The Eagle Scout badge (as seen above) is a culmination of years of work. A boy can start as a Tiger Cub in first grade. then for the next five years they progress through the Cub Scout ranks
Tiger
Bobcat*
Wolf
Bear
Webelos I
Webelos II
Each of the 5 badges, (Webelos, Bear, Bobcat, Wolf, Tiger) is a little diamond shaped patch that can be sewn on one’s blue Class A uniform. But towards the end of one’s 5th grade year they are given a choice: Bridge over or quit. I personally started late in my first grade year so I never achieved my Tiger rank; That’s okay I just began my journey earning my bobcat and wolf badges together like the rest of my year(I just was the oddball who didn’t have an orange Diamond with Tiger on my Class A since I started to late into my Tiger Cub year to earn the badge). I had lost where the fun was in Scouting. So my Dad, the wonderful man he is, gave me an ultimatum, thus making my choice for me; it was for the best though; “Give me a year.” So I bridged over into the Boy Scouts. here one trades in the Blue Class A of a Cub Scout for the Tan class A of a Boy Scout; the only Cub Scout thing allowed on one’s BSA Class A is the Arrow of Light-> the highest achievement of a Cub Scout.
Here things progress at your own pace(but be wary of how slow you go)
Scout*optional
Tenderfoot
2nd Class
1st Class
Star
Life
Eagle
The Ranks of the Boy Scouts are achieved no longer one a year but at your own pace. So you could be working on 4-6 different ranks simultaneously. The ranks I like to think of in 3 segments
- orientation
- Progression
- Culmination
Orientation is so named because you learn a lot of skills which can if applied properly (or remembered) can help you later in your journey. Tenderfoot, 2nd Class and 1st Class are the three orientation ranks
Progression is named such because it is built upon Leadership, Service and the freedom to chose what badges you earned. Those badges are merit badges which are classified in two types the white-bordered Eagle required ones(of which you need 13 now(12 when I was going through it) and the green-bordered non-Eagle required ones(of which you need 8 now(9 when I was going through it). the reason those numbers are different is because in January of 2014 Cooking became an Eagle required merit badge thus the Eagle required badges went up by 1 and the non eagle required went down by 1 keeping the sum equal to 21. Star and Life are the two progression ranks.
and finally culmination is the Eagle rank. It is the culmination of ones long journey but it is optionally not the end. You can achieve Palms which require more leadership to your troop and the same other requirements besides service hours although it is encouraged you still help out and give back. Even though Eagle rank has the same requirements as the Progression ranks it is separately categorized for three reasons
- it is the end of the required path to scouting the end goal
- everything further is optional->not required but if you want to you can it means nothing different
- most people don’t achieve it because they either
- quit
-or-
- aged out(turned 18 before they achieved it)
I was one of the 5% or so to achieve the Rank of Eagle; I did so 0n February 12th, 2014.