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Citizenship In The Nation Merit Badge

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Overview Requirements Hints Terminology Resources

Citizenship In The Nation Merit Badge Info

This is the best Citizenship merit badge to start with since it sets a foundation for exploring local, world, and society citizenship in other badges. The requirements have the Scout explore our national government history, structure, and responsibilities. The Scout is also asked to discover current national issues and contact their government representative about it.

This merit badge is all knowledge based, and can be done at any time from the comfort of home and the Internet. Even the one 'visit' requirements could be done virtual, depending on the counselor.

Citizenship In The Nation is at the #5 position of popularity since it is an eagle-required merit badge. Around 52,000 scouts complete it annually.

Revised January, 2022

Requirements for the Citizenship In The Nation merit badge:

What is the Constitution of the United States? What does the Constitution do? What principles does it reflect? Why is it important to have a Constitution?

List the six purposes for creating the United States Constitution set forth in the Preamble to the Constitution. How do these purposes affect your family and community?

List the three branches of the United States government. Explain:
1. The function of each branch of government
2. Why it is important to divide powers among different branches
3. How each branch "checks" and "balances" the others
4. How citizens can be involved in each branch of government.

Discuss the importance of:
1. Declaration of Independence
2. The Bill of Rights (the first 10 Amendments to the Constitution) and the 14th Amendment
3. The traditional United States motto "E Pluribus Unum".

Watch the national evening news for five days in a row or read the main stories in a national media organization (e.g., a newspaper or news website) for five days in a row. Discuss the national issues that you learned about with your counselor. Choose one issue and explain how it affects you, your family, and community.

With your counselor's approval, choose a speech of national historical importance. Explain:
1. Who the author was
2. What the historical context was
3. What difficulties the nation faced that the author wished to discuss
4. What the author said
5. Why the speech is important to the nation's history.
Choose a sentence or two from the speech that has significant meaning to you, and tell your counselor why.

Do TWO of the following:
1. Visit a place that is listed as a National Historic Landmark or that is on the National Register of Historic Places. Tell your counselor what you learned about the landmark or site and what you found interesting about it.
2. Tour your state capitol building or the U.S. Capitol. Tell your counselor what you learned about the capitol, its function, and the history.
3. Tour a federal facility. Explain to your counselor what you saw there and what you learned about its function in the local community and how it serves this nation.
4. Choose a national monument that interests you. Using books, brochures, the internet (with your parent's permission), and other resources, find out more about the monument. Tell your counselor what you learned, and explain why the monument is important to this country's citizens.

Name your representatives in the United States Congress. Write a letter to your representative in Congress explaining your views on a national issue. Show your letter, along with any response you might receive, to your counselor.

Citizenship In The Nation Worksheet

(Optional worksheets are maintained by usscouts.org and they have sole control over their updates.)

Hints for Citizenship In The Nation Merit Badge

These online news sources are generally considered to be neutral and reliable: Associated Press, Reuters, ABCNews, National Public Radio, The Hill, Public Broadcasting System, CBS
If the merit badge counselor allows, a virtual tour of the US Capitol is possible.
Each part in requirement 7 should be a separate location, not using the same place to fulfill both items.

Terminology for the Citizenship In The Nation Merit Badge

Federal Facility - any building, installation, structure, land, public works, equipment, aircraft, vessel, and other vehicles and property, owned by, or constructed or manufactured for the purpose of leasing to, the Federal government.

Resources for Citizenship In The Nation Merit Badge
Read the Rights and Responsibilities of American citizens.
Explore the National Register of Historic Places.
Find National Historic Landmarks in your state.
Choose a National Monument near you to learn about.
When watching, listening, or reading news, understand the general value and leaning of your source with this Media Bias Chart.
Text of Declaration of Independence, Preamble of the Constitution, the Constitution, Bill of Rights, Amendments to the Constitution.
Everything you ever wanted to know about the Constitution.
Choose one of these 10 Historic Speeches to investigate.
Name the Three Branches of Federal Government.
Name your Senators and Congressmen.

