On August 1st at 8am the 100 year Anniversary of Scouting was celebrated. The image to the right is of a 10-acre maize field that has been transformed into the image of Baden-Powell, the founder of Scouting, and the World Scouting emblem.
from Lancashire Evening Post
It is the work of the Nick Lee and his family, who operate a beef, sheep and arable farm at Shobrooke. The maze, designed by his 22-year-old daughter Katie, took days to mark out and create with maize plants. Mr Lee’s wife Janice said at the moment the maize was only waist-high, but it was expected to grow to around 15 feet. Over the years, thousands of people have travelled to try out the other mazes created by the family in the field. They have marked the Queen’s Golden Jubilee, the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar in 2005, and last year the bicentenary of the birth of Victorian engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Mrs Lee said the maze would be open until September 9, then it would be harvested and fed to cattle.
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Recently I borrowed a copy of “Scouting for Boys” from my local library. While I have yet to complete reading it I have been amazed at how many concepts of Scouting that I remember from being a Scout myself or from more recent leader training really dates back to Baden-Powell’s original guidance. I would personally suggest that every Scout Leader take the time and read it for themselves as there is much wisdom to be gained. The following text is from the a BBC story regarding how the words of Baden-Powell would hold up as advice for youth in today’s society.
What would Baden-Powell do? by Finio Rohrer, BBC News Magazine
>>Robert Baden-Powell’s scouting movement is 100 years old, but how has his advice to young people – written up a year after the first Scout camp – stood up over the years?
The 1908 edition of Scouting for Boys by Robert Baden-Powell is an extraordinary book that kicked off a movement that has changed the world. Much of it is practical advice not just on camping, survival and the outdoor life, but how to cope with urban emergencies and how to live as a moral upstanding boy in an increasingly immoral world. It seems almost as though no area of life is neglected in the book. Over the years it has undergone many revisions, to make it more international; dropping references to Empire and the superiority of some nations; including advice and activities for girls, and reflecting other changes in thinking. And while some of Baden-Powell’s advice seems out of place in today’s risk-averse society, much of it seems prescient. Today’s equivalent of Scouting for Boys, the Scout Matrix, has concepts that are entirely new, such as how to create a webpage using HTML and surf the internet safely. But it retains the spirit of Baden-Powell’s original work.
ANIMALS
SCOUTING FOR BOYS 1908:
A scout is friend to animals. He should save them as far as possible from pain and should not kill any animal unnecessarily, even if it is only a fly.
I have said the ‘hunting’ or ‘going after big game is one of the best things in scouting’. I did not say shooting or killing the game was the best part; for as you get to study animals you get to like them more and more, and you will soon find that you don’t want to kill them for the mere sake of killing.
For a man who was the product of an age that wasn’t shy about shooting animals for sport alone, Baden-Powell was remarkably far-sighted in his attitudes.
Indeed, the Scout Association likes to look at the original scout as a proto-environmentalist whose life was about getting close to nature and understanding its importance.
WATER SENSE
Plunge in boldly and look to the object you are trying to attain and don’t bother about your own safety.
Baden-Powell was outraged by an episode in which a woman drowned in a pond at Hampstead while a crowd looked on. But his advice on emergency situations, and particularly the rescuing of the drowning, seem at odds with today’s culture.
For the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (Rospa), the emphasis is on avoiding jumping in and only even wading as a last resort.
ROSPA 2007: “You should do everything possible to avoid having to enter the water because experience shows that often the would-be rescuer becomes a casualty. If you have to make a rescue attempt, think of your own safety first and never put yourself in danger. If the rescue is too dangerous, wait until the emergency services arrive. Remember this order: shout, reach, throw, wade.”
After shouting for help and sending someone to dial 999, throwing a lifebelt or reaching with a stick or branch is the next step.
SMOKING
No boy ever began smoking because he liked it but because he thought it made him look like a grown-up man. As a matter of fact it generally makes him look a little ass.
When a lad smokes before he is fully grown up it is almost sure to make his heart feeble, and the heart is the most important organ in a lad’s body.
Although suspicions about the harmful effects of tobacco go all the way back to the 17th Century, in 1908 it was not received wisdom that smoking was bad for you.
And the notion that smoking harms the heart coincides with much scientific research of the last three decades, such as a recent study that found people under 40 are five times more likely to have a heart attack if they smoke.
But for Baden-Powell’s choice of vocabulary, this could be straight out of a government anti-smoking campaign today.
RUNAWAY HORSES
The way to stop a runaway horse is not to run out in front of it and wave your arms, as so many people do, but to try and race alongside it, catch hold of the shaft to keep yourself from falling, and seize the reins with the other hand.
This advice seems to be for a carriage, but Baden-Powell was extremely concerned that boys should know about the 200 runaway horse incidents every year.
Today, the British Horse Society says standing in front of a horse and waving may work in some circumstances as may holding on to an animal from the side, but that there will be many circumstances where it is not wise to intervene.
“It depends on how dangerous the horse is,” says a spokeswoman. “If it is a stallion and it’s prone to be vicious you don’t want to get in its way.”
RAIL RESCUE
Lie flat and make him lie flat too between the rails, and let the train go over us both
Baden-Powell’s description of what might pass through your head in the event of someone falling on the tracks was prompted by the general reading in the newspapers of this very event happening at Finsbury Park station, when an Albert Hardwick rescued a woman who was about to be run over by a train.
