By all means, support him and help him go for it!! It is a big deal.
No, it probably won't get him college or grad school (although you never know whether it might be the thing that makes a difference between him and the other guy), but it will help if he's up for scholarships or the like. It will tell others (like scholarship committees) that he has integrity, is not afraid of hard work, understands the need to be involved in the community, is well-rounded and has interests beyond the books, and can plan a project, direct others in carrying it out, and can see it through to completion.
And those are just the "tangible" benefits. The "intangible" benefits -- the self-confidence, life-skills and experiences -- are, as the ad says, "priceless."
Yes, I agree that "award factories" can be off-putting. But the reality is that a
very small percentage of Boy Scouts make Eagle. (I think it may be less than 5%.) While this troop may turn out lots of Eagles, that certainly is not the case nationwide.
And it may be a terrible thing to say, but in my experience, Eagle Scout is treated as a class all on its own -- you're right when you say the Gold Award in Girl Scouting isn't considered on a par with Eagle. Pop Quiz: Ask twenty random people what the Gold Award is. Then ask twenty random people what the Eagle Scout award is. I'm willing to be you'll get lots more correct answers from the second group than from the first. May not be fair, but its true.
Let me put it this way: Just two days ago, my brother-in-law, whose nephew is about to earn his Eagle, commented (without any prompting from me
) that I should be proud of earning my Eagle. Its not the first time I've gotten comments like that. I've known men in their sixties and seventies (including my father) who have commented that they still regretted not earning their Eagle. It's the only twenty-some year old honor that I would even think of putting on a resume. And in my office, I have only two "certificatey" kinds of things other than diplomas and a law license: my Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia shingle and my Eagle Scout certificate.
Rhetorical question: if he were in college and wanted to join a fraternity, would you ask "Of course it made him a better man, but will it lead to job opportunities or anything else concrete? "
Like I said, by all means help him go for it!!!