Scouting

“Even a child is known by his doings, whether his work be pure, and whether it be right.” -Pro. 20:11

I may have told some of you this story but now I want to write it. A friend of mine has a son who has become a very specialized and skilled doctor because of an opportunity he was granted as a newly minted surgeon. It seems that there was a highly respected team of doctors who were offering a fellowship and a chance to bring some new blood into their specialized field. Numerous applications made their way in to seek after this rare opening. After the selection process had run its course, my friend’s son was amazed and thrilled to be one of the two individuals to be chosen for the program. Some months later after having come on board, he asked just how he managed to be chosen out of all the resumes representing all these other highly credentialed candidates. His mentor told him that he noticed that he was an Eagle Scout and, hence, pulled his application and put it on top to be examined first.

It is somewhat staggering to learn that what a young man had accomplished as a student in junior high school and the first years of high school mattered more, with regard to getting noticed, in landing a prestigious fellowship than all of his college and medical school grades or accomplishments put together. Obviously the one could not stand without the other, but it still is remarkable that obtaining the rank of Eagle Scout, scouting’s highest honor, speaks so strongly and clearly about the character and mettle of a man that years later others would still care and notice.

The road to Eagle is not easy and few there are who make it. Yet it is obtainable for anyone who dedicates himself to steady accomplishment and submits himself to the meticulous training regimen in which a young man first learns to take orders and, eventually, to give them. While others are out playing at whatever the teen culture affords, looking for easy fun and fast times, scouts are working on badges, learning new skills, or building endurance through hikes into the wild. They go out of their way to find hardship, heat, sweat, and obstacles of all kind. But out of that old world crucible known as scouting comes character; character that is noticed and appreciated the world over.

In a day and age in which families are under pressure to teach their children to read at an early age just so they can get a leg up on their peers in the race for college scholarships, I find it odd that scouting for boys is so easily overlooked. Here is a proven program that magnifies both true values and opportunities way down the line and yet it gets by passed for things such as sports or part-time, minimum wage jobs, neither of which have shown themselves to offer much return for the time invested in them.

What sparked this article today was my chance stumbling across a plaque I discovered the other day in the basement of the annex. It showcased all the Eagle Scouts who have come through the ranks of Troop 530 here at West Town Christian Church. I was amazed when I saw that they had promoted Eagle Scouts every year, some 22 Eagle Scouts in all over the past 16 years. Some troops never promote an Eagle and some only occasionally. Whatever this troop is doing, they are doing something right. I have to suspect that they have some great leadership and dedicated scouts involved to make this such a successful programs. If I were a parent of a pre-teen son, I would definitely want to check this opportunity out. It could result in somebody’s resume going to the top of the stack someday.