Eagle Scouting - Page 2

MysticCat · #1 05-21-2007, 12:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by alum

Hate to brag (who am I kidding, I am so proud) that our son successfully completed his Order of the Arrow Ordeal this weekend! He collapsed due to exhaustion all afternoon as soon as he got home, but he was very excited for the couple of minutes he was awake.

Congrats to your son!! I still consider my ordeal weekend one of the most memorable and significant weekends of my life.

Meanwhile, my son moves to Webelos in a few weeks.

Peaches-n-Cream · #2 07-01-2003, 05:52 PM

I was a Brownie, and I loved it. It was so much fun. I earned some merit badges which I still have. I now wish that I had flown up to Juniors as my sister did. The Juniors had even more fun.

I really don't know about Eagle Scouts, but it seems like many successful people earned that distinction. I'm not sure if they are successful because of the skills they learned as Eagle Scouts, or if they had those skills and applied them to becoming Eagle Scouts. Either way, it seems to be a wonderful accomplishment.

Bro2B · #3 07-01-2003, 06:54 PM

I'm an Eagle Scout as well. I never regretted the time I spent in the troop. I earned mine when I was 14, and I had been in Scouting since I was in elementary school through Cub Scouts. As far as the benefits I derived from it , it made me a better man, but it really helped me develop my leadership qualities, since a requirement for the upper level ranks is to hold a position of leadership for 6 months or a year.

The most important lesson it taught me is personal responsibility and time management. That's cool your kids cheered - I cheered too, and got a full scholarship for it (which unfortunately didn't include housing, but covered tuition, including out of state, and books). Well, I guess I'm not saying that being an Eagle Scout made me a better cheerleader even if I did end up being a Div IA athlete on scholarship. But through my membership in NESA (National Eagle Scout Association) I was awarded a scholarship that helped pay for my housing. So that's a concrete benefit I enjoyed.

In my chapter there were a handful of other Eagles and I guess we kind of "flocked together," since we had that other bond in addition to our brotherhood. The biggest thing about Eagle is it is considered a big accomplishment and can open doors in terms of jobs, it tells you a lot about the strength of someone's character that they can stick to an arduous and at times, time-consuming task and in the end they can finish what they start.

Munchkin03 · #4 07-01-2003, 07:14 PM

I've never heard anyone say that they regretted being a Boy Scout--not even Mr Munchkin, who quit his troop because the guys there would say virulently racist and homophobic things, and it appeared to be getting worse. His predecessor, however, was an Eagle Scout--he wasn't the nicest guy, essentially he was a jerk, but the Eagle Scout thing was the best thing he had done during the time that I knew him.

As far as money, it depends on the troop. Boy Scouts as a whole tended to be a lot lower maintentance than the Girl Scouts.

FuzzieAlum · #5 07-01-2003, 08:16 PM

Omigosh! Carnation, your question actually brought the mysterious John Hammell out of the woodwork. For that alone, you better get your son into the troop!

carnation · #6 07-01-2003, 08:34 PM

LOL, FuzzieAlum!

Thank you, John, and thank you all for the great responses y'all are giving us. It's a big decision for us due to time commitments--our son is such an Eagle Scout type but he's already got football and band and church and that doesn't even begin to figure in all his siblings' commitments.

I knew if I just bluntly put the question out there, it was going to sound like, "What's in it for him and to heck with the intangibles"...we just got so frustrated when maybe 1 in 6 college admissions officers even knew what the Gold Award was. Or cared. We'd love for him (and his brothers) to go back into Scouting but it would be sad if all that came from his Eagle was a handful of certificates, which is about all the girls got from the Gold. I want it to be something special for him like you guys have described--both tangibly and intangibly!

macallan25 · #7 03-28-2007, 07:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by carnation

LOL, FuzzieAlum!

Thank you, John, and thank you all for the great responses y'all are giving us. It's a big decision for us due to time commitments--our son is such an Eagle Scout type but he's already got football and band and church and that doesn't even begin to figure in all his siblings' commitments.

I knew if I just bluntly put the question out there, it was going to sound like, "What's in it for him and to heck with the intangibles"...we just got so frustrated when maybe 1 in 6 college admissions officers even knew what the Gold Award was. Or cared. We'd love for him (and his brothers) to go back into Scouting but it would be sad if all that came from his Eagle was a handful of certificates, which is about all the girls got from the Gold. I want it to be something special for him like you guys have described--both tangibly and intangibly!

I'm not sure if we still do or not.......but Texas used to admit you on the spot if you were an Eagle Scout.

