# Boy Scout Merit Badges



## Snow Hill Pond (Aug 10, 2011)

I saw a story today indicating that the Boy Scouts are creating a new merit badge for "Game Design". Yes, that is a game controller on the patch:









I thought that this was a little strange until I saw the following merit badges that are currently available (in addition to the other more traditional badges):


Cinematography
Chess
Coin Collecting
Collections
Dentistry
Fingerprinting
Geocaching
Golf
Inventing
Nuclear Science
Stamp Collecting
Traffic Safety
Truck Transportation

What a strange collection of activities (for a boy scout). Thankfully none of these are required to achieve the rank of eagle scout.

https://www.scouting.org/scoutsource/BoyScouts/AdvancementandAwards/MeritBadges.aspx


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## tocqueville (Nov 15, 2009)

What's Geocaching?

I suppose it could be worse: Imagine boy scout merit badges from hell:
1. Meth cooking
2. Tattoo artistry
3. Graffiti tagging
4. Hacking
5. Passing information to Wikileaks

Seriously, though, I've always wished I had done scouting and intend to enroll my boys.


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## pleasehelp (Sep 8, 2005)

I was a boy scout. It taught me many skills which I still find useful. I think that giving young people a program to better themselves and earn recognition is a wonderful thing.


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## Shoe City Thinker (Oct 8, 2012)

tocqueville said:


> What's Geocaching?


It's treasure hunting using a GPS device.


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## Snow Hill Pond (Aug 10, 2011)

tocqueville said:


> What's Geocaching?
> 
> I suppose it could be worse: Imagine boy scout merit badges from hell:
> 1. Meth cooking
> ...


Yes, those are worse...but I'll admit that "Hacking" probably has more relevence today than "Stamp Collecting"...considering the USPS may be going under. Also, although a great sport, why does "Golf" deserve merit badge status? Why not tennis, baseball, bowling, or some other comparable activity?

Judging by the trend in activities that merit badges, there may come a day when a scout may attain the rank of eagle scout without ever having to venture outdoors.


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## Shaver (May 2, 2012)

Snow Hill Pond said:


> Yes, those are worse...but I'll admit that "Hacking" probably has more relevence today than "Stamp Collecting"...considering the USPS may be going under. Also, although a great sport, why does "Golf" deserve merit badge status? Why not tennis, baseball, bowling, or some other comparable activity?
> 
> *Judging by the trend in activities that merit badges, there may come a day when a scout may attain the rank of eagle scout without ever having to venture outdoors.*


:biggrin:

I remember my own tenure as a boy scout. Plenty of ligature, knives and discipline. Lovely.


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## Snow Hill Pond (Aug 10, 2011)

Shaver said:


> :biggrin:
> 
> I remember my own tenure as a boy scout. Plenty of ligature, knives and discipline. Lovely.


Funny, I cannot quite equate the Shaver of today with the young Shaver scout of yesteryear...

Growing up, I had a couple/three friends who probably had the skill sets to be eagle scouts...if they had chosen to become boy scouts and if they were allowed a special dispensation for the good citizenship criterion.


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## CuffDaddy (Feb 26, 2009)

I think many of those badges were available when I was in the Scouts, Snow Hill Pond, which was about 20 years ago.

Edited to add: 

OK, here's a page that lists all BSA merit badges, when they were offered, and also when they were dropped (if they were). Here's your list with dates of introduction


Cinematography 1990
Chess 2011
Coin Collecting 1938
Collections 1991
Dentistry 1975
Fingerprinting 1938 (this was the one I was SURE was around when I was in the Scouts)
Geocaching 2010 (but this seems like just a version of Orienteering, which has been a badge since 1973)
Golf 1976
Inventing 2010
Nuclear Science 1963 (but changed name from Atomic Energy in 2005)
Stamp Collecting 1931 
Traffic Safety 1962 (changed name from Automotive safety in 1974)
Truck Transportation 1973


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## Snow Hill Pond (Aug 10, 2011)

CuffDaddy said:


> I think many of those badges were available when I was in the Scouts, Snow Hill Pond, which was about 20 years ago.
> 
> Edited to add:
> 
> ...


