Scouting For Boys - ScoutsCan.com

1 Scouting For BoysA Handbook for Instruction in GoodCitizenship Through WoodcraftByLORD BADEN-POWELL OF GILWELLF ounder of the Boy Scout Movement Downloaded from: The Dump at Editor s Note: The reader is reminded that these texts have been written a long time ago. Consequently, they may use some terms or use expressions 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.

2 Contents Introduction and Explanation of Scouting Campfire Yarn No. 1 Scouts Work Campfire Yarn No. 2 What Scouts Do Campfire Yarn No. 3 Becoming a Scout Campfire Yarn No. 4 Scout Patrols Campfire Yarn No. 5 Scout Patrols Campfire Yarn No. 6 Sea and Air Scouting Campfire Yarn No. 7 Signals and Commands Campfire Yarn No. 8 Pioneering Campfire Yarn No. 9 Camping Campfire Yarn No. 10 Camp Cooking Campfire Yarn No. 11 Observation of Sign Campfire Yarn No. 12 Spooring Campfire Yarn No. 13 Reading Sign or Observation Campfire Yarn No. 14 Stalking Campfire Yarn No. 15 Animals Campfire Yarn No. 16 Plants Campfire Yarn No. 17 Endurance Campfire Yarn No. 18 Health Giving Habits Campfire Yarn No. 19 Prevention of Disease Campfire Yarn No.

3 20 Chivalry to Others Campfire Yarn No. 21 Self Discipline Campfire Yarn No. 22 Self Improvement Campfire Yarn No. 23 Be Prepared For Accidents Campfire Yarn No. 24 Accidents Campfire Yarn No. 25 Helping Others Campfire Yarn No. 26 Citizenship Campfire Yarn No. 27 Our Commonwealth and Empire Campfire Yarn No. 28 Our World-Wide Brotherhood PREFACES couting has been described by more than one enthusiast as a revolution in education. It is is merely a suggestion thrown out at a venture for a jolly outdoor recreation, which has beenfound to form also a practical aid to may be taken to be complementary to school training, and capable of filling up certain chinksunavoidable in the ordinary school curriculum. It is, in a word, a school of citizenship subjects of instruction with which it fills the chinks are individual efficiency throughdevelopment of Character, Health, and Handicraft in the individual, and in Citizenshipthrough this employment of this efficiency in are applied in three grades of progressive training for Wolf Cubs, Scouts, and development, as this book will show you, is mainly got through camping and backwoodsactivities, which are enjoyed as much by the instructor as by the boy.

4 Indeed, the instructorsmay aptly be termed leaders or elder brothers since they join in the fun, and the boys do theeducating is perhaps why Scouting is called a revolution in fact is true, however, that it aims for a different point than is possible in the average schooltraining. It aims to teach the boys how to live, not merely how to make a living. There lies acertain danger in inculcating in the individual the ambition to win prizes and scholarships, andholding up to him as success the securing of pay, position, and power, unless there is acorresponding instruction in service for this inculcation of self-interest into all grades of society it is scarcely surprising that wehave as a result a country divided against itself, with self-seeking individuals in unscrupulousrivalry 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 the aim of the Scout training is to replace Self with Service, to make the ladsindividually efficient, morally and physically.

5 With the object of using that efficiency for theservice of the don t mean by this the mere soldiering and sailoring services; we have no military aim orpractice in our movement; but I mean the ideals of service for their fellow-men. In other words,we aim for the practice of Christianity in their everyday life and dealings, and not merely theprofession of its theology on remarkable growth of the Scout movement has surprised its promoters as much as its outsidesympathisers. Starting from one little camp in 1907, of which this book was the outcome, theMovement has grown and expanded points to two things: first, the attraction that Scouting has for the boys ; secondly, thevolume of that innate patriotism which underlies the surface among the men and women of ournation in spite of the misdirection of their education towards Self.

6 Thousands of these form aforce of voluntary workers, from every grade of society, giving their time and energies for noreward other than the satisfaction of helping the boys to become good teaching is by example, and the boys are quick to learn service where they have before themthis practical exposition of it on the part of their Scoutmasters. The effects of this training whereit has been in competent hands have exceeded all expectation in making happy, healthy, aim of these leaders has been to help not merely the promising boys , but also, and moreespecially, the duller boy. We want to give him some of the joy of life and at the same time someof the attributes and some of the opportunities that his better-off brother gets, so that at least heshall have his fair chance in countries have been quick to recognise the uses of Scouting , and have in their turn adoptedand developed the training exactly on the lines given in this a consequence there is now a widespread brotherhood of Boy Scouts about the worldnumbering at present some 6,000,000 (1954)

7 Members, all working for the same ideal under thesame promise and Law, all regarding each other as brothers, and getting to know each otherthrough interchange of correspondence and personal visits on a considerable needs no great imagination to foresee vast international possibilities as the outcome of thisfast-growing brotherhood in the near future. This growing spirit of personal friendship andwide-minded goodwill among the future citizens of the nations behind it may not only give it thatsoul, but may prove a still stronger insurance against the danger of international war in thefuture. This may seem but a wild dream, but so would it have been a wild dream had anyoneimagined forty years ago that this little book was going to result in a Brotherhood of over sixmillion Boy Scouts to-day and a corresponding sisterhood of some three and a quarter millionGirl Guides and Girl such is the such vision is not beyond the range of possibility, if men and women come in to take theirshare in the promotion of the co-operation of tiny sea insects has brought about the formation of coral islands.

8 Noenterprise is too big where there is goodwill and co-operation in carrying it out. Every day weare turning away boys anxious to join the Movement, because we have not the men or women totake them in hand. There is a vast reserve of loyal patriotism and Christian spirit lying dormantin our nation to-day, mainly because it sees no direct opportunity for expressing itself. Here inthis joyous brotherhood there is vast opportunity open to all in a happy work that shows resultsunder your hands and a work that is worth while because it gives every man his chance ofservice for his fellow-men and for Socrates spoke truly when he said, No man goeth about a more godly purpose than he whois mindful of the right upbringing not only of his own, but of other men s children.

9 :The statistics on membership have been brought up-to-date (1954) and are three times aslarge as when B-P. last revised this OF Sentences in italics throughout the book are addressed to Scoutmasters (instructors).By the term Scouting is meant the work and attributes of backwoodsmen, explorers, giving the elements of these to boys we supply a system of games and practices which meetstheir desires and instincts, and is at the same time the boys point of view Scouting puts them into fraternity-gangs which is their naturalorganization, whether for games, mischief, or loafing; it gives them a smart dress andequipment; it appeals to their imagination and romance; and it engages them in an active, open-air lif the parents point of view it gives physical health and developnzent; it teaches energy,resourcefulness, and handicrafts; it puts into the lad discipline, pluck, chivalry, amid patriotism.

10 In a word, it develops character , which is more essential than anything else to a lad for takinghis way of principle on which Scouting works is that the boy s ideas are studied, and he is encouragedto educate himself instead of being principle is in accord with that of the most up-to-date educationalists. The training isprogressive and adapted to the changing psychology of the growing Wolf Cubs, encouraged to develop themselves as individuals, mentally and Boy Scouts, developing character and sense of Rover Scouts, for practice of the Scout Ideals of Service in their the national point of view our aim is solely to make the rising generation into do not interfere with the boy s religion, of whatever form it may be, though we encouragehim to practise whichever he training divides itself under four heads.