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WW4BSA > SCOUTS 28.02.24 14:51l 40 Lines 1898 Bytes #292 (0) @ WW
BID : 7378_WW4BSA
Read: GUEST
Subj: B.-P.'S OUTLOOK (PART 11)
Path: IW8PGT<I3XTY<I0OJJ<EA2RCF<LU9DCE<W0ARP<KE0GB<W9GM<N3HYM<WW4BSA
Sent: 240228/1245Z 7378@WW4BSA.NEFL.FL.USA.NOAM BPQ6.0.24
The Value of Camp Life
I CANNOT impress on Scoutmasters too highly the value of the camp in the
training of Scouts; in fact, I think that its whole essence hangs on this.
Many Scoutmasters who value the moral side of our training are almost
inclined to undervalue the importance of the camp, but the camp is everything
to the boys. We have to appeal to their enthusiasm and tastes in the first
place, if we are ever going to do any good in educating them.
An eminent educational authority assured me only to-day that our
school education is all on wrong lines; that book learning was introduced by
the monks in order to kill the more manly training in skill at arms and
hunting which, in the Middle Ages, occupied the time of the boys, and which
undoubtedly produced so large a percentage of men of character among them.
It was done with a narrow-minded aim, and although it has done some good in
certain lines, it has done infinite harm to our race in others.
He said: "You should first of all develop the natural character of the
boy by encouraging him in the natural athletic exercises which tend to make
him manly, brave, obedient, and unselfish; later give him the desire for
reading for himself which will eventually lead him on to study for himself.
The fallacy of trying to force him to read what the pedagogue wants him to
know is the secret of so much ignorance and absence of studious work amongst
our lads to-day."
This same authority would like to see Scouting or some similar scheme
introduced into our continuation schools, and attendance at these made
obligatory for all boys of fourteen to sixteen.
I hope that his wish may yet be gratified. I believe it will be if Scoutmasters
continue in the way in which they have begun and prove to the education
authorities in their neighbourhood, the educative value which underlies our
Movement.
April, 1911.
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