Thanks for doing this CD. I'm struck by the attempts to branch out beyond the original intent of the Scouts...which I took to be outdoorsmanship and adherence to good citizenship. A couple of the mentioned badges seem superfluous to those goals (eg, Golf?), obsolete (eg, fingerprinting), or gimmicky (eg, Game Design).


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## rlfsoccerdad (Mar 28, 2008)

It may surprise some, but the mission of the Boy Scouts is not to create outdoorsmen, although there are some who believe that is the case. The general premise is that by getting youth in outdoor settings, you can teach them skills and principles that they will understand and then be able to use in their more "natural environment." The mission of the BSA is: "The mission of the Boy Scouts of America is to prepare young people to make ethical and moral choices over their lifetimes by instilling in them the values of the Scout Oath and Law." 
The Scout Oath is: 
On my honor I will do my best
To do my duty to God and my country
and to obey the Scout Law;
To help other people at all times;
To keep myself physically strong,
mentally awake, and morally straight.

The Scout Law is: 
A Scout is:

Trustworthy
Loyal
Helpful
Friendly
Courteous
Kind Obedient
Cheerful
Thrifty
Brave
Clean
Reverent

Note that there is no specific articulation of the outdoors in the oath or law. However, Baden Powell, the founder of scouts taught "We are not a club or a Sunday school class, but aschool of the woods." and "A week of camp life is worth six months oftheoretical teaching in the meeting room." and finally "Scoutmasters need the capacity to enjoy theout-of-doors." 

As a current scout leader (14-15 year old boys [Varsity] and 14-20 young men and women [Venturing]) I believe there is immense value in having an outdoor experience. First, the young people have fun, they are able to do hard things, and they are able to learn valuable lessons and skills, which I believe will help them be better young men and women. One of the best is the weeklong leadership trek we do every summer, we cover five core leadership principles: teamwork, vision & values, communication, planning, and decision making.



Snow Hill Pond said:


> Thanks for doing this CD. I'm struck by the attempts to branch out beyond the original intent of the Scouts...which I took to be outdoorsmanship and adherence to good citizenship. A couple of the mentioned badges seem superfluous to those goals (eg, Golf?), obsolete (eg, fingerprinting), or gimmicky (eg, Game Design).


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## Snow Hill Pond (Aug 10, 2011)

rlfsoccerdad said:


> It may surprise some, but the mission of the Boy Scouts is not to create outdoorsmen, although there are some who believe that is the case. The general premise is that by getting youth in outdoor settings, you can teach them skills and principles that they will understand and then be able to use in their more "natural environment." The mission of the BSA is: "The mission of the Boy Scouts of America is to prepare young people to make ethical and moral choices over their lifetimes by instilling in them the values of the Scout Oath and Law."
> The Scout Oath is:
> On my honor I will do my best
> To do my duty to God and my country
> ...


Thank you for this. I stand corrected. It just seems an appreciation of the outdoors is so intertwined with everything I associate with scouting that it was a natural assumption that that would be one of its core missions.


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## phyrpowr (Aug 30, 2009)

As an old Eagle Scout, and former Senior Patrol Leader, one of my outstanding memories of Scouting was when the Scoutmaster lined us all up before camping trips, searched our gear, and confiscated all the hatchets and axes. We were a veritable plague of locusts in our pursuit of Woodcraft. So many adolescents with so many edged weapons, and yet so very few injuries...hard to figure.


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## Snow Hill Pond (Aug 10, 2011)

phyrpowr said:


> As an old Eagle Scout, and former Senior Patrol Leader, one of my outstanding memories of Scouting was when the Scoutmaster lined us all up before camping trips, searched our gear, and confiscated all the hatchets and axes. We were a veritable plague of locusts in our pursuit of Woodcraft. So many adolescents with so many edged weapons, and yet so very few injuries...hard to figure.


