FWIW as a Boy Scout in the 80s we definitely learned to cook. There was no "merit badge" I'm aware of for cooking, but when we went camping we were expected to

FWIW as a Boy Scout in the 80s we definitely learned to cook. There was no "merit badge" I'm aware of for cooking, but when we went camping we were expected to prepare 3 meals a day, mostly cooked. So in the mornings we might cook eggs and bacon. For lunch we usually did something relatively simple like heat up canned or cook dry mix soup. Dinners were on the spectrum everywhere from a hot dog on a stick to cooking steaks. We did various baking tasks such as making a solar stove to cook canned biscuits and the "foil packs" where you put veggies, potatoes, meat, and seasonings wrapped in foil into a fire to steam/cook them. I don't know what your cooking experience was like, and it sounds like from the other responses my experience might have been unique, but those things definitely laid a foundation and created confidence for future cooking tasks out of a cook book or something.