I have should expected you'd be triggered by my post, KD5NRH.
And it never once occurred to you to have the boys do them instead? It's not grounds for excommunication. (Really. I promise. I checked CHI 1, and it's not in there. A couple years of disfellowshipment at the absolute worst.)
As I said, we were focused on rank advancements, the boys are free to pursue merit badges on their own, but we didn't have time to do it in our 11 year-old patrol meetings. Rank advancements were what I was asked to focus on by the troop committee, the scoutmaster, and the executive. Merit badges were the focus of the older Scouts. Regardless, some boys just aren't interested in Scouting at all. Another reason I'm happy with the split. Scouting is great, and is extremely beneficial for many boys, but it is
not a one-size-fits-all end-all be-all program for all boys.
If the Church could have stopped looking at Scouting as nothing more than a way to give the kids an unearned Eagle rank for their future resumes as fast as possible, it does (or at least did, before the last several rounds of dumbing down requirements and nerfing activities) have a lot of other benefits that were removed from the LDS program.
Gee, I must have missed the Eagles for Resumes section of the LDS Scouting Handbook. There are wards that run Eagle mill programs, that's on them; it's certainly not church policy, and certainly not what is encouraged at Roundtable. I only signed off requirements that the boys actually achieved, and I know our Scoutmaster does the same.
Sure, because nobody ever needs to tie stuff together.
I'm not talking basic knots. When do you expect a resident of downtown Chicago or DC to need to lash-together a tower or a cooking tripod? Despite being a do-it-yourself type and comfortable in the back country, I've somehow managed to not run across a need to use actual lashings on anything (aside from artificially needing to do so at Scout camps and to teach the skill) for 37 years and running. Just because you like knowing how to make your own bike helmet by lashing matchsticks together with floss, and your own chainsaw chains by gluing chunks of angle iron onto bicycle chains with pine sap doesn't mean that's a necessary skill that everyone must know.
Are lashings "good" to know? Yes. Necessary? No. Good for a Scouting requirement? Sure. Being mandated via Scouting requirements to teach it to all boys under my care in my ward whether they care about Scouting or not? Not a fan. Glad to see it go away. That's all I'm saying.
This ain't reading goat entrails.
While there are several accurate techniques taught, a couple of the "techniques" taught in the Scout Handbook
are about as accurate as reading goat entrails, which is why I made my original comment.
Look. I'm not saying Scouting doesn't teach valuable things, or it isn't beneficial. It is. I'm saying it's not a great fit for a unified worldwide church-related youth program for boys and girls. It's not.