Scouting

Cub Scouts

Advancement

I started out in Cub Scouts in 3rd grade. It was possible to join the scouts starting in 1st grade, but I didn't join then. They recently made it possible to join the scouts in kindergarten. There are now five ranks in Cub Scouts. Kids in kindergarten are Lions, 1st graders are the rank of Tiger, 2nd grade is Wolf, 3rd grade is Bear. 4th and 5th graders are the rank of Webelos, short for "We'll be loyal scouts." Partway through 5th grade is when kids move from Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts.

Awards

Cub scouts earn adventures. Each adventure has certain requirements to be met. While a Lion, Tiger, Wolf, and Bear, adventures are awarded as metal loops that are slid onto the belt. Webelos scouts receive pins that are placed on the Webelos Colors, a set of ribbons held together with a pin. Despite the ranks advancing each year, scouts still must earn a certain amount of adventures at each rank in order to move to the next.

There is one final award that every scout needs, which is called the Arrow of Light. This is not just an adventure but also the final rank. There are specific adventures that are required in order to earn the Arrow of Light. This badge shows that the scout is ready to move from Cub Scouts to Scouts BSA. The Arrow of Light patch is the only Cub Scout patch that can be worn on the Scouts BSA uniform.

Boy Scouts

Halfway through 5th grade you switch from Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts. The scouting program is actually now called Scouts of America instead of Boy Scouts of America. The change was made because they now allow girls into the program. Male and female troops are still separated, but it is now possible to have a female troop. This change was done in order to allow girls to have a chance to earn the highly respected title of Eagle Scout.

Advancement

Advancement works differently in Scouts of America than it does in Cub Scouts. Instead of advancing a rank each year, scouts gain ranks by completing a specific list of requirements. There are seven total ranks for scouts to achieve. In the order earned, they are Scout, Tenderfoot, Second Class, First Class, Star, Life, and Eagle. Less than 10% of all scouts obtain the Eagle rank.

The requirements for Scout through First Class are to teach special skills to the scout. They learn first aid, knot tying, camping skills, and more. The ranks of Star, Life, and Eagle are much more focused on leadership. Scouts who are at these ranks teach younger scouts the skills they need to know. They are also required to hold leadership positions in the troop in order to continue advancing. I personally held the position of Bugler for almost four years. I would play Taps in the evening and Reveille in the moring on every campout I went on, which was most of them. My troop goes camping every month during the school year. Every year the troop spends one week at a summer camp in Michigan called Owasippe Scout Reservation where many troops go at once. The reservation is divided into camps. My troop always stays at Camp Blackhawk. My final year at Owasippe, I got to be the bugler for all of Blackhawk. I still played Reveille and Taps just for my troop at our campsite, but I also played To The Colors and Retreat at the Blackhawk morning and evening flag ceremonies respectively.

Awards

Like in Cub Scouts, scouts earn special awards called merit badges alongside and as part of rank advancement. In order to obtain the rank of Eagle Scout, he or she must earn at least 22 total merit badges, of which 12 specific badges are required. I became an Eagle Scout in 2019, and since then a new badge has been introduced that is also required for Eagle. This addition has not cut back the required number of badges the scout can choose as the total required number used to be 21 total badges. The requirements do change periodically, and that is the sacond major change that happened since I joined the Boy Scouts. Throughout the country, there are various scout camps that troops to go in the summer. My troop goes to Owasippe Scout Reservation in Michigan. The main purpose of Owasippe is for scouts to earn merit badges. It is set up in a school-esque way where scouts take classes at certain times each day to earn badges. Every scout has a merit badge sash that the badges are put on.

I became Eagle Scout in an incredibly busy year for my troop. My "class" was ten scouts, and we all successfully got Eagle that school year. When somebody obtains the rank of Eagle, there is usually a Court of Honor to celebrate the achievement. The scout will give a speech, share some of their best experiences and memories of their time in scouting, and their parents will usually speak as well. Since so many of us got Eagle that year, we decided to do a special Court of Honor with all ten of us, so it had to be done a little differently. Instead of each of us giving a speech, we did a panel where we were asked questions and everybody would answer the question. Together, we are called the Eagle X. The picture at the top of this page is the ten of us at the Court of Honor. I am second from the right.