The Pack Scouter's Handbook

The Pack Scouters Handbook THE PACK SCOUTER’S HANDBOOK Published by The Canadian General Council of The Boy Scouts Association, Ottawa 1965 Page 1 The Pack Scouters Handbook Downloaded from: “The Dump” at Scoutscan.com http://www.thedump.scoutscan.com/ Editor’s Note: The reader is reminded that these texts have been written a long time ago. Consequently, they may use some terms or express sentiments which were current at the time, regardless of what we may think of them at the beginning of the 21st century. For reasons of historical accuracy they have been preserved in their original form. If you find them offensive, we ask you to please delete this file from your system. This and other traditional Scouting texts may be downloaded from The Dump. Introduction The original and still basic book for Pack Scouters (Wolf Cub Leaders) is “The Wolf Cub’s Handbook” by the Founder of the Boy Scout Movement, the late Lord Baden-Powell of Gilwell. Each year, every Pack Scouter should read that book from cover to cover. This Handbook is offered not as a substitute but as a companion volume to “The Wolf Cub’s Handbook”. We feel that it will be of great use to all Canadian Pack Scouters, whether new or experienced in Wolf Cub leadership. In many respects this “Pack Scouter’s Handbook” is based on the well-known “Cubmaster’s First Year” which contributed so much towards the development of Cubbing in Canada during the last decade. To that base has been added additional information from many sources to form the “Pack Scouter’s Handbook”. We hope that this Handbook will help in the great work of preparing the small boy for Scouting. If it does, then it will be a success. We want to thank the many Scouters, here and in other countries, who have contributed in one way or another to the writing of this book. Our special thanks must go to the Boy Scouts of England and the Boy Scouts of America for ideas, suggestions, and other information gleaned from their respective publications. Page 2 The Pack Scouters Handbook Contents Introduction Cubbing 2 Pack Organization 12 Discipline in the Pack 23 Jungle Atmosphere 27 Programme Planning 33 The Way to the Stars ... 74 Games 95 The World of Books 102 Play-Acting and Music in Cubbing 109 Handicrafts 116 Wolf Cub Ceremonies 125 Duty to God in the Wolf Cub Pack 132 Proficiency Badges 138 The Pack in the Group 150 Camping for Cubs 153 Miscellany. 169 CHAPTER ONE Cubbing WHAT IS CUBBING? Children enjoy make-believe games. Canadian boys for generations have played cowboys and Indians, cops and robbers. Today they may be airmen in whistling jet aircraft or spacemen on their way to the moon. Since play is the child’s way of learning, the Cub programme is carefully planned to teach the boy as he plays. Kipling’s Jungle Stories, so appealing to boys, supply a rich fund of adventure, romance, games, story-telling, play-acting, handicrafts and singing. Thus, a programme of character training has been developed which more than forty years of use has proved fundamentally sound. Baden-Powell said: “Play is the first great educator. We teach the Cubs small things through play which will eventually fit them for doing big things in the future.” Page 3 The Pack Scouters Handbook The whole idea of Cubbing is to prepare the small boy for Boy Scouting. This does not mean for one minute that you should try to make him into a mild edition of a Scout – far from it. But it does mean that you can train him to be alive, alert, and interested in all around him. Your aim is to develop in him a sense of obedience to you, the Old Wolf, which is the beginning of the team spirit, so necessary to good Scouting. The immediate objective of Cubbing is the development of a group of small boys into a happy family, playing together in good sportsmanship, and learning to give and take. Through the daily good turn the Cubs are taught to think of others. While there are many kinds of colourful stories and backgrounds which can be brought into the Cubbing programme, the romance of the Jungle Books, by Rudyard Kipling, comes first and is more continuous. The Jungle Stories are told bit by bit to the New Chum, and form the background to all his many-sided activities as a Cub. The terms “Cub” and “Old Wolf” are undoubtedly attractive to the boy of Cub age. But, without knowing about Mowgli, the Indian boy, the young wolves of the Seeonee Pack, and Akela, the Old Wolf, as described in the Jungle Stories, those terms are just words and convey no meaning to the boy. Similarly, the Law and the Grand Howl (A-ke-la, we’ll