New Scouts and the Patrol Method?

In order to keep a Scout Troop established along the lines of the Patrol Method and being Boy-led, it is important that new Scouts in the Troop are taught about the Patrol Method and know its importance and the responsibilities it requires of each Scout.

Unfortunately, it isn’t as simple as having an “Introduction to the Patrol Method” Class every year. The truth is, maintaining a Boy-led, Patrol-Method Troop is a lot of work, and that’s why some Scoutmasters have given up trying. However, I’ve always been glad it wasn’t that easy. The Patrol System isn’t easy, but neither is Scouting, for that matter. And that’s what makes it worth doing.

A properly functioning boy-led Troop is self-sustaining. Through the constant care and attention of the Scoutmaster and the boy leaders, new Scouts who enter the Troop learn by both emulating the older Scouts and being directly taught about the Scout method by them. There are five areas of the Patrol Method that are especially important when it comes to teaching it new Scouts:

Scouting: The Images of a Movement | Thursday Spotlight

If you have followed this blog for a little bit, you probably know that I love collecting old photographs from the history of the Scouting Movement. Besides the simple nostalgia appeal, these images often capture some really cool things and serve as a reminder to me of the high standards that the young men of the past held themselves to.

Today, I’m going to start a series that I hope to continue weekly every Thursday in addition to the other series running on Scouting Rediscovered. Over the years, I have gathered quite a collection of great photographs from the past, some of which are featured on this page. But there are a lot to look through, and as I continue to collect these photos, I don’t have time to keep that page constantly updated.

So, in this series, I’m going to highlight seven of the photos each week that stood out to me. I hope you enjoy looking at this glimpse into the past, and I hope the photos inspire you as much as they do me.

Keystones of a Scout: The 10 Virtues that Make a Scout | Chivalry

 

“In the old days the Knights were the real Scouts and their rules were very much like the Scout Law which we have now. The Knights considered their honor their most sacred possession. They would not do a dishonorable thing, such as telling a lie or stealing. They would rather die than do it. They were always ready to fight and to be killed in upholding their king, or their religion, or their honor. Each Knight had a small following of a squire and some men-at-arms, just as our Patrol Leader has his Second (or Assistant) and four or five Scouts. …  You Scouts cannot do better than follow the example of the Knights.”

So said Robert Baden-Powell in the book that started the Scouting Movement, Scouting for Boys. In this book the Knights are held up as the ideal of Chivalry that Scouts should strive for. Chivalry was given very high importance by the founder of the Scouting Movement. In essence, Baden-Powell said that us Scouts should be modern-day Knights.

But that was one hundred years ago. These days, not only are many declaring that Chivalry is dead, histories are being written that many times portray the Knights in a much darker light than that in which our forefathers saw them.  If you read some ‘histories’, you would think that Knights were in reality nothing but robbers and bullies. And you will hear that the chivalrous attitude of our forefathers was ‘unenlightened’ and degrading to women.

So where does that leave us Scouts now? Are we leftovers from the evolution of society who are destined to be eventually forgotten? Or should we continue to adapt with the times and call chivalry a thing of the past? I profoundly disagree. I believe that chivalry isn’t just a part of the history of Scouting, I believe that chivalry is integral to the ideal of Scouting and is, in fact, a Scout Keystone. What does this look like?

Scout’s Scrapbook (9-21-12): The Importance of Preparedness

“Be Prepared!” is an excellent motto for Scouts. Unfortunately, as a motto, it is used over and over again to the extent that many people take what it means for granted. This quote from William Hillcourt provides a reminder of the weight and importance of this motto that we need to hear once in a while.

High Standards

As Scouts, we bear the name and are responsible for the reputation of  millions of Scouts and what they have stood for since the beginning of the Scouting Movement. As Hillcourt reminds us, Scouts have proven themselves over time. The name of a Scout means something, and it is up to us to make sure that reputation is not lost.

