What is an “Eagle Scout”?
The question seems deceptively simple. I mean, we know an Eagle Scout when we meet one.
But coming up with an eloquent way to define Scouting’s highest honor is harder than it seems.
Just ask Anthony C., a Life Scout who sent me this e-mail last week:
My thoughts on the subject? I've always liked the advice provided in the 1911 BSA Handbook: "...the final and chief test of the scout is the doing of a good turn to somebody every day, quietly and without boasting. This is the proof of the scout. It is practical religion, and a boy honors God best when he helps others most. A boy may wear all the scout uniforms made, all the scout badges ever manufactured, know all the woodcraft, campcraft, scoutcraft and other activities of boy scouts, and yet never be a real boy scout. To be a real boy scout means the doing of a good turn every day with the proper motive and if this be done, the boy has a right to be classed with the great scouts that have been of such service to their country. To accomplish this a scout should observe the scout law."
