Citizenship Merit Badges Class Report
Aug. 12th, 2011 01:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
csberryDuring the first week of August, I held a class for any scouts in my troop that wanted to work on most of the requirements for Citizenship in the Community and Citizenship in the Nation merit badges (MBs). Others have done classes to do the entirety of those MBs, but I've noticed while sitting on Boards of Reviews with scouts that did that, it seems they didn't actually do a lot of what they were supposed to do. I've been hesitant to do classes because of that burden of ensuring each boy in the class did everything themselves and not ridden their classmates' coattails.
Upon hearing that there were three boys working on Citz/Community together, I pondered what I would consider worthwhile for class. I decided that I was fine with doing a class that focused on the requirements for doing or seeing things: see a city council/school board meeting or a court session, visit a Natl Historic Landmark or building on the Register of Historic Places, interview someone in govt about a local issue, watch a movie about a person or people that inspire others, read the front page of a national newspaper for 5 days, and learn about a charitable organization and volunteer 8 hours with them. One of the other requirements for Citz/Community is for each boy to create a presentation about their community (history, cultures, education, popular places, current challenges). I decided to include a tour of numerous sites around town to help provide information and inspiration on what they might want to include in their presentations - which they would put together and present at some later date. I had 5 scouts RSVP for the class that would be taking place the last week before public schools started their new year.
Here is the report I turned in to the Scoutmaster about the class:
The group gathered at my office in the Times Building in downtown Huntsville on Monday morning at 9am. The front page of the USA Today was set out on a desk and the scouts read it while waiting for everyone arrive. After the last person arrived and read the newspaper, I started giving the boys a tour of the Times Building (which is on the National Registry of Historic Places) and provided a history of its construction and use over the past 80+ years. We walked along Holmes Ave. to the federal courthouse and old post office. Next we headed up Washington Street to the old Huntsville Inn. That was followed by a stop in front to the Church of the Nativity, some time looking around Harrison Bros., and then to the Constitution Village. We headed down to Big Spring Park to discuss John Hunt, Leroy Pope, and the role the spring played - from John Hunt's arrival through the mid-50's when it was no longer used for the city's municipal water supply. After grabbing a quick hot dog lunch in the courthouse square, we headed back to the Times Bldg.
Once back at the office, each of the boys told the group the local issue they thought was interesting and was their nomination for the community issue for requirement 4. It was soon evident that everyone came to the class with the same issue – school budget/school closings. The scouts agreed that was the issue they wanted to do, so we began discussing what area of the local government is involved with that issue. Soon, Roman was on the phone to see if we could get an interview with someone at the Huntsville school administration building. He was lucky enough to get passed along to the superintendent's secretary and she scheduled an appointment for us. While some boys were at a couple of desks researching the school closure issue, I went through some of the other Citizenship in the Community/Nation requirements with other scouts.
On Tuesday morning, Sam called up the court clerk's office and asked what trials would be in session that day (Monday was the start of a new round of trials and juries were going through orientation). We found out there was an attempted murder trial starting that morning. Rohit had returned from India and contacted me that morning about joining us for the remainder of the week. enAfter everyone had arrived at the office and read the front page of the USA Today, we discussed the agenda for the day. The scouts decided to watch the first half of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, go to the courthouse for the attempted murder trial, and then return to the office to finish the movie. When we first entered the courtroom, there was a ballistics expert providing testimony. We got to the see the interplay between the prosecutors and the defense attorney with their questioning of the expert. After a 10 minute recess, the victim of the crime gave her testimony about the events of that day, where she was shot, and her description of the perpetrator. She was very emotional when giving her testimony. When we left, the boys were very pleased with what they got to see in the courtroom and discussed amongst themselves some of the aspects of what happened during the session. We finished the movie and discussed what happened and how Mr. Smith's actions influenced others.
We spent Wednesday and Thursday mornings doing volunteer work with the Food Bank of North Alabama. The executive director and warehouse manager gave brief overviews about what the organization does. We were soon at work in the warehouse. In the two days we spent there, we swept and mopped several areas and sorted out food from 8 LARGE watermelon bins into smaller boxes. It was a lot of work, but we were very grateful to be working in an air conditioned warehouse and not outside during the 100 degree temps. During our lunch breaks, the boys passed the front page of the USA Today around to read. At the end of the week, we discussed the main topic in the news that week – the debt ceiling debate and Congressional deal.
The final activity for the class was an interview with Dr. Casey Wardynski, Huntsville City School's new superintendent. We were escorted to the school board room and waited patiently for him to finish a meeting. Although he got to us a little later than scheduled, he gave us an hour of his time. Each scout was able to ask him questions and we received detailed answers back. The boys agreed that they were intrigued by all of the factors Dr. Wardynski said he was considering when thinking of what to do with the schools proposed for closure and how to equalize the education throughout the school system. They also stated that they were unaware of the school system having two separate pools of money – property tax money that is supposed to go to building construction and maintenance and sales tax money which goes to the operation of the school system.
