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Title:                                         “Whose Eagle is it Anyway?

 

Exhibitor:                                  Sue Carey

 

Description:                              Practical tips and ideas on how to help your sons be

successful in scouting.  Implementing a Personal Scouting Interview (PSI) helps them detail their goals in manageable steps and makes them accountable for their own advancement.

 

How To’s:                                Personal Scouting Interview (PSI)

                                                List from a PSI

Personal Scouting Interview (PSI):

 

As mothers, we are given pins at each court of honor to recognize a son’s rank advancement.  Some mothers think that is their reward for all the hard work they have done to achieve that rank.  I think it is an acknowledgment of all the support we have given our sons as THEY achieve their OWN rank.  It is the boy’s rank advancement, not the mom’s.   So how do we keep it that way?  How do we make our sons responsible for their own Scouting?

 

Achieving the Eagle rank is a huge task with many small steps necessary along the way.  Time management and task organization are difficult for many adults and almost impossible for most teenage boys.  As parents, it is our job to TEACH our young men how to be efficient managers.   We don’t want to nag them all the time, we want them to be responsible.   As they are successful with small tasks, they will enjoy their Scouting experience and learn many valuable lessons.

 

I have developed a system with my own sons that I call the “PSI,” the Personal Scouting Interview.  It is held as needed.

 

  1. The Scout gathers his handbook, pertinent merit badge books, his Eagle notebook, and any papers he is working on or has been given by his Scoutmaster.
  2. I get a pen and paper.
  3. We meet at the dining room table because there is plenty of room to spread things out and write.
  4. Together we look at the requirements for the current rank he is working on, and I write specifically what needs to be done.
  5. We look at requirements for the merit badge or badges he is working on, and I write specifically what needs to be done.
  6. We look at upcoming activities, such as troop campout, summer camp. Pow-Wow, etc., and I write specifically what needs to be done before the event.
  7. He gathers his stuff, puts his list in a safe place and works on 1-2 items each day as part of homework.

 

You may have noticed a pattern in my list above.  The emphasis is on specifics.  A merit badge requirement list has a number of items that must be done, but each of those numbered items usually involves several steps.  That is where teenage boys often get bogged down.   They look at the requirement and are not sure where to start, or don’t think ahead to all that the requirement really asks them to do.  That is where the parent can help to make the task more manageable.   How do you eat an elephant?  One bite at a time.  How does a Scout earn a merit badge or rank advancement?  One step at a time.  Too often we tell our Scouts to just get busy and eat the elephant, but they don’t know how, so they do nothing.  We do not need to spoon feed them, we need to teach them, and include every mundane task a teenage boy will manage to forget.

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List from a PSI:

 

Finish Family Life:

  1. make list for #2
  2. discuss list with parent
  3. make list of ideas for project #4
  4. get project idea approved
  5. call merit badge counselor to talk about family councils
  6. plan family council
  7. do family council

 

Finish Music:

  1. choose song and practice it
  2. make CD list
  3. type CD list

 

Start American Cultures:

  1. get merit badge card singed by Scoutmaster
  2. read merit badge book
  3. decide whether to do 5a or 5b
  4. choose the 3 people for #4
  5. find out about contribution of one of the people for #4 (next PSI we will list finding the contribution of the other 2 people; remember, one bite at a time)

 

Summer Camp:

  1. call leader and ask about schedule
  2. call leader and ask about swimming arrangements
  3. combine #1 and #2 into one phone call
  4. mark possible merit badges to earn at camp

 

Once the list has been made, my nagging is reduced to a simple reminder, “did you do your Scouting tasks for today?”  When he is done with an item, he can cross it off the list and feel a sense of accomplishment.
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