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Last Updated 12/4/03
Why It Is
Necessary And How To Get It.
A Home and Neighborhood
Program
The Cub
Scout program of the Boy Scouts of America stresses the relationship
of the family to the Scouting program and importance of the family in the
the development of the Cub Scout age boy. Cub Scouting gives families sets
of age appropriate activities structured so that parents and other family
members have considerable control of how the Cub Scout grows.
The Cub Scout program of the Boy Scouts
of America is unique among the various Cub programs in the World Scouting
movement. Our method is based on activities a boy could do around his own
home or in his immediate neighborhood. While most other Cub organizations
conducted a sort of “junior Boy Scout” program with a few leaders in each
pack, the BSA opts for something quite different: fun stuff right near
home with adult leaders for each den.
YOUR SON
WHO INFLUENCES
HIM AS HE GROWS?
Boys up to the age of 9 are influenced by people
in his home more than by any others. Parents or others there have had the
greatest power in his life since he was born and he reacts mostly to them.
The importance of peer pressure will typically not start to take over until
around age 10, as he makes close friends, and it will grow through the
early teens when the peers replace the parents as the main force in his
life.
The influence of other adults: neighbors, teachers,
leaders in Scouts, religion and sports will also start about age 10 and
often will overshadow peer influence by the late teen years. As he grows,
he reaches out to his community for acceptance and companions.
Parents and other close family members have a relatively
narrow window of a few years to open the door to their boy's future - to
shape his character, help set his life's goals and how he will react to
his next set of influencers. These Tiger and Cub Scout years are the time
for parents to spend as much time as they can with him, to lead him into
positive activities, to get to know his friends and his friends' families.
Cub Scouting gives parents a wonderful set of tools to do exactly these
things.
The life of a six-to-ten year old is centered on
his home. He is just learning how to form close friends and explore new
places. He still looks to mom and dad for approval, support and advice.
Typically, he doesn’t start reaching out to other adults away from his
home until the middle school years. Those Cub Scout years are recognized
as an opportunity window for parents to exercise the greatest influence
on their sons. Fathers who wait until their sons are in Boy Scouts to become
involved are often rudely disappointed – by then, the boys are usually
looking elsewhere for guidance and inspiration. Do it now in Cub Scouting!
DO YOU BOTH
COMMUNICATE?
Much of Cub Scouting involves lots of short activities
where a boy and his parents do things together. These activities: getting
ready for a Tiger meeting, building a Pine Wood Derby Car, working on achievements
and electives - automatically involve TALKING. They TALK, they listen to
each other, they plan, they express their hopes, their concerns, and their
jokes. They learn to respect each others moods and styles. They create
special communication channels that remain vital and valuable for all their
lives.
Each Tiger Track Bead and Arrow Point on his shirt
is a sign that says "We spent hours doing neat things together!"
WHO IS HIS
ROLE MODEL?
A Role Model is someone the boy sees as an image
of his future acts in life. At Cub Scout age, this is a person he presently
knows, someone he loves and admires - usually an adult or older sibling
in his home. He will grow up with many of the traits - the ethics and the
life goals - that he perceives in that role model.
Don't confuse role models with heroes such as the
sports star, the great statesman or the military figure. These can become
important beacons in a boy's growing up but rarely will he copy their day-to-day
life styles. A role model tends to be the person he sees every day. The
boy's talk, his walk, the way he thinks and the way he solves problems
become images of how that person acts. That person, usually his parent,
is the true role model.
Cub Scouting gives parents opportunities to
show their sons examples of leadership and responsibility. It may be a
leading a den or pack meeting, or organizing the Blue & Gold banquet
or Fourth of July Parade or Friends of Scouting campaign, but every parent
should take on a visible job in his Cub Scout pack where the Cub Scout
can see his role model doing something important. Every
Cub Scout deserves to see his parent be a hero.
Being
at Meetings
Younger Cub Scouts, and especially Tigers, are
much more comfortable having a parent with them at meetings and activities.
