Beginning Jan. 1, 2014, this badge will get a silver border.
Moms and dads, prepare the needle and thread!
Sustainability and Cooking merit badges will join the list of Eagle-required merit badges over the next 14 months, the Boy Scouts of America’s National Executive Board announced today.
Sustainability, a new merit badge, will join Environmental Science as an Eagle Scout option after its debut at the 2013 jamboree.
Cooking, meanwhile, will become Eagle-required as of Jan. 1, 2014.
The total number of merit badges required for the Eagle Scout Award will remain at 21. In other words, instead of 12 Eagle-required badges and 9 elective badges, a Scout must earn 13 Eagle-required and 8 elective badges.
Why the change? The goal is to “reflect a better balance of the needs of youth and our nation today and in the future,” according to the BSA’s resolution. Personally, I like it. Keeping up with the ever-changing world means questioning the way things have always been done.
Sustainability becomes more important as our population increases while resources decrease. And a boy who reaches Eagle without skills in cooking and healthy eating habits hasn’t become fully “Prepared. For Life.” in my opinion. I think the BSA’s board got it right on here.
What do you think?
For the list of Eagle-required merit badges as it looks now — and as it will look in 2014 — follow the jump.
Current list of Eagle-required merit badges
Earn a total of 21 merit badges, including the following:
· First Aid
· Citizenship in the Community
· Citizenship in the Nation
· Citizenship in the World
· Communication
· Personal Fitness
· Emergency Preparedness OR Lifesaving
· Environmental Science
· Personal Management
· Swimming OR Hiking OR Cycling
· Camping
· Family Life
List of Eagle-required merit badges, effective Jan. 1, 2014
Earn a total of 21 merit badges, including the following:
· First Aid
· Citizenship in the Community
· Citizenship in the Nation
· Citizenship in the World
· Communication
· Personal Fitness
· Emergency Preparedness OR Lifesaving
· Environmental Science OR Sustainability
· Personal Management
· Swimming OR Hiking OR Cycling
· Camping
· Family Life
· Cooking
