Resources for Family Life Merit Badge

[gjensentroop301]

Does anyone know of resources (powerpoint presentations, ancillary videos, etc.) that I can use to add some interest to my Family Life Merit Badge presentation (requirements one and two, in particular)

Thanks!

[mk9750]

gjensentroop301,

 

Are you a Scout working on Family Life, or a MB Counselor?

 

As a Counselor, I'm having a hard time figuring out why a Counselor would need to do a presentation. And I also am having a tough time seeing why a Scout would need resources like you describe. And any resources you may find would defeat one of the values of doing these two requirements: Contemplating what a family is and how you fit into it. No canned information can lead a Scout to those answers for his family.

 

If I am misunderstanding, let me know.

 

Mark

 

[gjensentroop301]

Mark,

Thanks for the reply, I should have been more specific. I'm getting set up to be a Counselor for the Family Life merit badge.

I have to say that I disagree with your conclusion, however. I think that I need some sort of presentation to get the scouts thinking about their place in their family. It's not a topic that many of them have given much deep thought to, nor is it one that I would expect that they have discussed directly in their family. It's also one that would lend itself to various glib answers to avoid having to give it serious thought.

So my question still stands, does anyone have any presentation materials that have helped them be a better Councelor for this Merit Badge?

 

Gary

[AnneinMpls]

Hi Gary, not sure what your background is in terms of becoming a Family Life Merit Badge Counselor.

Do you think Genograms or an introduction to Family Systems theory would help in getting them to think about their place in their family? Family Roles can be a good one to get started with - this theoretical model of the family grew out of research on military flight crews and how their success was dependent upon having someone who was technically talented, and one who provided a nurturing role to the crew - cf Family Theories by Klein & White. Mayhaps too technical...I did a presentation on Family Social Science as a career path for our GS Service Unit - it incorporated an introduction to social science research which is probably beyond the scope of the merit badge - give me your address and I'd be happy to send you the descriptions of the stations I had set up - they're in Word files. One of the stations was GORP as a model of a family Every family has someone in it who's a little nuts...

Peace out,

Anne in Mpls

[AnneinMpls]

I tried to email to you but your address bounced: "host unknown". Can you recheck the address you gave me?

Peace out,

Anne

[MaineScouter]

I am also a Family Life MB Counselor. I use the MB book. Everything, and I literally mean everything, you need is in that book. Remember, "no more, no less" when it comes to the MB requirements. Requirement #2 is my personal favorite: List 10 reasons why you are important to your family. That one, for some boys, is the hardest thing to do. It's amazing to watch a boy's face as he realizes that he IS important to his family. Gives me goosebumps!

 

MS

[mk9750]

gjensentroop301,

 

I may have been a bit more biting in my statment than I meant to be, but I did mean it. Although I accept that many of us will have different methods to get to the same result, I believe that it is more likely a Scout will benefit from thinking of these issues on his own WITHOUT prior input from me than if I told him how he should think by doing a presentation.

 

After the boy has presented his ideas to me, we spend some time talking about them. This conversation has rarely lasted less than 45 minutes for the first two requirments. I find it both amazing, and spiritually uplifting, to hear the revelations Scouts come to on their own about what a family is, and what their place in their own family is.

 

Just like MaineScouter, I find the most valuable lessons a Scout learns in this badge come from listing 10 reasons they are important to their family. When we first begin to discuss the requirments, I let them know that I view this as both the most important, and the hardest requirment of the badge. In every single case, Scouts have reported to me that the first 6 - 7 reasons come pretty easy, but they spent hours trying to come up with reason 7 through 10. It is this dificulty that I use to bring them to the realization that they are important. Let's face it: Everyone is important to his family becasue of his sense of humor. But how many kids would come up with "I'm important to my family because of my priciples: Without Scouting, there wouldn't be anyone in my family that my younger sister could look up to except my parents!" This was a real answer from the last guy who did the badge with me. And I don't think he would have come up with something like this without having to think of it on his own.

 

Being a MB Counselor is a tremendous job. The influence we have on maturing boys is almost frightening. Even though I may disagree about using a a canned presentation, I am sure that just by asking you are exhibiting the qualities that matter most: Concern and empathy. You'll be fine.

 

Mark