My son likes competition in anything that isn't physical because he can't really compete physically, except to try to improve his own individual score. He liked studying for and competing in the spelling bee. He liked to be the first to memorize lines in musical theater. He likes competing with his dad on computer and video games. He likes buying used games like Brain Age and competing with the person who owned the game previously. He likes competition in trivia games.
He told me one of the things he didn't like about the new scout group was that it seemed like they encouraged what he called "socialized badge earning" so that nobody earns more badges than the next person. He says this takes away any incentive for him to work hard on what he can do. They seem to want the kids to earn badges at the same time with the rest of the group (most of them at the camps) and not work on them on their own. The Boy Scouts requirement book says any boy scout can earn any merit badge at any time and you don't need to have had rank advancement to be eligible. So I know we need to talk to someone else in the group. But it may be that our local rules are different than some other groups because when he was a cub scout they wouldn't let him earn academic pins until he was in Webelos because they said it wouldn't be fair to the other kids.