I was really pleased with how the boys behaved during the week's worth of activities. They asked some really good questions of the superintendent. I hope they had as much fun working on these Citizenship requirements as I had leading them.
Upon hearing that there were three boys working on Citz/Community together, I pondered what I would consider worthwhile for class. I decided that I was fine with doing a class that focused on the requirements for doing or seeing things: see a city council/school board meeting or a court session, visit a Natl Historic Landmark or building on the Register of Historic Places, interview someone in govt about a local issue, watch a movie about a person or people that inspire others, read the front page of a national newspaper for 5 days, and learn about a charitable organization and volunteer 8 hours with them. One of the other requirements for Citz/Community is for each boy to create a presentation about their community (history, cultures, education, popular places, current challenges). I decided to include a tour of numerous sites around town to help provide information and inspiration on what they might want to include in their presentations - which they would put together and present at some later date. I had 5 scouts RSVP for the class that would be taking place the last week before public schools started their new year.
Here is the report I turned in to the Scoutmaster about the class:
The group gathered at my office in the Times Building in downtown Huntsville on Monday morning at 9am. The front page of the USA Today was set out on a desk and the scouts read it while waiting for everyone arrive. After the last person arrived and read the newspaper, I started giving the boys a tour of the Times Building (which is on the National Registry of Historic Places) and provided a history of its construction and use over the past 80+ years. We walked along Holmes Ave. to the federal courthouse and old post office. Next we headed up Washington Street to the old Huntsville Inn. That was followed by a stop in front to the Church of the Nativity, some time looking around Harrison Bros., and then to the Constitution Village. We headed down to Big Spring Park to discuss John Hunt, Leroy Pope, and the role the spring played - from John Hunt's arrival through the mid-50's when it was no longer used for the city's municipal water supply. After grabbing a quick hot dog lunch in the courthouse square, we headed back to the Times Bldg.
Once back at the office, each of the boys told the group the local issue they thought was interesting and was their nomination for the community issue for requirement 4. It was soon evident that everyone came to the class with the same issue – school budget/school closings. The scouts agreed that was the issue they wanted to do, so we began discussing what area of the local government is involved with that issue. Soon, Roman was on the phone to see if we could get an interview with someone at the Huntsville school administration building. He was lucky enough to get passed along to the superintendent's secretary and she scheduled an appointment for us. While some boys were at a couple of desks researching the school closure issue, I went through some of the other Citizenship in the Community/Nation requirements with other scouts.
On Tuesday morning, Sam called up the court clerk's office and asked what trials would be in session that day (Monday was the start of a new round of trials and juries were going through orientation). We found out there was an attempted murder trial starting that morning. Rohit had returned from India and contacted me that morning about joining us for the remainder of the week. enAfter everyone had arrived at the office and read the front page of the USA Today, we discussed the agenda for the day. The scouts decided to watch the first half of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, go to the courthouse for the attempted murder trial, and then return to the office to finish the movie. When we first entered the courtroom, there was a ballistics expert providing testimony. We got to the see the interplay between the prosecutors and the defense attorney with their questioning of the expert. After a 10 minute recess, the victim of the crime gave her testimony about the events of that day, where she was shot, and her description of the perpetrator. She was very emotional when giving her testimony. When we left, the boys were very pleased with what they got to see in the courtroom and discussed amongst themselves some of the aspects of what happened during the session. We finished the movie and discussed what happened and how Mr. Smith's actions influenced others.
We spent Wednesday and Thursday mornings doing volunteer work with the Food Bank of North Alabama. The executive director and warehouse manager gave brief overviews about what the organization does. We were soon at work in the warehouse. In the two days we spent there, we swept and mopped several areas and sorted out food from 8 LARGE watermelon bins into smaller boxes. It was a lot of work, but we were very grateful to be working in an air conditioned warehouse and not outside during the 100 degree temps. During our lunch breaks, the boys passed the front page of the USA Today around to read. At the end of the week, we discussed the main topic in the news that week – the debt ceiling debate and Congressional deal.
The final activity for the class was an interview with Dr. Casey Wardynski, Huntsville City School's new superintendent. We were escorted to the school board room and waited patiently for him to finish a meeting. Although he got to us a little later than scheduled, he gave us an hour of his time. Each scout was able to ask him questions and we received detailed answers back. The boys agreed that they were intrigued by all of the factors Dr. Wardynski said he was considering when thinking of what to do with the schools proposed for closure and how to equalize the education throughout the school system. They also stated that they were unaware of the school system having two separate pools of money – property tax money that is supposed to go to building construction and maintenance and sales tax money which goes to the operation of the school system.
I was really pleased with how the boys behaved during the week's worth of activities. They asked some really good questions of the superintendent. I hope they had as much fun working on these Citizenship requirements as I had leading them.