Early Scouts held themselves to a very high standard, and it showed. They were trusted by and assisted law enforcement officers, disaster relief workers, and many other institutions. The military gives special privileges to Eagle Scouts if they enlist. Many times, in reading through Scouting History, I have been surprised by instances of Scouts being entrusted with tasks just as much as adults, if not more so in some cases.

A Warning

Be warned, however, that this reputation isn’t invincible. It can be lost completely if just one generation of Scouts fail in upholding it. But the danger doesn’t lie in some single generation that destroys the reputation of Scouting.  The danger lies in a slow and gradual lowering of standards. I have observed this happening through my experience in Scouting.

If Scouting is to survive and thrive in the next century as it has in this one, standards need to be raised, not lowered. And it is ultimately up to us, the Scouts, to make sure this happens. We need to raise the standards of what we expect of our fellow Scouts, but most importantly, of what we expect of ourselves. Technology changes, the culture around us changes and modernizes, but the principles that we stand for as Scouts are timeless. Let’s give the Scouts a hundred years from now the same high standards to try to live up to as the first Scouts left for us.

So, let us take this reminder of William Hillcourt, and let it inspire us to renew our commitment to Be Prepared! Next time you say the motto, do not say it out of memorization, say it and mean it as if you were saying it for the very first time. Challenge yourself to live up to it more and more everyday!

Conclusion

I hope you enjoyed this edition of The Scout’s Scrapbook, but most importantly, I hope that these wise words of William Hillcourt were as inspiring to you as they were to me when I read them. Please help me to spread this to as many Scouts as possible by sharing this post with your friends. Thanks for reading!

Scout On!

Scout Projects: Building a Standing Desk

As I write posts for the Keystones of a Scout series, I find myself getting freshly inspired each time as I dig deeper into the meaning and practice of these timeless Scouting principles. The last post in this series was on Ingenuity, and part of my research for this post took me into some of the amazing pioneering projects that the Scouts of the past have built. This inspired me to get out and build something that I have been wanting to build for a long time now, a standing desk.

Standing desks were much more commonly used in the late 19th century and early 20th century than they are today. If used right, they can burn more calories and be generally healthier to use than sitting all day behind a common desk. However, as I wanted this to replace my regular desk in my room, and I didn’t want to necessarily stand all day long, it needed to be be both a regular desk and a standing desk.

This is where the ingenuity came in. I could try to find and buy plans for an adjustable desk, or I could save up the money for one and buy it. However, after researching for the post on Ingenuity, I became inspired to both design and build my own out of wood. 

Scout’s Scrapbook (9-12-12): The Spirit of Adventure

 

 

Here is yet another excellent quote from John Thurman, who was an influential British Scouter. I am just blown away by this quote as John Thurman is able to put in one paragraph what I’ve been trying to put into words for years. Sometimes simpler is better.

This is what Scouting is all about. We are Scouts; we are Pioneers; we are Explorers. Sure, lashing together small bridges and practicing First Aid doesn’t seem like much, but all great journeys start by taking the first step. As Scouts, we are committed to taking that first step when oftentimes no one else is willing to risk the commitment.

Yet sometimes we forget. Sometimes we don’t remember the big picture of why we do what we do. Sometimes, when we recite the words of the Scout Oath, they are only words.

No more! Let’s Rediscover Scouting for what it has always stood for! Take this quote from John Thurman and read it aloud at your next Troop Meeting. Post it on Facebook, Tweet it to your friends, share it with every Scout you know. Sometimes, it’s up to us to make sure that True Scouting isn’t forgotten. Sometimes, Scouting needs to be Rediscovered!

Keystones of a Scout: The 10 Virtues That Make a Scout | Ingenuity

“Let’s MacGyver It!” 

In 1985, a TV show was aired which was not only unique, but eventually became very popular. The title character of this series, MacGyver, was more-or-less a secret agent. However, instead of using all kinds of cool gadgets like the famous fictional spy James Bond, MacGyver used his wits to solve all kinds of complex problems and help people out with everyday materials that were on hand.

