Issue 617 – September 24, 2019

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Hi Andy,

Every year, our council holds a “Merit Badge College” for Scouts. It’s done classroom-style and attendance is usually pretty good. Lots of Scouts show up, especially for some of the Eagle-required merit badges. But this year, there’s a new rule that we haven’t had before. The Council Advancement Chair is instituting a new stipulation; he’s put an age restriction on all Eagle-required merit badges. As one of the adult instructors on the faculty for this event, I asked about this ruling. I wondered if this was because we had a shortage of faculty, but learned that that’s not the reason. He told me it’s because “younger Scouts fall asleep in class,” and went on to tell me that, as “dean” of the merit badge college, he has the authority to set an age limit on group merit badge classes.

Can you please help me find the policy he’s referring to? As a registered merit badge counselor, I’ve never had younger scouts falling asleep in in any session I’ve ever led. (Name & Council Withheld)

The BSA policy is clear: Any Scout can earn any merit badge at any time up to the day before his or her 18th birthday (SCOUTS BSA REQUIREMENTS 2019, SKU 648914 [333216], page 28). The BSA is thereby prohibiting any arbitrary restrictions on any Scout wishing to earn a merit badge, including rank, age, or any other form of restriction.

Consequently, your Council Advancement Chair would be making a grave mistake in trying to set a merit badge restriction of any kind; there is no BSA policy that endorses this. However, the restriction at hand here isn’t about the merit badge itself—it’s about “classes” at a mass merit badge “college.” So if a Scout younger than the minimum age restriction imposed on registering for this “class” wishes to earn any Eagle-required merit badge, he or she simply goes to their Scoutmaster and states their interest, upon which their Scoutmaster will have a (brief) conversation with them and then give them a signed “blue card” and the name and contact information for at least one local registered counselor.

As for the Eagle-required “classes” being run at this “college,” most of them accomplish little beyond ending up with a “partial” and then having to seek out a local merit badge counselor to complete the requirements. To put this another way, this so-called “college” isn’t really in the business of helping Scouts earn merit badges; it’s in the business of dishing out “partials.”

Take Communication merit badge as a good example. So much of what it takes to earn this merit badge takes place outside a “classroom” environment that it’s literally impossible to complete it in a one-day “class” environment. The best a Scout reasonably can hope for is a “partial” on requirements 1c or 1d, 2a, 2b, 6, and—possibly, depending on the duration of the “class”—9. This means that all Scouts participating in a “class” on Communication merit badge will need to complete requirements 3, 4, 5, 7a or b or c, 8, and (most likely) 9, on their own with a second merit badge counselor. To be candid (speaking as a merit badge counselor for the past three decades), I don’t see how this two-step process contributes to building a solid relationship with any merit badge counselor! Is this important? Yes. One of the Methods of Scouting is adult association, which happens best when that adult isn’t holding forth standing in front of a chalkboard.

Let’s step back and take a broader look at Eagle-required merit badges and what can and can’t be accomplished in “classroom” sessions on a single day…

First, there’s a whole bunch of Eagle-required merit badges for which the majority of requirements involve “outside-the-classroom” work. In this category we have Camping, Cooking, Cycling, Hiking, Lifesaving, and Swimming.

For Emergency Preparedness, of the nine requirements, three (2a, 7a, and 8b) are impossible to complete in a classroom. Result: “Partial.”

Each of the three Citizenship merit badges has at least two outside-the-classroom requirements (Community: 5, Nation: 3, World: 2) for which no “classroom”-based work can approach. Result: “Partial.”

Family Life, Personal Management, and Personal Fitness each have a three-month time span, which makes them all completely inappropriate for a one-day “college” to offer. Result: Zero.

Environmental Science req. 4 involves out-of-doors observations of two separate and distinct study areas over an extended period of time. Result: “Partial.”

Among the requirements for Cooking are—guess what?—cooking: at home (req. 4), at a campsite (req. 5), and on the trail (req. 6). Result: “Partial.”

Sustainability asks for family involvement, a two-week run-time on req. 2-Food (a), and “outside” assignments for req. 2-Community (b) or (c) and Energy (b) or (c). Result: “Partial.”