Pack meetings are where the boys get a chance to show off – where they
are recognized for Doing Their Best, for living up to all those ideals
in the Cub Scout Promise and Motto. It’s important those adults who love
him are there to share in this recognition and be part of the celebration.
One of the huge benefits of Cub Scouting is that
parents are forced to meet and communicate with other neighborhood parents
which puts you one good step ahead as your boy enters his teen years. You
know and talk to his friends' parents.
Working in
the Books
The achievements - 15 Tiger, 12 Wolf and 12 Bear
- represent those things a growing boy should be doing as he learns to
be a better citizen and a more responsible and capable human being. They
give parents and others ample opportunities to observe and understand how
this boy is growing up: what sort of adult he will be, what kind of husband,
what type of father, and what quality of community member he will become.
Informed parents and leaders can - and should - make the achievements fun
experiences for the boys.
But there is a lot more to it. The electives automatically
involve TALKING. The boy and his parent TALK, they listen to each other,
they plan; they express their hopes, their concerns, and their jokes. They
learn to respect each others moods, ideas and styles. They create special
communication channels that remain vital and valuable for all their lives.
If you, as a leader, shut out the parents by doing
a lot of Tiger and Cub Scout advancement at den meetings then you deny
the parents the opportunity to establish these relationships with their
sons.
Helping Leaders
Cub Scouting gives parents opportunities to show
their sons examples of leadership and responsibility. It may be a leading
a den or pack meeting, or organizing the Blue & Gold banquet or Fourth
of July Parade or Friends of Scouting campaign, but every parent should
take on a visible job in his Cub Scout pack where the Cub Scout can see
his role model doing something important.
How to Involve
Parents
It takes constant effort, patience and a sense
of humor.
When the Boy Joins
Ensure that every family is aware of the Parent’s
Agreement and understands their obligations when we accept their application
to join. The longer we wait the harder it becomes to involve parents. Recruit
the parent along with the boy.
Organization and Support
One of the most important tasks a Cub Scout leader
does is to convince other parents how important it is for them to get involved
in their sons' Cub Scout program and how this helps their families and
their boys' development. When they make that a priority and then start
working at it, they have a good chance at success.
Being a good Cub Scout leader takes
more than just running the meetings - that's the easy part.
Interacting with other adults - especially parents - is the essential job
quality of Cub Scout leadership.
Each time we take on another job that could be
done by a parent who is not performing as a role model for his/her son
we are admitting that we have failed. Instead of sharing responsibility
we have opted for the easy work around: do it ourselves instead of teaching
others that it is better that they do it.
Worse, we have hurt two boys. We have hurt our own
sons because the time it takes to do the second (or third and so on) job
often comes from the time needed to fulfill our duties as Akela to our
own sons, and also, we have deprived another boy the chance to see his
parent be a hero - doing something important in his Cub pack.
Never, never
do anything that you can possibly get another parent to do.
Parental
Involvement
Increasing parent involvement is always a challenge,
you're not alone.
One successful strategy is to make a gigantic poster
listing all of the Pack positions, activity chairs, and other jobs that
will need to be filled throughout the year with a blank next to each. Fill
in the ones where you have a volunteer ahead of time. Take the poster to
your Join scouting Night meeting and tell the new parents that each is
expected to take on at least one of these jobs, explaining that Cub Scouting
is a family organization and must have family; e.g., parent participation.
Similarly put the poster in the front of the room for your Pack Meeting
and give the same encouragement. This will net a few and help with a little
peer fear/pressure. Nobody likes being seen as a non contributor. Let them
know that, if you don't see their names, you'll help them find something.
Then the Pack's leadership can divide the missing names and follow-up with
one-to-one invitations.
A great selling point, when you begin to hear excuses
is to tell them that what the Cub Scout program offers is what each parent
would like to give his/her child, if there was enough time and that the
advantage is that we can pool resources to see that each boy gets those
things. This means that you the parent have to carry your share, which
is a lot less than if you were trying to do all of these things yourself.
