One first year cub received his first badge recently and it was so fulfilling to see him in front of his pack buddies being awarded with a Collector badge! He was so happy, beaming a grin from cheek to cheek! I know that it has been written somewhere that boys and girls that have a parent involved directly with the pack as a leader are more likely to be successful in earning badges. It is unfortunate but likely the truth.
My son is probably a solid example of this.
Josiah now has 8 merit badges plus one on the way and shortly will be adding his Religion In Life badge to his sash (more about the R.I.L. badge another day). That's ten earned badges in less than ten pack meetings!
Call him an over-acheiver, but I do wonder how many he would have if I sat at home and was not involved directly in his pack?
Perhaps I shouldn't be so involved- let him take more of a lead. I'm not sure. But he really enjoys being a cubscout. When we sit down to work on his badge requirements, he is so gung-ho. He seems to really want to work hard at what needs to be done so I don't want to take a step back yet.
As far as the other cubs, I am not so sure what to do to motivate them at home. I guess I need to accept the fact that I am powerless in regards to helping them in their homelife badge work. That is still ultimately the parents responsiblilty.
But what we are doing during our pack meetings is where I believe that us leaders can have some influence. Here's why.
Our Akela, with input from other leaders, has put together a program whereby all of the cubscouts, if they attend regular meetings, will automatically receive two Stars each year in rotation, based on work that is accomplished during their regular meetings. Along with this, the cubs will be working towards certain merit badges as well (if meetings are missed they will need to catch up on some requirements on their own before they can receive any stars/badges).
So, even if no work is done at the home level, they should still be able to aquire some badges to a certain degree.
I think this is probably the best that we can hope for.
yours in Scouting... LE
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