Ever since I discovered the series, I’ve been a big fan. More recently, as I dug deeper into the principles and ideals of the Scouting movement, I discovered that the spirit MacGyver embodied, Ingenuity, was the same spirit that can be found all throughout the history and literature of the Scouting Movement. So important has Ingenuity been held in Scouting, that I have come to esteem this as one of the Keystones of the character of a Scout. “What is Ingenuity?” “What does this look like in Scouting?” These are the questions I am going to answer in this post as I continue the series, Keystones of a Scout: The 10 Virtues that Make a Scout, which I introduced: here. Previously in this series, I talked about Endurance, Self-Discipline, Exploration, Observation, Initiative, and Deduction. Each of these are traits or virtues that I have shown to have been with Scouting from the beginning, and each of these traits are necessary for a Scout to do what he should do and to carry out his Oath that he swore as a Scout.

Scouts find inventive ways to overcome obstacles others would be stopped by.

What is Ingenuity?

Ingenuity is resourcefulness. It is the ability to invent a solution to a problem on the spot. It is the ability to think outside the box and use whatever you have on hand to solve a problem. In short, Ingenuity is the way obstacles are met with and overcome. These could be any obstacles, any time in life. The spirit of Ingenuity can shine in a life-or-death survival situation as MacGyver portrayed; it can shine in simple matters you deal with in everyday life; and it can shine in stuff like leadership, organization, and interpersonal disagreements.

Anywhere there are difficulties to be overcome in life, Ingenuity can be used. How does this work? Well, in most difficulties there is a common, accepted way of dealing with it. Often times this is the best way. On the other hand, each situation is different, and things often can’t be handled “according to plan”. Oftentimes the most obvious solution to the problem cannot be implemented because of a lack of time, resources, etc.

In addition to the most obvious and common way to solve a problem, there are innumerable other ways to approach it. Many of  them may not work at all; others may only be temporary; and some may be just as good or better than the most common way. This is where Ingenuity comes into play. Ingenuity takes a step back, observes the problem from a “10,000 foot view”, and looks at all the options. A lot of times the best solution, if not the only solution, may not be the most obvious one. Ingenuity finds the best solution

with the resources at hand, however unusual it might be, and sets about to implement it.

MacGyver is cool, but what’s that got to do with Scouting?

Aside from the fact that the character of Macgyver actually was a Boy Scout (see episode 4), the Ingenuity that MacGyver shows is very much inline with the principles behind Scouting. The fact is, because of who Scouts are, they must exercise Ingenuity.

Scouting doesn’t happen in a laboratory. The realm of Scouts is in the real world, and in the real world, things rarely go according to plan. This is especially true for Scouts because they don’t confine themselves to ‘Civilization’,  they go out and do things that haven’t been done before; they explore the frontiers of what is possible. Scouts hold themselves to a higher standard and show the rest of the world what can be done.

With such a mission as this, Scouts are always doing hard and unusual things, whether it be camping and exploring in the back-country, saving lives, or doing great community service. Sometimes there are no ‘common’ solutions to the problems Scouts run into, and this is where Scouts must exercise Ingenuity.

There is one field in Scout training that requires a lot of Ingenuity and  is particularly useful in training one’s Ingenuity. This is the field of Pioneering, that is, the construction of useful structures out of rope and poles. John Thurman, an influential British Scouter, put a lot of emphasis on pioneering and the role of Ingenuity in it. Here are some quotes on the subject from a few of books on pioneering:

Pioneering requires constant practice in Ingenuity. The limit is your imagination!

“I was showing a Managing Director of a large civil engineering firm round Gilwell [a Scout Camp] when a Wood Badge Course was pioneering near the Bomb Hole. He displayed very great interest in the Pioneering and looked closely at all that was happening. From our point of view there was nothing unusual going on; this was a usual routine exercise with two or three bridges being built, a couple of towers, and a raft. As we walked away my civil engineering friend said, ‘I am delighted that the Scout Movement is still doing this: it is tremendously important. Despite the fact that modern machinery and equipment is magnificent there often comes a time when a man has to use ingenuity and improvise in order to move the job forward and the engineer who has the spirit that your kind of training produces is the man we want in our business.'”

