Merit Badge Instruction
The Merit Badge Program is
An active dialogue between scouts and counselors Merit Badge counseling is an active, engaged dialogue; not a passive lecture.
Based on evaluation of effort. The effort extended by the scout bears more weight than his mastery of a skill.
Process valued. The general process of interacting with counselors, learning skills, building and maintaining cooperative relationships with other scouts are as important as the specific skills and knowledge learned.
Scouting has its own standard for instruction, learning and testing.
Scouting does not follow the model of schoolwork.
These differences are not just semantic tricks like not calling a list of questions on a piece of paper a test. They are real differences. • Counselors – Not Teachers- Merit Badge Counselors are just that, counselors by definition one who advises and directs.
Counselors will teach, and teachers will counsel, but they have different ways of approaching their work. • Guiding and Instructing – Not Lecturing- Scouting instruction should always be ‘hands on’.
Lecture sessions when everyone listens to a speaker should be kept to an absolute minimum or eliminated altogether. • Evaluating – Not Testing – A scout’s performance is evaluated based on their best effort at demonstrating the skills and knowledge they have learned. This evaluation may require some testing against a standard but this evaluation should never be limited to a written test.
Hopefully the merit badge counselors are working with a particular merit badge because of their own passion for the subject.
Sharing this passion is an important motivation.
Communicating this excitement and interest will stimulate the same interest and excitement in the Scouts. If the activities are infused with your own enthusiasm and interest fulfilling requirements for a merit badge will be secondary to a true appreciation of the subject.