Does anyone here know a scouts that has earned............

[Mrw]

Theodore Roosevelt grew up before Scouting was started.

[scoutdiver]

o sorry, but I know there was a president who earned all the mbs in his tome

[scoutchallenge]

Then Teddy must have earned all that were available


he he he
I had to say it

[Scouting179]

The only US President who was an Eagle Scout was Gerald Ford. JFK made it to Star. I doubt either one earned every MB. This sounds like UFL to me (Urban Folk Legend).

[616kayak]

the scouts from my troop will tell you that I am quick to criticize some one who has earned a merit badge and does not know about 1/2 the info required to complete that badge. I remember I was at a Merit badge college and I saw an eagle scout who was about 15 who had about 60 merit badges. I asked him how many he had. I forget the number. I asked him if he still knew about all the badges. Of course the guy said yes. He had orienteering. I asked him what the color red on a map stood for and he didn't know.

Basically what I’m trying to say is if you don’t know something as basic as a badge then you do not deserve it. Yes, you may have earned the badge, but do you really think you deserve it?

[maricopasem]

There's an interesting thread in this one that seems critical of sports, team sports particularly. It sounds presumptuous. Maybe this "more worthwhile than thou" attitude is partly to blame for the decline in the number of Scouts.

If I were a boy in one of these troops I think I would have a hard time. I loved playing sports when I was a Scout and I was an Eagle with 4 palms. I think it went so well for me because I had leaders who cared about me and about encouraging me in everything I did that was worthwhile.

If I had someone giving me grief about sports taking me away from Scouts I probably would have bailed out of BSA early on.

[jr56]

My son earned exactly 100 MB. The most I know of personally. He also earned his Bronze Hornaday Award.

[maricopasem]

you may have earned the badge, but do you really think you deserve it?

Isn't that the operational definition? If "earning" doesn't equal "deserving", then what does? Are you suggesting there is some higher law of Scouting? Someone must go above and beyond the actual requirements, or retain every piece of detailed minutia for every requirement, in order to actually "deserve" the badge?

[ICanCanoeCanU]

Maricopasem - Here you again. You posted in May with a sour tune, then 4 months later someone else posted with a very general upbeat comment and then 2 weeks later again, you have to come back challenging an old previous statement? If this just your gig, to challenge posts?

No one is really presenting the "more worthwhile than thou" attitude that you claim people keep doing. Some have made a comparison between what is learned in scouting and sports (particularly team sports) with statements that most are still using skills they learned in scouts but are no longer playing sports. As for the statement that some in sports are taking away from scouts, yes, at times this can happen and although scouts allow it (and we know a varisity sports team would not), it can hurt a patrol or even the entire troop. Surely you can see that if a large number of boys are not on a campout due to sports, this can leave the other boys in difficult situations.
Example being - our troop has lost the SPL, ASPL, 2 PL's and 2 younger boys from the Sept & Oct. campouts because of sports and you bet this does cause disruption for the rest of the troop. Especially with brand new members that have joined.

I will not argue with you as to the value between these two activities nor will I debate your last statement but I do question your reasoning behind some of your posts.

[maricopasem]

nor will I debate your last statement

To which statement are you referring? Your post is in reference to an observation I made months ago, yet you add this comment at the end. Are you in agreement with the post made today or the one from months ago?

[616kayak]

My apologies, looking back, that was defiantly without a doubt, phrased incorrectly. I do agree that a scout who completes the requirements deserves a merit badge and simply failed in getting that point across to in my post. maricopasem I do not take any offense to your post.

What I meant is that a scout may have sat through a whole lot of quick classes and written a whole lot of paragraphs to fulfill requirements but, does the scout have a working knowledge of the subject that you will retain? This is because many MBC’s tend to not truly give enough practice time for a scout to really know what the answer to the requirement truly means. Just because a scout can memorize an answer and spit it out when the MBC asks him to doesn’t mean that he knows what he needs to know to be successful.

If you ask me it is more valuable for a scout to earn 21 merit badges and have a working knowledge of each of them than to earn 100 and not remember most of what he has learned.

I do agree that a scout deserves a merit badge and simply failed in getting that point across to in my post.