Eagle Scouts make good citizens

[snopes]

Comment: Did a US Federal Judge make a comment about who has stood before
him for sentencing and in his experience, no one who had attained the rank
of EAGLE SCOUT had ever been before him?

Secondly, I thought I saw a poster, perhaps seven or so years ago (around
2000) that showed NASA Space Flight Patches, at that time it was claimed
at least one EAGLE SCOUT was part of the crew for all NASA flights, except
two.

Gist of both was that Eagle Scouts are good for our society, but I think I
would have seen the Judge comment in an e-mail.

[snopes]

Did a US Federal Judge make a comment about who has stood before
him for sentencing and in his experience, no one who had attained the rank
of EAGLE SCOUT had ever been before him?

I'd have to wonder whether said judge made a point of asking every single defendant about his Boy Scout background.

- snopes

[RichL]

Good thing my friend never stood in front of that judge. He was an eagle scout but he had to goto court for DUI.

[Ryda Wong, EBfCo.]

That judge must not have presided over these cases, then:

Bishop


Hirte

[Astra]

There were quite a few Eagle Scouts in the astronaut corps, but I don't know about one being on every flight.

I have an ex-boyfriend who managed to be both an Eagle Scout and a lousy excuse for a human being

[Randa Roo]

Astra, I must've dated your ex!

[snopes]

Originally Posted by Astra

I have an ex-boyfriend who managed to be both an Eagle Scout and a lousy excuse for a human being

I just don't get the glurgy fascination with the Boy Scouts.

I went through Cub Scouts/Boy Scouts when I was a kid (although I stopped well short of Eagle rank). I realize everyone's experience is different, and that becoming an Eagle Scout requires a good deal of dilgence, but I eventually quit the Scouts because to me it seemed like nothing more than an extension of P.E. class: an excuse for a bunch of boys to play silly games, act out, and torment each other -- with occasional camping trips to allow these activities to take place at more remote, less supervised locations.

- snopes

[Insensible Crier]

Originally Posted by snopes

I just don't get the glurgy fascination with the Boy Scouts.

I went through Cub Scouts/Boy Scouts when I was a kid (although I stopped well short of Eagle rank). I realize everyone's experience is different, and that becoming an Eagle Scout requires a good deal of dilgence, but I eventually quit the Scouts because to me it seemed like nothing more than an extension of P.E. class: an excuse for a bunch of boys to play silly games, act out, and torment each other -- with occasional camping trips to allow these activities to take place at more remote, less supervised locations.

- snopes

That's about all it amounted to me too. All the torture of gym class with the added bonuses of rope, fire and knives! I did get to Eagle but it was mostly as an obligation to my parents more than anything.

[Astra]

Originally Posted by Randa Roo

Astra, I must've dated your ex!

I don't think he made it to Missouri, but "dating" multiple girls at a time and keeping it secret was definitely his MO

I was always jealous of Boy Scouts. The local Boy Scout program was a lot cooler than my Girl Scout council and they got to do all sorts of fun things and learn useful stuff. My troop sold cookies like our lives depended on it and made dumb crafts. I thought it was stupid that for all the "girls can do anything!" hype we heard, the boys' equivalent still got to do all the cool stuff like visiting Space Camp and playing on the ROTC obstacle course.

[snopes]

Originally Posted by Insensible Crier

That's about all it amounted to me too. All the torture of gym class with the added bonuses of rope, fire and knives!

And the extra bonus of clueless, self-important, NFBSKing adult authority figures!

I don't know if things have changed, but when I was a Scout, in order to use a knife or a hatchet (or other cutting implement), you had to first earn a "Totin' Chip" card by satisfactorily demonstrating your knowledge of knife-and-other-sharp-stuff safety. If a Scoutmaster (or other superior) caught you violating a safety rule, he could demand your card and cut a corner off it; if your card lost all four corners, you had to surrender it and give up your sharp thing totin' privileges.

So, one day at a Jamboree my friend found an unsheathed hatchet lying on the ground (where it posed a danger to unaware people stepping or falling on it). He picked it up so that he could take it to a safe place. A Scoutmaster from another troop stopped him and, completely ignoring his explanation, demanded his Totin' Chip and cut a corner off it for the offense of carrying an unsheathed hatchet.

- snopes

[Gayle]

Originally Posted by Ryda Wong, EBfCo.

That judge must not have presided over these cases, then:

Bishop


Hirte

http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/.../WW/fwh42.html

Well, if we pick nits, this one never got a trial, but he was not a poster Eagle Scout

[Base Ten]

I found these statstics about scouts. Not specifically eagles, but scouts in general.

More Statistics

Scouting's alumni record is equally impressive. A recent nation-wide survey of high schools revealed the following information:

85% of student council presidents were Scouts
89% of senior class presidents were Scouts
80% of junior class presidents were Scouts
75% of school publication editors were Scouts
71% of football captains were Scouts

Scouts also account for:

64% of Air Force Academy graduates
68% of West Point graduates
70% of Annapolis graduates
72% of Rhodes Scholars
85% of FBI agents

26 of the first 29 astronauts

http://www.troop125bsa.com/statistics.htm

Base Ten

[Roadie]

Originally Posted by Base Ten

I found these statstics about scouts. Not specifically eagles, but scouts in general.



http://www.troop125bsa.com/statistics.htm

Base Ten

You do know that 86% of all statistics found on the internet are made up, right?