Remind them that its not fair to ask other parents to shoulder their own
share and this excuse maker's as well. You may lose one or two that don't
want the commitment, but would they have stayed anyway?
Another point is that there are a lot of folks
that are hesitant to volunteer, especially in Hispanic communities. Some
will be honored to be asked and to see your trust in them and will respond
positively with encouragement. One of the best Webelos leaders I ever had
sat quietly and never said a word at meetings for over a year because nobody
every asked. I saw enthusiasm in his eyes and asked. A week later he came
to a meeting in full uniform with every patch in the right place, brimming
with ideas. He took Webelos to camp each year and never missed an activity.
His den grew and had to be split twice.
While there is no best solution, consider making
it a point to find the positive attributes of each parent as you get to
know them and then use that as a reason you think they would be good at
________________.
Leaders'
Responsibilities
A pack is under no obligation to accept the membership
of any boy whose parents are not willing to help. (read the parent agreement
on the application form.) Let them know at the start that you will be asking
them to help and you do expect them to say yes.
Once you start doing all the jobs yourself and blaming
the parents who don't help, you are paving the way to failure. As my old
SM buddy Murray told me long ago when I complained about our neighborhood
pack:
"The reason that
the Cub Scouts is so bad is that loud mouthed parents like you complain
instead of getting involved and doing something about it."
When you realize that the most important part of any
den or pack leader's job is to get other parents involved in their sons'
Cub Scouting, and then start working at that, you will have a good chance
at
success.
Being a good Cub Scout leader takes more than running
the meetings - that's the easy part.
PARENT INVOLVEMENT
HOW?
How do you get parental involvement
in a Scout unit? While their are many things that could be offered on the
subject, one thing that stands out in my experience is "communicating the
commitment."
IMPERSONAL
& BLIND LUCK?
Too often when everyone is
busy we resort to newsletters, letters of welcome to the Pack, and requests
for help in meetings hoping that everyone will catch on to what is needed
and jump right in.
THE AUDIENCE:
However, there are many packs
where this is not enough. Parents are both working, some Scouts only have
a single parent, there has been a divorce, the family has just moved and
is new to the area, their is a health problem, the parents are newly arrived
from another country, the parents are shy and uncertain, or you find other
challenges.
A BETTER
WAY:
What seems to work best is
a one-to-one face-to-face session with the new parent(s) over a cup of
coffee. Face-to-face it is harder to say no and easier for you to answer
specific concerns and find unique ways for each parent to help according
to their time and talents.
SUGGESTIONS:
From among those who are
participating; e.g. the Cubmaster and active committee members, divide
up the parents you wish to target and: Make an appointment to stop by at
their home or a local place that serves soft drinks and coffee. Ask for
about an hour of time and make sure you keep things moving. Spend
about five minutes really selling the Pack. Show what the Pack has done.
Explain how the Cub Scouts really grow. Talk about advancement for a minute
or so. Talk about the really great activities that the Pack is planning.
Ask how the parent's son is doing. How do they feel about Scouting? Do
they have questions? Things they'd like to know? What are their hobbies?
What special skills do they have? (Do your personnel resources inventory
on the spot without paper in sight, while getting to know the parent.)
Talk to them about parental
commitment and how important it is to make sure their son has a good Scouting
experience - hit home. Yes they will have a hundred reasons why they are
busy. But remind them that by pooling talents with all the other parents
it is a lot easier to make sure all the boys have a lot more great opportunities
than if only the parent was trying to do it all alone. You do want the
best for your son? You want to see him grow and stay out of trouble?
As you begin to learn about
the Scout and the parent, ask leading questions about how they could help
in a particular activity - something where they can get their feet wet
and enjoy a successful experience. The key here is starting them small.
Start them out by just asking them to drive one way on a trip, helping
set up an activity nearby, or helping a Den Leader at one or two meetings,
but not in a lead position until they have confidence. You probably know
of at least a dozen small things that could use a helping hand. Pick one
that fits the parent, where they can't hardly go wrong.
