Why a Bobcat?

[Gwaihir]

Curious if anyone has any historical information on this... I've always wondered why the first rank was Bobcat instead of Leopard.  You'd think with how heavily influenced the Cub Scouts were with Kipling's Jungle Book and Akela and Baloo playing prominent roles... the first rank would be from Bagheera.  

 

If anyone knows, thanks in advance!  

[NJCubScouter]

I thought there might be something useful here: http://www.scouting.org/scoutsource/CubScouts/Parents/About/history.aspx, but there isn't.

[bbender]

My answer here is sheer speculation:  perhaps because it was an American animal, and smaller than Wolves and (most) Bears and Lions.

 

I don't think that the Bob Cat pin was used in England, where the Kipling lore came from.  

 

Just a hunch.  

 

Why was Bagheera not used?  A black panther?  Or "melanistic Indian leopard" (as wikipedia says)?  I have no idea!  But I can guess ... 

 

Side note ... during the 411 process as the whole advancement program was up in the air for any kind of revision, I floated the idea of retiring the "Webelos" name as a rank (since "we blows" is really a weird thing to say when you're recruiting new kids), and replacing it with Lion, which would actually be more "restoring" Lion.  Some folks said "but that's a Kindergarten Pilot" and I said fine, when it becomes permanent, they can pick a new name.   But it just seemed weird to start at the King of Beasts, and then work ... down?  

 

My suggestion was that the levels go from Tiger, Wolf, Bear, Webelos to Tiger, Wolf, Bear, Lion.   With the name Bobcat held in reserve as the K level someday, since it's the littlest cat. 

 

And as the "joining badge" for any of those levels in Cub Scouts, I suggested the "Cub" badge, since all of those critters describe their newest as "cubs".

[David CO]

Some elements of The Sons of Daniel Boone and other youth groups were integrated into the Boy Scout theme as these groups merged/melded into BSA in the early 1900's.

Edited December 12, 2016 by David CO

[SSScout]

I still say Irving was somehow misguided when they created the "pilot" program for Kindergarteners.   I agree that the progression (even some Cubs have said as much to me) has no logic. 

Don't forget, "WEBELOS" originally was a contraction of  W(olf), BE(ar), L(ion), S(couts), the original rank progression.  "We (will)  Be Loyal Scouts" made some sense then.  The Lion rank became the Webelos 1, and Webelos 2 was meant to be the Arrow of Light year, transitioning into REAL Scouts.

"Well, we've got this historic rank name, let's use it for something".  Lion 5 year olds. 

Bobcat probably is a remnant of the Daniel Boone or Woodcraft Indians.

 

You think we have a hodge bodge of ranks?   Try understanding the Brit system.  Beavers, Cubs, Scouts, Rovers, Core badges, activity badges, Interest badges,  five different Scout Promises,

 

You out there, Cambridge?

[Gwaihir]

My answer here is sheer speculation:  perhaps because it was an American animal, and smaller than Wolves and (most) Bears and Lions.

 

I don't think that the Bob Cat pin was used in England, where the Kipling lore came from.  

 

Just a hunch.  

 

Why was Bagheera not used?  A black panther?  Or "melanistic Indian leopard" (as wikipedia says)?  I have no idea!  But I can guess ... 

 

Side note ... during the 411 process as the whole advancement program was up in the air for any kind of revision, I floated the idea of retiring the "Webelos" name as a rank (since "we blows" is really a weird thing to say when you're recruiting new kids), and replacing it with Lion, which would actually be more "restoring" Lion.  Some folks said "but that's a Kindergarten Pilot" and I said fine, when it becomes permanent, they can pick a new name.   But it just seemed weird to start at the King of Beasts, and then work ... down?  

 

My suggestion was that the levels go from Tiger, Wolf, Bear, Webelos to Tiger, Wolf, Bear, Lion.   With the name Bobcat held in reserve as the K level someday, since it's the littlest cat. 

 

And as the "joining badge" for any of those levels in Cub Scouts, I suggested the "Cub" badge, since all of those critters describe their newest as "cubs".

 

I think that would have been best, retiring Webelos, making Lions the highest rank before AoL, and giving Bobcat to the 5 year olds.  Or, doing away with Tigers and replacing it with Panthers/Leopards.  The idea that Akela and Baloo are helping you on this journey, and then Shere Khan is included in the mix when he was the chief villain also really never sat well with me.  

[SSScout]

No real knowledge of this, only opinion, but it certainly seems that ol' Rudyard is being/ has been retired.  Perhaps "The Jungle Book"  is thought to be no longer "relevant"  to modern Cubs.  No mention of the origin of the Cub critters....  Wolf, Bear, Lion...   Sher Kahn is the villain, so don't mention HIM to the nascent Tiger Cub. 

 

When was the last time your Cub Leader was referred to as AKEELA?   Don't have that mention in the Scout Promise , only in the now obsolete Cub Promise.

We are only offered ETHAN as a peer Cub...   led by example?   We have, I feel, lost something in the translation. 

