Re: 1953 Handbook for PL

I have three PL/JL Handbooks -- one from the mid-50s (my dad's), one
from the 80s (mine) and one of the new ones. It is quite evident even
without opening them that the amount of information contained has gone
down between each of these, since the size has shrunk considerably.

While the current JL Handbook does a better job of addressing all of
the leadership positions (rather than just the PL; something lacking
in previous versions), it really doesn't have much info to help the PL
learn to run a better patrol. Gone are things like patrol menus and
suggestions for patrol activities, and many of the other resources
which were then available. This is true of the SM Handbook as well
(points of comparison are a 1930s edition, a 1980s edition, and the
latest edition).

Also, this information hasn't just been moved to the Handbook and
Fieldbook; the Fieldbook used to duplicate some of that info (in the
late 70s/ early 80s) but now it concentrates on high adventure. In
fact, most of it seems to have completely disappeared. For example,
instructions on how to prepare an entire meal for a whole patrol so
that the food groups are covered, things get done at the right time,
and efficient use of dishes is made -- where could a scout today find
these?

It seems to me that both the SM Handbook and the JL Handbook were
subject to tremendous "dumbing down" in the last revision. Perhaps
this was meant to make them more approachable in todays post-literate
culture with limited attention spans, but it makes them much less
useful as references to draw from. In fact, last year as a SM I found
I used my 80s Handbooks (esp the SM and PL) considerably more than I
did the new ones.

So what would it take to convince National to bring back a dedicated
PL Handbook (and perhaps add in a dedicated SPL Handbook) similar to
the one for Den Chiefs?

Jon

--
Jon Dixon
dixonj@colorado.edu
http://sandman.colorado.edu/~dixonj/

• Messages sorted by: [ date ][ thread ][ subject ][ author ]
• Next message
• Previous message