Immediately recognize their
success and help!! Present drivers with a small matchbox type car with
a Scouting decal on the top or something simple to say thanks or some simple
homemade recognition appropriate to the task. Give a set of blue and gold
ball point pens for someone who helped at Roundup or a gold sprayed spark
plug for a someone who helped with your fundraiser. You get the idea. Now
that you have the hook set, reel 'em in a little close with another more
difficult assignment and again recognize what they do. All along the way
communicate the commitment by explaining, selling the program, and asking
for personal help.
DON'T BE
DISCOURAGED:
Some of these people will
move on before you get them very involved and you can't do much about it.
But there will be some that will get the fever and jump right in.
REMEMBER
TO ASK INDIVIDUALS :
I always find that there
are at least three parents out of a dozen that would love to help, if only
asked. They don't volunteer for cultural reasons (for example, in Hispanic
families it may be considered rude to assert qualification for leadership
roles, but your invitation would be more than welcome), because of shyness,
because they are not sure they can do it, etc. But once asked, these parents
bloom and become the best of Scout leaders. So ask!
Nothing tells your child you
care more than choosing to be with him.
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SOME MORE
OF SCOUTING'S
VALUES
FOR FAMILIES
Educational
Goals:
Scouting is primarily, an educational program.
The program teaches boys a complex of moral and ethical
traits that promote self-reliance, self-discipline, self-confidence and
self respect.
We teach young men the duties, obligations, privileges
and functions of citizenship.
We promote healthy, drug free, growth and developing
physical skills.
We practice mental skills of judgment, problem solving,
concentration and imagination.
Citizenship
training:
From the very beginning, Scouts are taught to love,
and do their duty to their country.
Citizenship is taught in many ways: to understand how
government works, to participate in representative government, to handle
responsibilities.
We expect each Scout to grow up to be a valuable member
of his community.
Character
development:
We expect all members to do their best, to help other
people, and to be trustworthy.
As the boy grows older, we expect him to live by the
Scout Oath and Law at all times.
No activity, no course of action is acceptable if he
violates these ideals.
Cub Scout
Academic program:
A series of projects that expand a boy's ability and
appreciation of six academic pursuits: music, art, geography, math, science
and citizenship.
Boy Scout
Merit Badge Program:
Specialty programs that cover an expansive array of
subjects: recreational, academic, technical, public service, industrial
and …. Scouts choose the areas of interest, but some are required
for rank advancement.
Webelos Activity
Badge program:
A set of twenty programs that include citizenship,
athletics, geology, science, dramatics, naturalist, and more, for boys
in grades 4 and 5. They supplement standard school curricula.
Flexible
program:
Scouting is designed to fit the needs of the individual
boy and his family. Although the Boy Scouts of America has firm policies
to protect its members and to ensure we achieve the aims of our program:
character development, citizenship training and fitness, our methods are
varied and are adaptable to many situations.
Self paced advancement: Boys advance at their own rate.
We believe that each individual should be judged, not by arbitrary standards,
but whether or not he did his best.
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IT'S
ONLY ONE HOUR A WEEK
Sometimes Cub Scout leaders joke about how we were
told that being a Den Leader or a Cubmaster takes only one hour a week.
We all know that to do the job properly it takes considerably longer.
However, a lot can be accomplished in an hour every
week. For example:
Would
you spend one hour a week with your son?
If you do, think of what you can accomplish by spending
that hour a week on him? During those 52 hours in the next year, you can:
Attend 12 pack meetings or activities with him, and
Help him through 12 achievements in his Wolf or Bear
Book, or
Help him through the 5 Family and 5 Go See It Tiger
requirements and
Help him earn 1 Gold Arrow Point and 10 Silver Arrow
Points.
At your next Pack Meeting, ask the parents
if
their son is worth one hour of their time each week?
Bill