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“A great many valuable commercial discoveries have emanated from the thought of how to use something for a purpose for which it was not intended. Something is invented for one purpose and then ingenuity finds a different use for it.”

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“In Scouting we have always prided ourselves on our ability to improvise, but improvising does not mean doing without. It is much more attractive to think of improvisation as putting something (in this case, junk) to an unexpected use, a use its original designers had no conception of. Again to the cynic. I would say that somewhere along this road we are pointing in the direction of new discoveries. A great deal of mechanical ingenuity has been achieved by what I would call “stepping out of line”; deliberately trying to be original and using an article, a substance, or a material for a use for which it was never intended.”

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“One of the great joys of Scouting is improvisation, so that what this question really means is “What do we need?” for the first part, and “What have we got?” for the second part, which brings us back to the first part “What do we still need?” and there you may have to improvise, you may have to borrow, you may have to alter, or join up because you are short of a block or are minus the right length of rope. A little determination, a lot of imagination, and a great deal of ingenuity will overcome most shortages.”

Conclusion

So, in summary, Ingenuity is the ability to invent a solution to a problem on the spot. It is the ability to think outside the box and use whatever you have on hand to solve a problem. Anywhere in life that difficulties are met with, Ingenuity can be exercised. Sometimes the obvious solution will not be the best one. Sometimes there will be no obvious solution.

If the Scout is not prepared to meet and overcome difficulties with Ingenuity, then he cannot lead the way and take initiative in life as Scouts are supposed to do. In short, he cannot properly fulfill the oath he took as a Scout. Like many other things, Ingenuity isn’t a trophy that can be won, it is a skill that needs to be practice and exercised throughout your life.

Scouts can practice Ingenuity in all areas of their lives, but Pioneering is a particularly helpful exercise in developing this.

Thanks for reading this post! Do you have any comments, thoughts, or questions? I’d love to hear them! Do you have any cool stories of times you invented an unorthodox solution to a problem? Please share it!

I want this to get out to as many Scouts as possible, so please help by sharing this post. You can easily share this on Facebook, Twitter, and etc. by clicking the little icons below this post.

If you don’t want to miss the rest of the installments of this series, just put your email in the little box to the right, and you will automatically get an email each time a new post is published.

Thanks again! Scout on, my friends!

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“I think if you try hard enough and make the best of a situation, the situation won’t get the best of you.” – MacGyver

Though MacGyver is a completely fictional character and most of what he does is impractical, it think the show is really fun to watch and has been an inspiration to me to improve my Ingenuity. To end this post, I thought you’d appreciate a couple of short clips from the series.

The Scout’s Guide to Survival: The Big 5

After a short break from posts here on Scouting Rediscovered, I’d like to pick back up with a post on a very important Scout skill: Survival. The post is a bit lengthy, but I think it will be well worth your time and attention. If you have a subject that you would like to see covered here on Scouting Rediscovered, please leave a comment and let me know! Thanks for reading!

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Perhaps you’ve seen Bear Gryll’s Man vs. Wild or Les Stroud’s Survivorman. The success of these TV shows have demostrated the general public’s fascination with survival skills; the basic struggle of a man to survive amid adverse situations. While most people see these shows as a sort of magic act, where the survivor is a magician performing mysterious tricks; a Scout looks upon these skills as basic must-know information.

Just as magic tricks look simple once explained to the audience, so survival skills follow basic principles that aren’t difficult to learn. However, just as good magicians must practice their tricks many times in order to perfect them, so the survivalist must not simply know ‘how’ to survive, he must have the skills to survive. And these skills take practice to acquire.

In this post, I’m going to share with you the five basic principles of survival, which I learned from the “Tom Brown’s Field Guide” series. This will help you to be prepared to survive by giving you the knowledge you need. It is up to you to practice the skills needed to be a true survivalist.

