Being an Eagle scout myself, I began to correct him, it should be "Be Prepared" - but no, I was wrong. My wife was quick to jump in and show me in writing (a common requirement for me to accept fault) that Cub Scouts have a different motto.
Now, I am not a fan of scouting in general. For my childhood memories, it was another option for social ostracizing and grown men that would cry when they thought they were lost on the side of Mount Hood. I got my Eagle for two reasons: first, my parents bribed me with a horse; second, I wanted to quit scouting, and was not allowed to quit - so instead I had to "complete" it. I got my Eagle when I was 13 - needless to say, I was motivated...
Hearing this, however, made me dislike scouting even more. Seriously - who cares about someone's best? Let's look at when that comes up: when people fail / lose. No one talks about their best when they succeed (unless they are seeking some form of compliment / recognition in a childish fashion).
I would like to see that in a job advert: "Looking for someone who does their best". Now we know why hiring is so hard! HR never demands their best in the job advert! Silly bosses, assuming people will want to do their best to earn more money and recognition!
Or how about at sports: "Winning team determined on hardest effort - not results".
So much of the concerns we face in politics, competency from the guy demanding a "living wage" behind the register, and the discussion of bonus / raises is due to the fact that kids have been raised to think that somehow their best mitigates failure. We have partially correct math answers due to "you tried!" and extra credit options so kids can feel good about themselves.
Now, call me a radical, but I don't want my kids feeling good about themselves when they fail. I want them to be motivated by it to improve and succeed the next time around. It is not my role as a parent to tell my son that his best matters when it did not result in success. It is my role to help him understand how and why he failed and then show him how to succeed by growing from it.
The same goes for success - I don't want to hear about how easy or hard the project was - I want to know if it was accomplished. Was success realized? I tire of sycophants at work that sit there and go on and on about how easy or hard a task was so I will understand how dedicated or how competent they are. I have even told some of them that are serial offenders that I don't care about how hard it was. I want a binary answer of complete / not complete and then any relevant lessons learned for continuation / improvement considerations. Why would I want my son to be that guy?
Yes, I speak with him as a father to hear what he struggles with so that he can learn and grow from it - and as he matures, other mentors will provide similar feedback. But - his best is not relevant to a task or assignment. It is not measurable - so an organization like the Cub Scouts cannot help me as a parent in any form of a metric in tracking my son's growth. It only reinforces a child's view that they are doing what is right because they did "their best!"