[diddy]

Originally Posted by Roadie

You do know that 86% of all statistics found on the internet are made up, right?

Yea, 8 out of 10 people know that don't you know?

[geminilee]

I found an interesting site on this. A list of serial killing/murdering Eagle Scouts.

[Base Ten]

Originally Posted by geminilee

I found an interesting site on this. A list of serial killing/murdering Eagle Scouts.

This just proves that in any large group, there will always be some bad apples.

Interesting list of "otherwise notorious Eagles" :

Ross Perot, billionaire
Steven Spielberg, 1941, The Goonies, Hook
Sam Walton, Wal-Mart founder

[putitinwriting]

Originally Posted by Astra

I was always jealous of Boy Scouts. The local Boy Scout program was a lot cooler than my Girl Scout council and they got to do all sorts of fun things and learn useful stuff. My troop sold cookies like our lives depended on it and made dumb crafts. I thought it was stupid that for all the "girls can do anything!" hype we heard, the boys' equivalent still got to do all the cool stuff like visiting Space Camp and playing on the ROTC obstacle course.

What Girl Scout troops actually do depends on their leaders. If you have two moms who like to play with crafts and sing nursery school songs, the girls are sort of screwed. If you have a leader who loves to camp out and hike up mountains, well, there you go.

[snapdragonfly]

The intention of the Eagle scout award is indeed to reward the kinds of traits that make a good citizen, and the steps necessary to achieve it are designed to promote/instill/practise those traits.

Whether all boy scouts, boy scout troops, boy scout troop leaders, or scouts who achieve the Eagle award, actually do achieve those standards in the spirit in which they are intended, is obviously going to vary among the individuals.

I dare say that any organization with noble goals and good intentions has those asshats who have to make it look bad and screw it up for other people.

My son earned his Eagle and it was a very good experience for him. His Eagle project was to organize a brass quintet, (he plays the French Horn) put together a concert of about an hour of light classical, light jazz, ragtime, and patriotic music, and then perform their concert at a number of retirement and nursing homes in the community. He did this over his spring break.

The one that kind of broke my heart was a senior day care center, that is only open on weekdays - (people who can care for their elders after work and on weekends just fine but who need help during working hours use it) - they enjoyed it so much and begged the boys to come back, because they "never have anyone to come visit us" because most of the time, the scout troops can only visit on weekends or evenings and of course they aren't open then. They sent the sweetest thank you letters.

(My son tried to get the group together for another visit but unfortunately there was not a time that everyone could make it and the pieces really couldn't be played with an instrument missing )

He uses skills that he learned in Scouts all the time, actually. He was kind of typical of a lot of boys in that his own dad didn't have a job that was conducive to getting away and playing in the woods, so I was very grateful to his troop leaders who could, who were willing to take other people's sons out in the woods with them. His leader was an emergency room doctor who was a bigger kid than all the rest of them and while he was the head troop leader, for several years, they went camping every single month, all year. His troop had one of the highest percentages of scouts to earn Eagle of all the troops in this council.

My son was bullied a lot in school and there was some of that, unfortunately, in his troop at first, but as the older kids moved along and the younger ones came up, they started looking up to HIM (because he is great with younger kids) and the year he was tapped into the Order of the Arrow I was so proud I just about burst. ~ OA is the only award that a scout can't earn for himself, it has to be conferred upon him by his peers based on his leadership and his...scoutliness, I guess, or whatever. But all these younger boys looked up to him and voted it upon him, that was a very good thing for him.

[snapdragonfly]

Originally Posted by putitinwriting

What Girl Scout troops actually do depends on their leaders. If you have two moms who like to play with crafts and sing nursery school songs, the girls are sort of screwed. If you have a leader who loves to camp out and hike up mountains, well, there you go.

Yup.

When I was a girl I went to Camp Mary White, in Mayhill, NM every summer. I LOVED CMW and just lived for the summer so I could go there.

The older girls could sign up for special camp experiences, so I did as soon as I was old enough. "Gypsy" was a week long trek in which we carried our personal items in a backpack and our sleeping bags and cooking gear was carried in a mule drawn freight wagon (sort of like a Conestoga) and we walked all day to get to a new location every night. (someone from the main camp would drive out to deliver our perishable foodstuffs a couple times but most of what we needed we carried.)

"Outpost" was a primitive camp away from camp - we hiked to whatever the location was and set up our tents, firepit, and latrines (again, the main camp would deliver the really heavy stuff out there to us - after all we are talking about 13 year old girls here not Marines ) and we stayed about a week.

Regular camp was two weeks back then so we'd get to come back to the camp and join in for the raids and the dinosaur egg hunts and all that with everyone else, but even the regular camp had latrines, 3 sided Adirondack cabins, and hot showers once a week that we had the fun of chopping firewood to heat the water for.

I haven't heard of any girl scout camps that operate like that anymore and CMW is closed, and I imagine that all the insurance crap would probably prohibit the stuff we used to do, although we always followed safety rules religiously.

Pity.