Education at Issue
When
I was just a grade school student, I was in Cub Scouts and later in the Boy
Scouts. My friends' fathers, who had been in the Armed Services during World
War II, were volunteering as troop leaders. Their wives were Den Mothers in
the Cub Scouts and the hottest thing for the scouts was to earn as many merit
badges as possible. The Scout Hand Book outlined ways to demonstrate competence
in the various disciplines for which Merit Badges were awarded.
There
were probably millions of boys who followed the Merit Badge Outlines and deserved
the recognition and bragging rights that followed. But, there were others
who received their badges but who knew nothing about the area of concern.
Nothing. They or their Dads glued some knotted ropes to a board and pasted
on some labels so the young Scout would get to have his Mom sew a Knot Tying
Badge on his Merit Badge Sash. There were sashes with tons of badges everywhere;
but so many of them meant nothing in terms of what the sash wearers knew compared
to what kind of minimal efforts they could go to have the troop leaders sign
their Badge Approval forms. And then there would be a candle light ceremony
at which public recognition was made for each of the badges they were getting.
These
folks must have really believed that what they were doing was getting them
some where. If the fathers or their sons were asked anthing about their merit
badge topics they would be hard pressed to offer any kind of authoritative
answers about the subject. They could not tie knot number one. Nor were they
able to explain why any particular knot would be appropriate for a particular
use and how it functioned to make it serve so well. How did these fellows
ever pass the meit badge tests in the first place? Our best guess is that
the tests were really dumbed down to accomodate the insideers or the presentation
of a report or a display would be allowed to stand in lieu of any direct proof
that the scout knew the material.
United States Government Academy - A Proposal by Drew Kopf
