<p>Our third son passed his Eagle Scout board of review last night. Three sons, Tiger Cub to Eagle Scout.
YAY! Whew!</p>
<p>On a funny (now!) note, the last question in the BOR was what would he change about the BSA. First he said he wouldn’t change anything, but when pressed, he said he’d change the stance on gays and atheists… OMG, when he told his dad that while they were deliberating I thought he’d have a heart attack - apparently the scoutmaster had said to steer clear of ANYTHING controversial, especially religion. So it was a fun few minutes while the jury was out. </p>
<p>At my son’s Eagle BOR, one of the scout officials spent 95% of the time talking about himself. Son was relieved that he had to say virtually nothing, but his two adult sponsors said they thought it would never be over. As we were leaving the building, the same guy had another scoutmaster cornered, droning on and on about his efforts to establish a model train club in his community; the other guy looked like he wanted to die.</p>
<p>My BOR was kinda wierd in that I had a bunch of random people come, most of which were completely unrelated to each other (though all had a relation to scouting, though part of different troops, even types of scouting!) and they all knew each other like best friends. They spent like 20 minutes just catching up and telling stories.</p>
<p>Congrats. Ds got his Eagle three months ago, and his liberal social/religious stances were the source of much worry (mine and his dad’s) going in to the BofR. But all went well.</p>
<p>Congratulations mom2three!!! Excellent work by you and your husband, raising three accomplished scouts.</p>
<p>Mine own story has a far less happy ending…like YDS above, S1 had/still has x-liberal social/political views and is (now, as a rising college junior) an active atheist. He also spent from Tigers to 12th grade in scouting, completed an eagle project, served as ASPL for two years and Junior Scoutmaster for one, and was one badge away from completing his eagle app. Alas, he decided that to continue in scouting and achieve eagle rank would be hypocritical (for political as well as personal reasons) and left scouting at the end of his senior year in high school. I really admire the kids who stick with it.</p>
<p>Son3 isn’t an atheist, but while he was wondering if he had blown the BOR, I told him that if he had done so by telling the truth about his opinions, I thought he had been true to himself and was proud of him for being so.</p>
<p>I know you are proud of your son for being true to himself as well.</p>
<p>mom2three, congrats
archiemom and mom2three,
our older son decided in his senior year in HS to go ahead with his Eagle project on his own, (there was some confusion/debate over whether his project could or could not be considered for the Eagle.), he did not proceed with the Eagle, but did establish a Memorial 5k scholarship fundraiser in the name of a beloved teacher who had died.
Our younger son completed the last 2 badges for his Eagle first semester at college, with the help of two different troops.
We’re proud of both sons.</p>
<p>Yes, I should have added that I am immensely proud of my son and his ability to make the big, important decisions on his own.</p>
<p>Of course, I could only admit that after I got over my own ego…I was serving as Committee Chair at the time and honestly had dreamed of having an Eagle Scout son ever since that first Tiger meeting.</p>
<p>Archiemom, I admire your son’s decision, but it takes ppl like him to CONTINUE in programs that need change, as those changes must come from within. I have an eagle son who will go back to BSA as a leader in the future. Perhaps your son will elect to do the same, as there may be some boys he could really connect with and offer his own insight to as to what it takes to be a great man and a great leader, and religion and sexual preference are not the determining factors. Your son is also fortunate to have a mom like you who could see your own disappointment for what it really was, and allow him to be the man you raised him to be.</p>
<p>And it was a pretty minor brag for a pretty MAJOR event.
Congratulations to you and your family!</p>
<p>fingers still crossed for my DS to finish Eagle. He is mulling over the “hypocrisy” of continuing given his opposition to some of their policies. But time is running out. Tomorrow is the LAST final and thus LAST day of junior year !!</p>
<p>I agree with Momx4. We talked to ds about change from within and not throwing the baby out with the bath water throughout his years in Scouting. And his troop really is pretty liberal or we would have never stayed with it. But when BofR time came and the paper work suggested a letter from a “spiritual leader” I began to panic. Needlessly, it turns out.</p>
<p>My opinion would have been that if he didn’t get to be an Eagle Scout because he voiced his very legitimate opinion, then I would have been even more proud of him. Maybe if more Scouts told the organization that they should change their policy and refused to participate until they did so, then things would happen.</p>
<p>Son3 has never really discussed this as a big issue he has with the scouts. He definitely has the libertarian bent that many his age have, and I believe his statements were sincere, but I don’t think he had any idea that he was stepping in the poo with his comments. He just couldn’t think of anything else he would change.</p>
<p>Your son’s stance in support of gays and atheists brought tears to my eyes. My son was the only boy in his elementary school class not invited to join the boy scout troop that all the boys in his class were members of. It was always heartbreaking to pick him up from school when all the other boys had left early on a scouting adventure. I asked on of the troop leaders why DS had not been invited to join and was told there wasn’t room in the troop. Hard to believe there wasn’t room for him. My heart told me the real reason was that my son has two mom, and the troop couldn’t deal with lesbian moms.</p>
<p>Congrats! Back in the day I sat on many BOR although my son never got all the way to his Eagle. I sat on at least one that I remember where we did not award the Eagle and one where I declined to even sit on the BOR. It was very difficult to say the least.
Kudos to your son for speaking his mind. The cases I recall where the rank wasn’t awarded were nothing like that…they were clear cases of feeling that the individual wasn’t at that level yet.
Oaklandmom…sorry about your experiences and particularly if they were related to homophobes. In our small town for a full year I took my daughter to daycare while the BSA troop that met at that church told me they were full. This was not our church and I think that was the real reason. After a year of dealing with this boy who every time I picked up his sister had to see all the boys having fun without him I basically offered to be in charge of the BSA division. They were desperate for parent volunteers and they magically “found” a spot for my son.<br>
Truth be told I thought that most of the parents were elitist snobs but I sucked it up for years because all my son’s playmates were in the troop.
Sigh…glad THOSE days are over</p>