or seamsters) hem them up. That's why you find tailors in fine menswear stores and alterationists or seamsters or seamstresses at the medium stores, and people who don't know what you're talking about in stores that let you walk out with the label still sewn on the seam. So now, I guess I'm proposing two merit badges -- Sewing (I like the enhanced idea to include laundry and cleaning) we'll need a different name. How about "Laundry" that could cover all aspects: minor repair of garments, washing, drying, ironing, basic fabric content, etc. And then the mighty, noble, honored tailoring -- making a garment, altering an existing garment, a tour through a fabric store, interviewing a tailor, or a 4 hour observation of one at work . . . Now we're sewing with thread DS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob White Posted June 26, 2003 Share Posted June 26, 2003 I like many of the points brought up but as Cub Scout advancement requirements not as Merit Badges. Keep in mind that the main purpose of the merit badge program is to introduce scouts to areas of interest that could become a career or life long hobby. I feel if you haven't been taught good manners and social etiquette before you are 11 years old it's probably too late. Sewing used to be a Wolf requirement. I know because it was the first skill my Den Mother (my mom) taught all of us. With 5 people in the house in scouting there was no way she was going to do all the rank, temporary activity badges, etc. herself. I have done all me own sewing since I was 8 years old. The same with laundry. My son started learning to do laundry in first grade. It should be or maybe is a cub requirement. Peer Mediation as a hobby? HMMMM, sorry don't see that catching on . Sorry DS (as they say in the TV ads 'I luv ya man")but I dont see enough scouts choosing a tailoring MB to justify the expense of making the badge. As far as martial arts, unless karate comes off the prohibited activities list you will not see a karate MB. Judo however is approved for the Sports MB. I would offer Caving as a new MB. my 2 cents, Bob White Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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