It's what you learned on the way that matters.Yep. That's what I love about merit badges. My oldest son has 21 now, and my youngest has 15. I hope to keep them going getting as many of them as they find interesting and possible to complete. Even the ones like Bird Study are just incredible for general knowledge and opening their little teenage minds to new things. :-)
I know you meant more than merit badges, too, but I'm just the mom and not really involved in other parts of their Scout lives like my husband is...
The music and bugling merit badges were a piece of cake. I was in the habit of practicing my trumpet 3 hours per day to stay in the first seat. The electricity, radio and electronics merit badges were easy too. I eventually parlayed that experience into an Extra Class ham license and First Class Radiotelephone license. Mastering Morse code in scouts made that part of the ham license dirt simple.
I surprised my mom by earning the Firemanship merit badge while she was on a 3-day visit to Honolulu, Hawaii to see my dad during one of his cruises.
The merit badge counselor for the Markmanship merit badge was also the local examiner for the hunter's safety exam required to get a hunting license in California. I passed the hunter's safety exam and the merit badge requirements in one sitting. The shooting part was dead simple. Five groups, 3 shots per group at 50 feet. Each group must be small enough to cover with a quarter. I do that at 100 yards and cover it with a dime today.
This was my sighting in target to see how close the scope was to center. I still have 15 rounds in the box of 20 to finish moving the group to dead center.