Why?

A Scout knows how to not only survive, but make himself comfortable apart from civilization.

In today’s world of advanced technology, a Scout may never have to use basic, primitive survival skills, yet the true Scout learns them by heart anyway. Why is this? Well, one of the simplest reasons is that technology can fail or be absent. Though not necessarily common, this happens more often than you might expect.

As I write this, Hurricane Isaac is bearing down upon the Louisiana coast. If nothing else, this serves as a grim reminder of Hurricane Katrina which wreaked its havoc almost 7 years ago to the day. This disaster brought about the deaths of over one thousand people and rendered many years of advanced technology useless. It happened before, it can happen again, and it is the duty of the Scout to be prepared for this.

Another reason that the Scout learns these basic survival skills is what it does inside of him. When a Scout knows that he can survive without any of the comforts of civilization, it gives him a confidence that can’t be gained any other way. Baden-Powell, the founder of the Scouting Movement, put it excellently in his book, Scouting for Boys:

‘Very few fellows learn these things when they are living in civilized places, because they have comfortable houses, and soft beds to sleep in. Their food is prepared for them, and when they want to know the way, they just ask a policeman.

Well, when those fellows try to go scouting or exploring, they find themselves quite helpless.

Take even your sports “hero” and put him down in the wilderness, alongside a fellow trained in camping, and see which can look after himself. High batting averages are not much good to him there. He is only a “tenderfoot”. “

It Starts with the Mind

I want to start by emphasizing the most important requirement of survival: a survivalist mental state and the will to survive. When someone is suddenly thrown into a survival situation, one of their first reactions is to panic, especially someone who doesn’t have any training. This panic instinct is very detrimental to survival and is responsible for so many needless deaths.

The twin to panic is despair. Despair is what happens when somebody looses the will to live. They think there is no possible way to survive, and this fear paralyses them. Survival in a primitive situation is a fight, an it must be looked upon as such. It will need all of the strength, courage, and fortitude that you can muster.

1. Air

It is said that you can live “four minutes without air, four days without water, and forty days without food.” To start with, air is the number one priority in a survival situation. This might seem obvious, like “don’t drown if you want to survive”, but there is more to it than that. This category includes all of first aid and personal health as well. For instance, knowing CPR is a must when trying to help others survive. Also, thought must be given to the blood which carries the air (or oxygen) throughout your body. You must know how to treat wounds and perform first aid for a variety of injuries.

In a hypothetical situation, suppose you were canoeing down the Colorado River one afternoon, when, out in the middle of nowhere, you hit some bad rapids. You try to weather them, but your canoe strikes a rock hidden below the surface and you get overturned. The water is moving so quickly and is so rough that you are constantly being dunked and tossed around. The water throws you against a sharp rock and you get an ugly gash in your arm.

Your first priority is to make your way to the shore and secure yourself again the possibility of drowning. Secondly, you must deal with the gash in your arm. If you started off toward civilization immediately, you wouldn’t get very far. You must first secure yourself against physical injuries.

2. Shelter

The next priority in a survival situation is Shelter. Most people today are used to some form of climate control and live in places with plenty of shelter. This results in our bodies not having built up a natural acclimatization to more extreme temperatures. Death by exposure is one of the most common fatalities among those who are stranded in a survival situation. As Tom Brown explains, “Even a minor drop in body temperature can so adversely affect the brain that it no longer functions well enough to make survival decisions.” This shelter can include clothing and a structure to protect you from the elements.

In the hypothetical situation I started earlier, the next step would be to find some place to shelter. Even in areas that you think have a hotter climate, the temperature can still drop very low at night. In the hypothetical situation, you also have the disadvantage of being dunked in water. This wouldn’t be a problem while the sun is still out, but after it goes away and the water starts to evaporate off your skin and clothing, it will cool you down very quickly. Using what you know about the principles of insulation and building survival shelters, you set to work and finish just before the sun starts to set.