It is strange. I remember my childhood and adolescence filled with many dangerous items: sharp tools, BB guns, hunting firearms (hung from gun racks in pickup trucks in HS), knives of various sizes, etc. Yet, I don't remember any injuries (accidental or intentional) from those items. But today, with almost all of these items politically incorrect, the world seems more dangerous for kids.


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## Shaver (May 2, 2012)

Snow Hill Pond said:


> It is strange. I remember my childhood and adolescence filled with many dangerous items: sharp tools, BB guns, hunting firearms (hung from gun racks in pickup trucks in HS), knives of various sizes, etc. Yet, I don't remember any injuries (accidental or intentional) from those items. But today, with almost all of these items politically incorrect, the world seems more dangerous for kids.


It is the 'power of nightmares'. Government has long since given up on guaranteeing us our dreams come true (having been patently unable to deliver) and now instead employs the alternative tactic of promising to protect us from our worst nightmares. This has involved generating a lot of fear where none previously existed in order to consolidate their position. Adam Curtis explains this position very well in a three hour documentary which is available on youtube - it's worth watching.


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## CuffDaddy (Feb 26, 2009)

phyrpowr said:


> As an old Eagle Scout, and former Senior Patrol Leader, one of my outstanding memories of Scouting was when the Scoutmaster lined us all up before camping trips, searched our gear, and confiscated all the hatchets and axes. We were a veritable plague of locusts in our pursuit of Woodcraft. So many adolescents with so many edged weapons, and yet so very few injuries...hard to figure.


And many of the camps (Boy Scout and otherwise) that I attended had firearms ranges with live ammunition. And yet no injuries or worse.


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## pleasehelp (Sep 8, 2005)

CuffDaddy said:


> And many of the camps (Boy Scout and otherwise) that I attended had firearms ranges with live ammunition. And yet no injuries or worse.


Same experience for me at the scout range. Zero injuries while I was there, and if I recall correctly, they never had a shoot-related injury worth mentioning. Was a wonderful shooting experience. I only wish that they had done clay shooting with us rather than just rifles.

My scout camp did experience a handful of other injuries, but very few are worth mentioning. For the most part, the scout masters did an excellent job teaching us proper safety.


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## Tilton (Nov 27, 2011)

I was a boy scout, but I dropped it before it came time to do the whole Eagle Scout thing. Based on my experience and mine alone, boy scouts is great for boys who don't have outdoorsy parents or who go to undisciplined public schools. For those with outdoorsy parents who go to more disciplined private schools, it doesn't teach very much. In hindsight, learning carpentry with my father while building a deck was a much more enriching and cherished memory than doing so while building a bird house with my troop and learning to fly fish with my mother is a much more important memory to me than earning the fishing merit badge was.


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## Shoe City Thinker (Oct 8, 2012)

Who here went to Phillmont in August 1990?


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## CuffDaddy (Feb 26, 2009)

Tilton said:


> For those with outdoorsy parents who go to more disciplined private schools, it doesn't teach very much.


Hmm, my dad is a wildlife biologist and forrester, and I went to a private school for high school. Yet I got a lot out of scouting. Little of it was in the form of technical outdoor skills that my dad couldn't/didn't teach me (he was pretty active in the troop, so sometimes I was taught by him while I was wearing that awful khaki polyester uni). Much more of it was in the area of social interaction, particularly leadership and work dynamics in a group. Nothing like trying to get half a dozen 14 year old boys, all riddled with ADHD or its functional equivalent, to work together to set up a camp or build a lashed tower.

My official friend-of-my-youth is a guy I went to junior high and high school with, but when we get together, we spend way more time talking about things we did and people we knew in scouts than things and people from school.


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## pleasehelp (Sep 8, 2005)

Tilton said:


> I was a boy scout, but I dropped it before it came time to do the whole Eagle Scout thing. Based on my experience and mine alone, boy scouts is great for boys who don't have outdoorsy parents or who go to undisciplined public schools. For those with outdoorsy parents who go to more disciplined private schools, it doesn't teach very much. In hindsight, learning carpentry with my father while building a deck was a much more enriching and cherished memory than doing so while building a bird house with my troop and learning to fly fish with my mother is a much more important memory to me than earning the fishing merit badge was.