do our best), are just phrases without the background of the stories. You, as Pack Scouters, must know and appreciate the stories if you are to succeed in making the Cubs enthusiastic about them. Incidents and phrases from the Jungle Books are used to catch the Cubs’ imagination in connection with many of the activities of the Pack programme. They are, in effect, little plays in which the whole Pack can take part. But the plays cannot be effective with Cubs who do not know the stories, and, therefore, do not appreciate what they are expected to do. Nor can the plays succeed unless the Old Wolves themselves take the lead and show their enthusiasm for them. An important fact to be kept in mind is that the programme of the Wolf Cub Section is quite distinct from that of the Boy Scout Section. Essentially, the Cub is an individualist whereas the Scout has reached the “gang stage”. The younger boy is satisfied to submit to the control of adults, whereas the Scout is developing independence of spirit, along with self- control. In the Cub, the sense of honour is rudimentary; in the Scout, it is a characteristic expected of him from the day of his Investiture. In other words, the difference in the psychology of each of the two age groups is the sound reason for two distinctly different programmes. Should a Cubmaster insist upon his own original ideas of Cubbing as against those of the Founder, and use a watered-down programme of Scouting for Cubs, this almost certainly will fail, and in all likelihood the hoys will shortly be lost to Scouting. The Founder said, “The Wolf Cub Pack is designed to be a junior branch of the Scout Movement in order to meet the eagerness of a large number of small boys who want to be Scouts and who are as yet too young”. It is important that Wolf Cub Leaders keep this in mind. Page 4 The Pack Scouters Handbook THE BOY! The Small Boy’s Limitations The Founder has a chart in The Wolf Cub’s Handbook showing boy-failings and Cub- remedies. It will be of help to you to review this chart occasionally in your work with Cubs. It will also help to know some of the characteristics of Cub-age boys. Many Cubmasters have had the experience of hearing garbled stories of Pack happenings and announcements as reported to mystified, sometimes startled, parents. The comprehension of small boys should never be taken for granted. A Winnipeg Akela once told of asking her Pack, “Who is Baden-Powell?” and from one eager informant received the answer, “He’s one of the Jungle animals”, – a story which greatly amused the late Chief Scout. A Cub and Mother conversation probably startled a new, young Lady Cubmaster, if it reached her. Her predecessor in charge of the Pack, when telling stories, had always pointed out the moral. The Cub concerned was telling his mother about the new Akela. “She tells the grandest stories”, he declared, “and they have no morals”. Reminding us that Cubs are the same everywhere are these stories from Australia: Akela was asking one of his Cubs why teeth should be cleaned. The startling practical reply he got was, “So that when you grow up and join the army you can eat tough meat”. Another Akela had been preparing several Cubs for the First Aider badge. She explained that shock accompanies an accident, and that it was necessary therefore to keep a patient warm and quiet. She went on to tell what should be done for a person whose clothing had caught on fire. In reviewing the subject she asked why a blanket or rug was wrapped around a person whose clothes were burning. Promptly answered one small Cub, “To keep him warm”. The necessity for cleanliness was the subject of another discussion. Akela concluded: “And now, why do we wash our hands at night, Bobby?” “So we don’t have to wash them in the morning”, was the practical answer. The boy of Cub age normally is an active, restless, alert, questioning bundle of energy. He is an individual and needs to be dealt with as an individual. He probably responds better to suggestion than he does to bossing. He is particularly alert to the spirit and atmosphere about him. He catches it. The critical, grouchy, easily angered leader stifles natural joyousness and tends to make his boys nervous and on edge. The friendly, buoyant, happy leader has Cubs around him who are ready to follow. The Cub Physically The Cub is full of energy which demands some form of outlet. He approximates perpetual motion, but that is Nature’s way of building the necessary muscular co-ordination between hand, ear and eye.

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