Betarulz! · #8 07-01-2003, 09:12 PM

As someone who had 7 (yes 7!) of his best friends from elementary school earn their Eagles, I can say this: make sure he is doing it for himself. When I look at my friends who didn't have pressure on them from parents, they enjoyed the process a lot more than those who did it because their parents pushed them to do it (those guys hated Scouts but their parents wouldn't let them quit, it was a constant battle, and while looking back they enjoyed the camps and stuff, there still is a lot of resentment about being made to do something). Now I doubt Carnation the master mom is a pushy parent, but if your son joins a troop where the Eagle is the rule rather than the goal it might make him feel that he is doign it just because everyone else around him is doing it.

I say let him join, but make sure he realizes that the only expectation is for him to have fun.

GeekyPenguin · #9 07-01-2003, 11:15 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by FuzzieAlum
Omigosh! Carnation, your question actually brought the mysterious John Hammell out of the woodwork. For that alone, you better get your son into the troop!

Just what I was thinking - when John makes a post that's not related to GCAdmin-ing, that means something is important!

Chop chop, carnation!

sigmanuzk · #10 07-28-2003, 12:13 AM

I'm an eagle scout. It was a blast and is something that you can be really proud of i mean only 2% of all the boys who join scouts will ever make eagle.

Some advice that i would give is to take your time, it's not a race to get the award ASAP. You have until you are 18 to get it and I think that you should definatly enjoy yourself and go at a moderate pace. All too often boys feel pressured into getting badge after badge, end up getting totally burned out and lose intrest.

Buttonz · #11 07-28-2003, 03:37 AM

My ex, who was my best friend first, earned his Eagle right before he turned 18.....he loved it. I remember many nights that I spent on the phone with him while he was planning out camping trips, etc that always seemed to fall on his head? One night he told me that no matter how challenging it was, or how much time he put into it, it was worth it 100%. I know that it gave him many good memories and friends! I say let your son go for it...if thats what he want!

carnation · #12 08-14-2005, 08:46 AM

I just remembered this thread because last night, our son was inducted into the Order of the Arrow! (As a Pi Phi, I was thrilled by all the "arrow" items he was given!)

Anyway, he's well on his way to Eagle rank and his younger brother is right behind him.

alum · #13 03-27-2007, 11:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by carnation

I just remembered this thread because last night, our son was inducted into the Order of the Arrow! (As a Pi Phi, I was thrilled by all the "arrow" items he was given!)

Anyway, he's well on his way to Eagle rank and his younger brother is right behind him.

My 7th grader was elected (not inducted until Ordeal) into OA a couple of nights ago. He also earned his Life Scout rank, one of the youngest in his troop to do so. He needs to slow down so he doesn't get earn his Eagle until high school.

As a Kappa myself and as a mother of a Pi Phi, I am really noticing all the Monmouth Duo symbols in BSA.

ΑΓΔSquirrelGirl · #14 03-28-2007, 12:05 AM

Boy Scouts are awesome...it's such a good, CLEAN way to have fun. My dad thinks he is still one (he's an assistant scout master, but he gets more excited about finding new campsites or mapping trails on his GPS than my brothers do...he has an outdoors obsession) and he made my brothers stay involved. Some of their best friends were from boy scouts and both will have about all the awards you can get to put on their resume (one has never missed a campout in three years, the other has missed a very few for health reasons) and I know it'll help in college. Eagle Scouts have built some really cool things for their projects around my home town.

On the other hand, I hated Brownies because all we did was fake-sew, decorate cookies, and watch the little mermaid. I wish now, though, that I hadn't been such a stubborn tomboy, because staying in Girl Scouts might've been a really good thing for me.

AGDee · #15 03-28-2007, 06:55 AM

I can update now too. My son earned his Arrow of Light at Blue & Gold in February and crossed over to Boy Scouts last week. I didn't think he was going to cross over. He's been fighting me about going to Cub Scouts for the last several years, but then always decided to do it again for one more year. Every year, I gave him the option to quit at the end of the year, with the understanding that if he committed to another year, he had to finish out that year (finish what you start philosophy).

I really didn't think he'd cross over. So, we went to our first Boy Scout Troop meeting on Monday, which was their semi-annual Court of Honor. I thought my son would find it incredibly boring, but he was excited about going and said it was a lot better than Cub Scouts. He liked being around the older boys. He's in 5th grade now. He never wanted to camp with the Cub Scouts after a couple bad day camp experiences and has never spent a weekend away from home without a parent around, but now he can't wait to camp. Go figure. I'm going into Boy Scouts determined not to take a leadership role. I'm not going to fight with him if he doesn't want to go to stuff then. I'm quite relieved to be free of my Assistant Den Leader and Advancement Chair duties. QUITE RELIEVED. I will support him if he wants to continue with Boy Scouts, but am not going to push him. The troop he joined also produces an amazing number of Eagles.

My daughter is now in 7th grade and is working on her Girl Scout Silver Award. She has unwavering dedication to Scouts.