If you’re surviving on a nifty little raft like this one, then water isn’t a huge worry for you. In most real survival situations, however, water is one of the top priorities.

3. Water

Water is our lifeblood. Just one day without water will start to diminish our thinking and decision-making ability. It therefore follows that water is next on the survival priority list. There are many different techniques that can be used to obtain and purify water, but I don’t have the time to go into them now. Let me suffice to say that there is a lot to learn on this subject. Water must be found, it must be in a safe place, it must be collected, filtered, and disinfected.

Obtaining water can be one of the most difficult challenges to the survivalist, as there are many places where fresh lakes and streams are not readily accessible. In addition, water must be made safe to drink, especially these days. Something as small as getting mildly sick from drinking bad water can spell the difference between life and death in a survival situation. One of the most common ways to purify water is by boiling, which brings us to number four.

Fire is one of the most important survival tools; it is useful for so many things.

4. Fire

In situations where frostbite and hypothermia are a significant danger, fire might be higher up on this list of priorities. Among its many uses, keeping us warm is one of the most critical. The reason it only makes number four on this list is because there are times when you can get by without it, and it can be a luxury rather than a necessity. On the other hand, it is one of the most important resources to the survivalist because of its many uses.

Fire can be made from electricity, lighters, matches, sparks, compression, or friction. It is important that a Scout is thoroughly familiar with all of these methods. Striking the flame, however, is only half the battle. Knowing how to structure the fire and prepare its fuel is also vital to know. Fire can be used to warm someone, purify water, make tools, and cook food. Hey, speaking of which, what about food?

5. Food

Food falls last on the list of the Big Five. This might surprise you, but it is important to know that food can be done without for quite a bit longer than the other things on this list. Since the other things on this list are so readily available in everyday life, we tend to take them for granted, no matter how important they are.

If you are going to have to survive for more than two days or so, then you need to start considering what you will eat, but only after the other items have been taken care of. If you immediately start looking for something to eat and overlook securing the other items on this list first, then you are making a grave mistake.

Getting food in a survival situation falls into two categories: gathering edible plants, and hunting/trapping wild animals. Both require knowledge and practice to get good at.

Conclusion 

So, in summary, there are five main priorities when in a survival situation. In order of importance, these are: Air, Shelter, Water, Fire, and Food. There might be times and circumstances where the order of importance of these priorities changes a little, but this will not be the norm.

Thanks for reading this post! Do you have any comments, thoughts, or questions? I’d love to hear them! What do you do to prepare yourself for survival?

I want this to get out to as many Scouts as possible, so please help by sharing this post. You can easily share this on Facebook, Twitter, and etc. by clicking the little icons below this post.

Thanks again! Scout on, my friends!

The Two Lives of a Hero II: Charterhouse Boy

 

Today, I’m going to continue the series I introduced earlier, where I will be going through the biography: “Baden-Powell: The Two Lives of a Hero” by William Hillcourt. In this post, I will be giving a brief synopsis and commentary of the second Chapter: “Charterhouse Boy”. Last chapter, we left off with Baden-Powell leaving for the ‘Charterhouse School’ at 13 years old.

Synopsis 

The second chapter starts immediately with Baden-Powell entering the Charterhouse school. The Charterhouse school was a very old institution with a lot history and tradition behind it.

Keystones of a Scout: The 10 Virtues That Make a Scout | Initiative

Initiative: It’s a great word, but it’s also a hard one too. What does it mean? Why is it a necessary virtue for a Scout to possess? In this post, I hope to answer these questions as I continue the series, Keystones of a Scout: The 10 Virtues that Make a Scout, which I introduced: here. Previously in this series, I talked about Endurance, Self-Discipline, Exploration, Observation, and Deduction. Each of these are traits or virtues that I have shown to have been with Scouting from the beginning, and each of these traits are necessary for a Scout to do what he should do and to carry out his Oath that he swore as a Scout. Today, I’m going to talk about what is perhaps one of the most important of these traits: Initiative.