Perhaps the repudiation of Kipling's literary examples was decided by the realization that ultimately he was not the type of person BSA finally wanted to espouse.  Regardless of Kipling's reputation as a chauvinistic , racist ,  colonialist,  (read his poem  "The White Man's Burden " )   the Jungle Book and the Just So stories are classics of English literature and evoke imaginative  adventure that every child can relate to. 

 

I hope today's parent still reads their children to sleep.  I still remember "How the Elephant Got His Trunk."

[Gwaihir]

No real knowledge of this, only opinion, but it certainly seems that ol' Rudyard is being/ has been retired.  Perhaps "The Jungle Book"  is thought to be no longer "relevant"  to modern Cubs.  No mention of the origin of the Cub critters....  Wolf, Bear, Lion...   Sher Kahn is the villain, so don't mention HIM to the nascent Tiger Cub. 

 

When was the last time your Cub Leader was referred to as AKEELA?   Don't have that mention in the Scout Promise , only in the now obsolete Cub Promise.

We are only offered ETHAN as a peer Cub...   led by example?   We have, I feel, lost something in the translation. 

Perhaps the repudiation of Kipling's literary examples was decided by the realization that ultimately he was not the type of person BSA finally wanted to espouse.  Regardless of Kipling's reputation as a chauvinistic , racist ,  colonialist,  (read his poem  "The White Man's Burden " )   the Jungle Book and the Just So stories are classics of English literature and evoke imaginative  adventure that every child can relate to. 

 

I hope today's parent still reads their children to sleep.  I still remember "How the Elephant Got His Trunk."

 

I still use Akela in my Den meetings, since it clearly references him as a sign off and it would be a shame if Cubs did away with it completely.  As a side note, none of that stopped The Jungle Book from being a top grossing film of 2015, 94% on Rotten Tomatoes and have a very diverse cast of actors and actresses.  

 

We also, for what it's worth, we very much use "Kim's Game" as an essential observational teaching tool, which is from Kipling's Kim. 

 

 

[Gwaihir]

I hope today's parent still reads their children to sleep.  I still remember "How the Elephant Got His Trunk."

 

every night.  For my oldest, I just started The Hobbit with them. 

 

for my little one, we do Golden Books, and other age appropriate story time books.  

[CalicoPenn]

The Bob Cat rank (later Bobcat) didn't start until 1938 - unless the BSA releases their transcripts of development meetings, it's all speculation as to why a Bobcat was chosen, though it's fairly likely a Bobcat was chosen because it is a North American native animal, in the wolf/bear/lion theme, and Bobcat did not come out of Baden Powell's cubbing program.

 

There is a bit of misinformation in this thread so perhaps a summary of the history of Cub Scouts in the BSA might help.

 

In 1916, Baden-Powell wrote the book on Cubbing for England's Boy Scout program - he was friends with Kipling and got permission to adapt a lot of Kipling's characters. His cubbing program didn't officially cross the pond though some individuals tried setting up cubbing programs based on his program without a lot of success since it didn't have BSA backing. James West was opposed to cubbing because he thought it would take adult leaders away from Boy Scouts.

 

In 1930, the BSA introduced the official Cub Scout program - while they used BP's ideas, they did adapt quite a few of them to meet American sensibilities. Why use Jungle Book when you had American Indians? Akela was no longer the great wolf. He was now the Chief of the Indian Tribe named Webelos (Wolf, Bear, Lion, Scouts) and symbolized by the Arrow of Light. All members of the Pack were part of the Webelos tribe - at the time, it wasn't a rank.

 

Cub Scouting was an age-based program - for 9-11 year old boys (Wolf 9, Bear 10 and Lion 11). It wouldn't be until 1949 that the age levels would drop to 8-10 for Cub Scouts and 11-18 for Boy Scouts.

 

Bobcat was not introduced until 1938. In 1941, the Webelos award was created - it was the highest rank a Cub could earn and could only be earned by Lion Scouts after they reached 11 1/2 years old. The award looked remarkably similar to the Arrow of Light (foreshadow alert).

 

In 1967, Lion was dropped and the Webelos Award became the Webelos Rank - it used the same Arrow of Light design and kept the Webelos award requirements but added activity pin requirements to earn the rank.

 

Then came 1972 - remember that foreshadow alert? in 1972, the Webelos rank was renamed - we now know it as the Arrow of Light. If you earned the Webelos award or rank prior to 1972, you can wear the Arrow of Light knot on your uniform. This also dropped the rank of Webelos for a period of time.

 

In 1977, a new Webelos rank was created, with a diamond rank patch to match the other ranks.

 

It wasn't until 1986, when Cub Scouts changed from an aged-based program to a grade-based program that Webelos changed from a one year program to a two year program. Tiger became the 1st grade program, and the other ranks followed: Wolf grade 2, Bear grade 3, Webelos 1 grade 4 and Webelos 2 grade 5 - the BSA was not about to change the BSA joining requirement of completing 5th grade. Of course, it would probably have made more sense if they had reintroduced Lion as the 4th grade program back in 1986 but thats the BSA for you.

[CalicoPenn]

Sorry for the block of text - ever since I upgraded Internet Explorer, I've been having a heck of a time trying to post anything.