I heard an analogy recently that kinda hit the point home:
A guy's kid, let's call him Jimmy, wanted to become a boy scout. Unfortunately, Jimmy was so busy with sports and other activities that he didn't have time to go to scout meetings, work on merit badges, on campouts, etc. The local council, seeing the perceived decline in membership decided to offer a chance for boys to join and become Eagle Scouts in just ONE day! That's right, little Jimmy could go from Scout rank all the way up past Tenderfoot, Second Class, First Class, Star, and Life right up to Eagle, no need for lengthy merit badges, leadership, service and whatnot. The theory was that, they would go back *afterwards* and learn woodcraft, camping, pioneering, orienteering, wilderness survival, rowing, knots, first aid, citizenship, etc on their own time and they could enjoy being an Eagle scout straight away. Sure, some of the boys who went this route this ended up growing up to becoming quite well-rounded individuals so the practice was kept around, but sadly a lot of boys didn't see the benefit in this and so fell away, quit, and forgot about the whole thing.