Scouting, Volume 40, Number 2, February 1952 Page: 3
40 p. : ill. ; 28 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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lead boys than it is to train boys to lead their pals
— but our program demands of us that we take the
hard way.
3. Advancement is geared to the individual.
There is no other program (except perhaps a very
progressive school) which offers so much freedom
to the boy in making his own personal advance-
ment. It would be easier to give all Second Class
tests in February, and all First Class tests in June,
but we don't operate that way. Similarly, we give
a Scout a wide choice in the Merit Badge subjects
he wants to pursue — and that should develop his
initiative, help him decide what his vocation is to
be. Show me another school or college with such a
curriculum; 32 students, and they are offered a
choice of more than 100 different courses!
4. Finally, we base our whole effort on the family
tie-in. The Family counts with us. Modern psy-
chologists and religious leaders blame many of our
present troubles on the break-down of family life.
Scouting has known for years that the family must
work together. We have never relied on monthly
parent-teacher meetings, periodic report cards, and
occasional requests for Daddy to come down and
see the principal when something goes wrong with
Junior.
Of course we could ignore those essential points
which make our work so different, and absolutely
impossible for us to be time-wasting duplicators of
other people's efforts. We could have a dandy pro-
gram of basketball at our meetings — and the "Y"
does basketball better. We could preach our moral
training (instead of working by example and liv-
ing) — and the churches have much better preach-
ers. We could have our meetings indoors mostly;
it's good for Explorers to have social committees,
but if all they do is run parties, the social clubs in
school have them beat by a mile. But no school I
know of lets Explorers organize wilderness hikes.
Get the idea? Scouting is Outdoors, it teaches
Leadership by Leading, it has selective, individual
Advancement, it works closely, very closely with
the Family. Eliminate those hallmarks, and you've
got left a Scouting program which deserves the
humorous jibes of a Post author.
Scouting is unique. There is nothing like it on
the face of the earth. We do it a dis-service if we
allow it to degenerate into a pale copy of a street-
corner ball game. We fail in our duty if we allow
our Den Mothers to become unpaid baby sitters.
But if we realize the distinctiveness of Scouting;
if we can defend it because of the way we run our
Units, then nobody can make derogatory remarks,
even if they're trying to be funny. And then Scout-
ing can keep growing to the heights of which it is
capable.
FOR ALL SCOUTERS
FEBRUARY, 1952
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Boy Scouts of America. Scouting, Volume 40, Number 2, February 1952, periodical, February 1952; New York, New York. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth329203/m1/5/: accessed May 4, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Boy Scouts of America National Scouting Museum.