Every once in a while I get what I think is a great idea. From experience, I suspect most people tend to disagree with many of them. Here are a few ideas I've had lately about updates or adjustments that I think need to happen in relation to the Cub Scout program. Some of them are not at all controversial and I think would get pretty much universal support. Others, may be in the category described above, where most people will probably disagree. But I want to throw them out there anyway.
1. We need updates to the Pack Meeting plans provided by the BSA. They are outdated in at least two important ways (and one minor one).
First, they were created before girls were allowed to join Cub Scouts, so all the references are to boys, sons, etc. This would be a relatively simple update, but one that I think is important.
Second, they were created before Lions were a part of the pack. Understand, however, that Lions can participate in Pack Meeting at whatever level they are comfortable. It's possible that none of the Lions would come, and that's fine. In that case, they can be left off. In my pack, however, all the Lions are younger siblings of other Scouts and they want to be involved. They would feel left out if they weren't included. Pack Meeting plans, including the advancement ceremonies, should include Lions.
Lastly, at the time the plans were created, the themes were organized by month. Now, they are organized by the values of the Scout Law. It's a minor update to remove the reference to the month on the plan, but it just illustrates how outdated they are.
2. In the advancement ceremonies mentioned in #1, I think that the Bobcat rank should be replaced with the Lion rank. I'm not suggesting we do away with Bobcat, I'm saying that the text of the suggested ceremonies should include Lion instead of Bobcat. I have two reasons for this.
First, as mentioned above, because Lions are a (relatively) new part of Cub Scouts they have been left out of all the developed advancement ceremonies. They need to be included so the Scouts feel like they belong.
Second, the way the Cub Scout program is designed is that packs do a most of their recruiting around the beginning of the school year and, if they are working diligently, most of the Scouts will finish their rank in time to have it awarded at the Blue and Gold Banquet. That means that almost all of the Scouts will be awarded their rank patches at the same time and you can use one advancement ceremony one time in the year to give them all out. Except for Bobcat. They have to do their Bobcat before they can get any other awards. So, if you have a bunch of new Scouts join in September, they should be awarded their Bobcat badge at their very first Pack Meeting at the end of September. It doesn't make sense to include Bobcat in the script of your advancement ceremony that you will be using in February when they all earned it back in September. The Bobcat rank should be awarded in it's own ceremony, separate from all the other ranks.
Speaking of Bobcat, I would like to suggest a few changes here, too.
3. It doesn't make sense to me to have the Bobcat badge as a rank, on par with the Lion, Tiger, Wolf, Bear, Webelos, and Arrow of Light ranks. The Bobcat is a joining badge. I would love to see the patch replaced with a pin that could be worn on the left pocket flap. One of the the biggest reasons (but not the only one--see #4, below) for this suggested change is that it would make it easier to sew the Lion patch on the shirt. Really.
Right now, once a Scout earns all their Lion, Bobcat, Tiger, Wolf, and Bear ranks, the patches on their left pocket would look like this:
4. Here's another problem with the Bobcat badge as it exists now. Scouts don't earn the Bobcat as Lions. They have to do it when they become Tigers. The requirements are pretty basic: saying the Scout Oath and Law and telling what they mean, etc. The very first adventure for Lions (Lions Honor) has them do basically the same requirements. They just don't get the badge. And then they have to re-do it when they join the Tiger den.
I think what happened here is that when Lions were created, they made a fantastic program for kindergarten ages and then just threw it into the existing Cub Scout pack without much thought for how they would all fit into the existing structure. And they didn't make any adjustments to the rest of the program to accommodate Lions.
So, here's a fix. Make the bobcat award a joining award in the form of a pin and implement my suggestion #3. Every Scout, no matter their grade when they join (even Lions), first completes the requirements for this pin. For Lions, it is their first adventure. After they earn it, they get to wear this cool Cub Scout pin. Then, when Lions move into Tigers, they don't have to re-do this silly extra rank that they completed nearly a year earlier. They just move forward working on the Tiger rank.
5. My last suggestion is more of a needed cultural shift, rather than an adjustment to the program. I think the program, as it is outlined now, has it right. We just need to adjust our traditions to match. It has to do with how we treat the Arrow of Light award.
It used to be that the Arrow of Light was considered the highest award in Cub Scouts. In order to earn it you had to have earned at least the Webelos rank. It was celebrated with all kinds of extra fancy plaques and arrows with dangly feathers and beads and whatnot. Just do an image search on Google for "Arrow of Light" and you'll see what I mean. Some people even said that the Arrow of Light was the Cub Scout equivalent of the Eagle Scout award. But it's not.
The Cub Scout advancement program is not like that for Scouts BSA. In Scouts BSA, regardless of the age you start, you have to first earn Scout, then Tenderfoot, then 2nd Class, etc. There is a direct progression of ranks from one to the next for all Scouts. By the time a Scout has earned Eagle, they will have spent years working toward it. In Cub Scouts, there is a rank assigned for each grade. Regardless of what age a Scout joins, they begin working on the rank that corresponds to their grade: Lion for kindergarten, Tiger for 1st grade, Wolf for 2nd grade, Bear for 3rd grade, Webelos for 4th grade, and Arrow of Light for 5th grade. If a Scout joins the pack for the first time in 3rd grade, he or she just starts with Bear, they don't go back to earn Lion, or Tiger, or Wolf. It is entirely possible to have kids join Cub Scouts in 5th grade and still earn their Arrow of Light award, without having earned any other rank (except Bobcat). As the program exists today, the Arrow of Light is nothing more and nothing less than the appropriate rank for 5th grade Cub Scouts.
If you look at the suggested advancement ceremonies in the Pack Meeting plans, the Arrow of Light is treated just the same as all the other ranks. That's what it is. It is not some special award that Cubs have worked toward for years on end. It is the appropriate rank for their grade.
So, I think we should do away with the tradition of awarding fancy plaques and arrows along with the Arrow of Light rank. I have had Scouts (and probably parents) think that the homemade arrow with the dangly beads and feathers was the award. It's not. The award is the rank patch.
That does present another problem, though, and I'm not sure how to deal with it. If the Arrow of Light award is just another Cub Scout rank, why do we have a square knot for adults who earned it as a youth? Does it make sense to do that? Should we phase that out? I tend to think so, but I don't know. I like mine.
