PREFACE
Scouting has been described by more than one enthusiast as a revolution in education. It is not that.
It is merely a suggestion thrown out at a venture for a jolly outdoor recreation, which has been founder to form also a practical aid to education.
It may be taken to be complementary to school training, and capable of filling up chinks unavoidable in the ordinary school curriculum. It is, in a word, a school of citizenship through woodcraft.
The subjects of instruction with which if fills the chinks are individual efficiency through development of – Character, health, and handicraft in the individual, and in Citizenship through this employment of this efficiency in Service.
These are applied in three grades of progressive training from Wolf Cubs, Scouts, and Rovers. Their development, as this book will show you, is mainly got through camping and backwoods activities, which are enjoyed as much by the instructor as by the boy; indeed the instructor may aptly be termed leaders or elder brothers since they join in the fun, and the boys do the educating themselves.
This is perhaps why Scouting is called a revolution in education.
The fact is true, however, that it aims for a different point than is possible in the average school training. It aims to teach the boys how to live, not merely how to make a living.
There lies a certain danger in inculcating in the individual tha ambition to win prizes and scholarships, and holding up to him as success the securing of pay, position, and power, unless there is a corresponding instruction in the service for others.
With this inculcation of self-interest into all grades of society it is scarcely surprising that we have as a result a country divided against itself, with self-seking individuals in unscrupulous rivalry with one another for supremacy, and similarly with cliques and political parties, religious sects and social classes, all to the detriment of national interests and unity.
Therefore the aim of the Scout training is to replace Self with Service, to make lads individually efficient, morally and physically, with the object of using that efficiency for the service of the community.
I don`t mean by this the mere soldiering and sailoring services; we have no military aim or practice in out movement; but I mean the ideas of service for their fellow-mem. In other words, we aim for the practice of Christianity in their everyday life and dealings, and not nerely the profession of its theology on Sundays,
The remarkable growth of the Scout movement has surprised its promoters as much as its outside sympathisers. Starting from one little camp in 1907, of which this book was the outcome, the Movement has grown and expanded automatically.
This points to two things: first, the attraction that Scouting has for the boys; secondly, the volume of that innate patriotism which underlies the surface among the men and women of our nation in spite of the misdirection of their education toward Self.
Thousands of thses form a force of voluntary workers, from every grade of society, giving their time and energies for no reward other than the satisfaction of helping the boys become good citizens.
The teaching is by example, and the boys are quick to learn service when they have before then this practical exposition of it on the part of their Scoutmasters. The effects of this training where it has been in competent hands have exceeded all expectations in making happy, healthy, helpful citizens.
The aim of these leaders has been to help not merely the promising boys, but aslo, and more especially the duller boy. We want to give him some joy of life and at the same time some of the attributes and some of the opportunities that his better-off brother gets, so that at least he shall have his fair chance in life.
All countries have been quick to recognise the uses of Scouting, and have in their turn adopted and developed the training exactly on the lines given in this book.
As a consequence there is now a widespread brotherhood of Boy Scouts about the world numbering at present some 6,000,000 (1954) members, all working for the same ideal under the same Promice and Law, all regarding each other as brothers, and getting to know each other through interchange of correspondence and personal visits on a considerable scale.
It needs no great imagination to foresee vast international possibilities as the outcome of this fast-growing brotherhood in the near future. This growing spirit of personal friendship and wide-minded goodwill among the future citizens of the nations behind it may not only give it that sould, but may prove a still stronger insurance against the danger of international war in the future. This may seem but a wild dream, but so would it have been a wild dream had anyone imagined forty years ago that a little book was going to result in a Brotherhood of over six million Boy Scouts to-day and a corresponding sisterhood of some three and a quarter million Girl Guides and Girl Scouts.
But such is the case.
And such vision is not beyond the range of possibility, if men and women come in to take their share in the promotion of the work.
The co-operation of tinysea insects has brought about the ormation of coral islands. No enterprise is too big where there is goodwill and co-operation in carrying it out. Every day we are turning away boys anxious to join the movement, because we have not the men or women to take them in hand. There is a vast reserve of loyal patriotism and Christian spirit lying dormant in our nation to-day, mainly because it sees no direct opportunity for expressing itself. Here in this joyous brotherhood there is vast opportunity open to all in a happy work that shows results under your hands and a work that is worth while because it gives every man a chance of service for his fellow-man and for God.
Old Socrates spoke truly when he said, “No man goeth about as more godly purpose that he who is mindful of the right upbringing not only of his own, but of other men`s children.”
B.-P.
EXPLANATION OF SCOUTING
N.B. – Sentences in italics throughout the book are addressed to Scoutmasters
(instructors).
(instructors).
By the term “scouting” is meant the work and attributes of backwoodsem, explorers, and frontiersmen.
In giving the elements of these to boys we supply a system of games and practices which meets their desired and instincts, and is at the same time educative.
From the boys` point of view Scouting puts them into fraternity-gangs which is their natural organization, whether for games, mischief, or loafing; it gives them a smart dress and equipment; it appeals to their imagination and romance; and it engages them in an active, open-air life.
From the parents`point of view it gives physical health and development; it teaches energy, resourcefulness, and handicraft; it puts into the lad discipline, pluck, chivalry, amid patriotism; in a word, it develops “character”, which is more essential than anything else to a lad for taking his way of life.
The principle of which Scouting works is that the boy`s ideas are studied, and he is encouraged to seducate himself instead of being instructed