Interesting perspective. My folks were into the outdoors, but not to the same degree as the scouts. Until college I definitely went to undisclined school, although I grew up in a fairly strict family. I suspect that different people get different things from the Boy Scouts, and your observation probably holds true for some number of folks.

I stopped short of Eagle Scout because I had too many other things competing for my time. In retrospect, I wish I had dropped some of my other activities and stuck with scouting.


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## fishertw (Jan 27, 2006)

Shoe City Thinker said:


> Who here went to Phillmont in August 1990?


I was there as a leader in June of 1990. Saw my son grow from a kid into a young man. Have participated in over 200 Eagle Scout boards of review in 25+ years and invariably, when asked about their most treasured and valuable experience in Scouting, every kid who has been to Philmont replies without hesitation "Philmont"! Seems there is something very valuable about that experience.


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## Pentheos (Jun 30, 2008)

Gosh, I earned the dentistry merit badge in the mid-1980s. I recall that I had to carve an entire set of teeth out of soap. My intention then was to become a dentist. Things changed.


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## VictorRomeo (Sep 11, 2009)

I too was very active in the scouts. From. A Cub right through to Venture Scout. Later in my twenties I came back to become my units Scout Lead and ultimately the Unit Lead. I stepped down about 10 years ago when my growing business forced my hand. I still have a hole in my heart from that. 

Anyhow, of that list Geocaching is actually most compatible with scouting these days. It is an something akin to orienteering - without the race - and is really interesting. I've dabbled a little and is genuinely worth giving a go. All you need is a smartphone and an app. Just search for an app and get looking. You might be amazed to find what's right under your nose!


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## Ekphrastic (Oct 4, 2009)

I earned the fingerprinting merit badge! One of the first I got, actually. Pretty easy, compared to some of the other ones (i.e. fish and wildlife conservation, environmental science, lifesaving, etc.). 

Even though I earned my eagle rank, I never felt like I completely fit in the Boy Scouts. For example, one time, a scoutmaster was trying to teach a group of us to whip rope--that is, how to wrap string around the end of a fraying rope to prevent further unraveling. I think I was twelve.

"There are two kinds of whips," he said. "There is the standard whip, and then there's the English whip."

"Ah!" I said, piping up. "I greatly prefer the English whip. It has a smooth, creamy texture that the standard whip doesn't."

Everyone looked at me in silence. The scoutmaster went back to winding his string.

Of course, then there was the time that the scoutmasters took all the boys to summer camp and enrolled them in a program called "Water Dogs." Early each morning, the scoutmasters would rip us out of our sleeping bags--literally rip us out, as in the case of my friend who, wearing only his boxer shorts, was screaming, "I'm not dressed!" as a scoutmaster whipped him back and forth in his sleeping bag on the ground--and march us down to the unheated pool. Now, even though it was summer, the water was extremely cold. In addition to getting in the freezing water, the Water Dogs instructors made us variably 1) fetch blocks of ice out of the pool with our noses, dog-paddling instead of swimming; 2) roll, bare-skinned, across crushed ice with which the instructors had covered the pool's patio; 3) rub a block of ice all over our bare bodies (while the scoutmasters watched); 4) sit, submerged up to our necks, in a trash can filled with ice (and just enough water to allow our bodies to squeeze in). Hell had, indeed, frozen over.

Later, I switched scout troops. Things got better.


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## fishertw (Jan 27, 2006)

I grew up in charlotte and remember a similar exercise that took place before we camped on Monutain Island for a weekend in the early 60's. IF not for the confiscation, that Island would now be a veritable desert on the Catawba River.
Thanks for the memories.
Tom
p.s. I'm still involved in Scouting and have just completed chairing my 200th Eagle Board of Review in the Boone area. Most all of the "Eagles" had all their fingers and toes due to dillignce by scout masters.


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