Some other merit badges in the Citizenship theme include: Citizenship in Society, Citizenship in the Community, and Citizenship in the World. You might check them out if you found the Citizenship In The Nation merit badge interesting.

All Merit Badges

Comments:

Oct 12, 2013 - Katherine G. Leonard

I am a merit badge counselor (and ASM). It is my opinion that the worksheets were more user-friendly when they printed out with lines, instead of open boxes. Unless the scouts are typing directly into the form, the lines are better. Thank you for considering my input.

Aug 16, 2014 - Mary

Can #8 be in email form?

May 26, 2015 - Terry Eckberg

Are the locations for requirement 2a and 2d the same and the main difference is 2a is a physical visit and 2d is more of a research effort?

May 26, 2015 - Scouter Paul

@Terry - The requirements refer to two different places. National Monuments and Historic Places are different things. There are about 114 national monuments, but more like 90,000 historic places. So, any scout should be able to visit some historic place not too far away, but the closest national monument might be quite far.

Jun 29, 2015 - Robert

Can requirement #8 be in email form or do you actually have to write a letter?

Jul 02, 2015 - Scouter Paul

@Robert - The requirement states "letter", not "email". But, the merit badge counselor may interpret that to include email.

Mar 08, 2016 - Keith B

I have purchased detailed documentary tours of the Denver Mint and a second of the US Capitol Building to fulfill requirement #2 when teaching at a Merit Badge class event. During these videos I use that time to review scouts' worksheets and call them aside separately to go over various requirements with them.

Jun 06, 2016 - Jeff M

All National Park units with the designation of National Historic Site, National Historical Park, National Memorial, National Battlefield, National Cemetery and most National Monuments are already part of the National Historic Landmark or National Register of Historic Places. They must be on either of the two lists before they can become park units. National Monuments that are natural (not man made) are the exception.

Aug 21, 2016 - Jeff M

As far as requirement #8... My son wrote a letter on the computer and he emailed a PDF copy to our representative. In the body of the email he explained that it was for the merit badge. As each rep gets hundreds of emails and letters, explaining that the correspondence is for the Citizenship in the Nation merit badge they expedited a formal response. Any representative's office is always more then willing to help the scouts in any way they can.

Nov 21, 2019 - Maskinne2

We are looking to satisfy requirement 2C :Tour a federal facility. What are some options (other than the Mint) for fulfilling this requirement?

Nov 21, 2019 - Scouter Paul

@Maskinne2 - federal buildings, federal courts, post offices, military bases, federal prisons

Dec 10, 2019 - Peg

My son has been asked to edit his 1.5 page essay five times. It’s about his views on gun control and even though he has a counter-claim saying that he recognizes the second amendment would be hard to change, he cites good sources to back up his views on stricter controls. His counselor who is a gun owner and against gun controls want him to include his views. I think that’s inappropriate and more than what the requirement asks. What is your opinion?
Thank you,Peg

Dec 10, 2019 - Peg

Oh, by the way, some of the views he wants my son to include are that hunters like to use AR15s and that there should be stricter sentences for gun crimes, among several others. My son started researching those points and saw some disturbing things...also, these are not his views.

Dec 10, 2019 - Scouter Paul

@Peg - I'm not sure why your scout is writing a 1.5 page essay for any requirement in this merit badge. Is this for requirement #4e?
Regardless, from your description, it is my opinion that the counselor is pushing his views rather than doing his job as a merit badge counselor.
There's always another side to situations like this, but the requirements ask the scout to tell his views, not parrot his counselor's views.

Dec 10, 2019 - Peg

Thank you, Paul. Sorry, it was for requirement 8 - the letter to a senator giving the scout’s views on a topic of national significance. He started by writing a couple of paragraphs about the need for stricter gun controls. The counselor felt that his point of view would be strengthened by mentioning counter claims, but the ones he wanted him to include (like the ones I mentioned) took him to weird websites with some gruesome details. After five revisions, he then claimed my son didn’t write it and wanted him to start over with a different topic. It was ridiculous. I think he simply didn’t like his stance on gun control. My son finished this requirement with a different counselor, but ithe whole experience certainly lessened his enthusiasm for scouts.