Here’s the bottom line: Not a single Eagle-required merit badge can be completed in a single, one-day “classroom” session, even if that session ran all day.

This raises the question: Is this “college” in the business of offering Scouts the opportunity to earn Eagle-required merit badges, or the opportunity to earn “partials” and then go find and work with a follow-up counselor to finish up? The answer’s obvious.

It seems to me that the better event of this kind is to offer only merit badges that can indeed be completed and—ideally—to offer merit badges that Scouts don’t usually encounter at summer camp or on their own.

In suggesting this approach, I’m thinking of the great opportunity Scouting provides to young men and young women—the opportunity to learn about stuff they can’t learn about anywhere else—and Scouting offers over one hundred such opportunities.

Let’s wrap up by touching on the issue of “falling asleep” in merit badge “classes”…

I’m obliged to observe that this particular advancement chair is taking the easy way out by dealing with a symptom and not the real problem.

If Scouts are indeed “falling asleep” in their “classes,” this is the fault of the people running them; not the Scouts. What’s really needed here are session leaders willing to put their time and energy into developing syllabi that produce attentiveness and active participation instead of snores.

The learning process intended by the Scouting movement is the polar opposite of “schools” and “classrooms” and “classes.” In Scouting, learning occurs—and seats itself—when it’s kinetic, visceral, hands-on, involving, challenging, and creative.

When Scout learning devolves into classroom style, with an instructor yakking and young people expected to stay awake for this “spoon-feeding,” we need to hang up our neckerchiefs and go find something else to do.

“Teaching” in Scouting isn’t about blathering ad nauseam about ourselves, our self-proclaimed expertise, and our war stories. And it’s definitely not about providing all the answers and thinking that that meets the intent of each requirement.

We expect Scouts to use the EDGE method (Explain-Demonstrate-Guide-Enable), yet many of us have a tendency to use the BOO method (Blather On and On). We need to get the Scouts in our care involved, and nobody—nobody!—gets involved when all they’re doing is listening or watching. As one very wise friend once said, “You can’t teach a kid to ride a bike at a seminar.”

The best merit badge fair I ever saw was in California, at an annual day-long “Scout Expo” put on by the then-San Gabriel Valley Council. The Expo filled the infield at Santa Anita race track in the off season and—here’s the best part!—every single merit badge instructor was a Scout! Yes, certainly each merit badge session had a registered merit badge counselor, for sign-offs at the end. But the Scouts did all the teaching! This meant that all the learning and doing at the Expo was peer-based Scout-to-Scout.

Selecting what merit badges would be offered was simple: Can it be accomplished in a single day. And there’s a whole bunch that fits this single criterion, like Metalworking, Computers (this was in the early 1990’s, before this became Digital Technology), Basketry, Truck Transportation (these Scouts’ dads brought in two tractor-trailers and took the Scouts on a side-trip to a local truck terminal—but the Scouts did all the instruction), Chess, Disabilities Awareness, and a bunch more! So almost every single Scout went home with a signed-off blue card!

By the way, the Scout teams responsible for each merit badge made and brought their own teaching aids and also all the equipment they’d need, based on the number of Scouts that had signed up (in advance) for their merit badge. This included the PCs needed for Computers, and of course the tractor-trailers I’ve already mentioned.

Plus, there wasn’t a “classroom” in sight! Everything was done outdoors, because the adult volunteers provided all sorts of portable canopies, folding chairs, and benches to spread around the infield… But the Scout teams each set up their own area the way they decided it would work best.

What a great day for Scouting! Can your own council do something like this? Of course you can! It simply begins with “Here’s how we’re going to do things this year…”

Happy Scouting!

Andy

Have a question? Facing a dilemma? Wondering where to find a BSA policy or guideline? Write to askandybsa@yahoo.com. Please include your name and council. (If you’d prefer to be anonymous, if published, let me know and that’s what we’ll do.)

NOTE: Although these columns are copyrighted, any reader has my permission to quote or reproduce any columns or parts of columns so long as you attribute authorship: “Ask Andy” by Andy McCommish.