These days, Network Rail is far from keen on anyone doing the same.
“The train and tracks are live [electrically]. We wouldn’t advise anyone to go anywhere near them. The advice would be to raise the alarm with station staff.”
One key consideration is that while Tube trains have a well beneath the tracks that one might lie in, most of the nation’s railways do not.
But Baden-Powell would no doubt have been pleased with the actions of Wesley Autrey, a 50-year-old construction worker who jumped on to the track on the New York Subway in January this year to save a man having a seizure, holding him down and allowing the train to roll overhead. And he would not have been surprised to find Mr Autrey was a former Navy sailor.
ALCOHOL
Alcohol is now shown to be quite useless as a health giving drink and it is mere poison when a man takes too much.
It is often difficult to avoid taking strong drinks when you meet friends who want to treat you… But it is a stupid fashion when, in order to prove that you are friends, you have to drink with each other.
Baden-Powell could see the alcopop-fuelled future and was straight onto the role of peer pressure in excessive drinking.
Today’s Scout Matrix is more compromising in its tone, warning against excessive drinking but advising in rather Edwardian tone that the occasional drink may be OK.
SCOUT MATRIX 2007: “Some parents allow their children to drink alcohol in small quantities at home. A single glass of wine with Sunday dinner perhaps or a glass of beer or cider after a hot afternoon’s gardening. This is unlikely to have any adverse effect.”
It offers advice on solvent abuse and drugs, not issues for the young people of Baden-Powell’s day, but its metaphor for abuse sounds almost as poetic as the master scout himself.
“Even the smoothest running machine will grind to a halt if you pour sand into its works and the same is true of the human body.”
MAD DOGS
Scouting for Boys tells readers faced by a mad dog to hold a stick or a handkerchief in front of them in order to distract the animal while they attempt to subdue it.
You may thus get a chance of landing him a kick under the jaw.
In the light of a number of recent maulings, Rospa has just finished drawing up advice on how to deal with an aggressive dog.
ROSPA 2007: “Allow the dog to come up to you and sniff you. It is very unlikely that the dog will bite you. Stand with your arms by your sides, fingers curled inwards. Keep your head down, and your eyes looking down too.
“Stand in the ‘at ease’ position, feet slightly apart to give you stability, but preventing the dog from going through your legs. If you are knocked over by a dog, curl up in a ball, face down.”
In other words, kicking it is not the only plan, although it must be said that neither Rospa nor Baden-Powell advise running away.
ICE AND FIRE
If a person falls through ice and is unable to get out again because of the edges breaking , throw him a rope, and tell him not to struggle. This may give him confidence until you can get a long ladder or pole which will enable him to crawl out, or will allow you to crawl out to catch hold of him.
Rospa does not concur with the latter part of this advice.
ROSPA 2007: “Call for assistance from the emergency services. Do not attempt to go out onto the ice yourself. Instruct the casualty to keep still to maintain heat and energy. Try to find something that will extend your reach, such as a rope, pole, branch or item of clothing.”
But Baden-Powell’s advice on a fire – raise the alarm, contact the fire brigade and wait at a safe distance – could be right out of a fire safety leaflet from today.
OTHER CURIOSITIES
On sleeping in the cold:
A boy who is accustomed to sleep with his window shut will probably suffer, like many a tenderfoot has done, by catching cold and rheumatism when he first tries sleeping out. The thing is always to sleep with your windows open, summer and winter, and you will never catch cold… A soft bed and too many blankets make a boy dream bad dreams, which weakens him.
On the physiognomy of the face:
The shape of the face gives a good guide to the man’s character. Perhaps you can tell the character of these gentlemen?
On the character of bees:
They are a quite a model community for they respect their Queen and kill their unemployed.
This was changed in later editions to “those who won’t work”.
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From The Times
Centenary Scouts go back to where it all began – breakfast on Brownsea
BROWNSEA ISLAND As 28 million members of the Scout Association marked the movement’s centenary, a representative contingent from all over the world celebrated on the island where it began.
Robert Baden-Powell’s experience in the Army led him to run a camp for 20 boys from different social backgrounds at Brownsea Island in Poole Harbour, Dorset, in August 1907. He went on to write Scouting For Boys and the movement was born.
The National Trust-owned island was the focus of celebrations as 300 Scouts attended a commemorative camp. Scouts from more than 160 countries paraded their flags before taking part in a sunrise ceremony on Brownsea at 8am. Around 400,000 Scouts in the UK also took part in sunrise events. They were celebrated as far afield as Ecuador and the Kingdom of Bhutan.
Alastair Frankl, 16, from Manchester, read out Baden-Powell’s words 100 years ago on Brownsea Island calling for peace, comradeship and cooperation. Unlike “BP’s” boys, today’s Scouts were banned from lighting fires on the island. The National Trust forbids it. But around 1,000 Scouts cooked a camp fire breakfast in Namibia.
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It was 3 years later, in 1907, that the Boy Scouts program began in the United States. The 100th Anniversary of the BSA is going to be celebrated in high fashion for certain. I’m looking forward to participating in the events held in the US…
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For more information on Baden-Powell and his starting of the Scouting movement visit http://www.pinetreeweb.com/B-P.htm
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