Dec 10, 2019 - Peg

Is there a way to complain about a counselor other than the form on the scouts’ site? No one seems to respond to that. This person, in my opinion, has no business being a counselor. I would like to make sure no other kid has to experience this kind of thing in the future.

Dec 10, 2019 - Scouter Paul

@Peg - Your Council (and probably District) has an "Advancement Committee" led by the "Advancement Chair" volunteer. It is their role to administer the merit badge program in your local area, including approving merit badge counselors.
See Guide to Advancment.

Jan 21, 2020 - Dave Stallard

As a counselor for this merit badge, I accept a submission to the Senator/Representative’s website (written as a formal business letter) for Req 8. Embrace the technology.

Jan 30, 2020 - Pamela Hanshaw

I have a question. Does the ability to discuss the affect of an amendment mean the scouts must to memorize the 27 amendments and to be able to discuss what would life be like withouthout it? Can they use notes or the worksheet to reference for this discussion?

How would you life be different today without the ____th amendment?

Jan 30, 2020 - Scouter Paul

@Pamela - Your question gives me the impression that a counselor is asking a scout to do more than you feel is appropriate - maybe I'm reading it wrong.
Requirement #4 says to discuss each document, not every item inside every document. The scout should be familiar enough with each document to be able to discuss its effect on the country.
If a counselor is requiring a scout to memorize all the amendments, I would find a different counselor and tell the District or Council Advancement Chair of my concerns.

May 11, 2020 - Andrea Luken

With the current COVID-19 Pandemic- can the scouts do a virtual tour of a National Historic Landmark instead of physically visiting a site for this badge?

May 17, 2020 - Jane

@Andrea Luken - The BSA has updated its COVID-19 FAQs page at the following link:

www.scouting.org/coronavirus/covid-19-faq/

In the FAQs, the BSA says:

"Some advancement activities can be completed by video conferencing but not all. For example, virtual visits to a city council meeting, national historic landmarks, museums, and art galleries may be acceptable, but swimming, rifle shooting, and motorboating merit badges cannot be completed virtually."

The word "may" means that it's at the discretion of the merit badge counselor if the counselor thinks that a virtual visit would meet the intent of the requirement or not.

Just my opinion, but I think in most cases the Scout will have a better experience if they wait until they are able to visit the National Historic Landmark or National Register of Historic Places in person (many can be visited outdoors). On the other hand, if the Scout is close to aging out of the program, then this might not be an option for the Scout.

Apr 20, 2021 - Laurie

For visiting the state capitol in the state where you live. We are 60 miles from a state capitol in another state and 4 1/2 hours from the capitol in the state where we live. May we visit the closest capitol to meet the requirement 2b?

Apr 20, 2021 - Scouter Paul

@Laurie - Many state capitols now have online virtual tours which the merit badge counselor could accept. You can see the US Capitol tour here. Otherwise, the scout should ask their merit badge counselor about visiting a neighboring capitol. It sounds like it should work, but would not include the scout's state history, so the counselor might not agree.

Feb 21, 2023 - Ronald Feldman

Your hints for news sources list mostly left leaning news sources. Reuters is about the only one that is close to neutral but a little to the left. Epoch Times is about the equivalent to Reuters but slightly to the right but tells both sides of the issue which many journalists fail to do. What I suggest to scouts is to look for articles that tell the opposite sides of a story and have them engage in critical thinking to determine bias and truthfulness in news articles and stories.

Feb 21, 2023 - Scouter Paul

@Ronald - It's certainly a good idea to gather differing views of news stories. If you refer to the Media Bias Chart, those resources I've listed are in the 'Middle' category. 'Epoc Times' is based very far to the right and far down on the 'Fact Reporting' scale.

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