Re: Purpose

Terry Slade writes:
>>B-P wrote a book to teach his soldiers how to "scout". They were
>>lacking in those skills and he wanted as many to survive the war as
>>possible. On a trip home, he noticed some young boys had taken the
>>book and had used it to learn those same skills taught the soldiers.
>>POOF!!!!!!!
>>Scouting was born.
>>It wasn't started to teach God, country, or anything but scouting
>>skills. Period....

Just a bit of history. True, when B-P was lionized as the hero of Mafeking,
his little book "Aids to Scouting" did indeed come into the ahnds of boys in
Britain. And the reaction to the "games" and "fun" and "adventure" in these
military notes made B-p (and a good publicist -- C. Arthur Pearson) take
note. BUT ... no POOF!!!! and really, no period.... B-P took a great deal
of time to develop the concept of Boy Scouting and Peace Scouting. Reading
his own writings from pre-1907, then Scouting for Boys and a little later
Aids to Scoutmastership (1919-20 or so), it is clear that the ethical goals
of Scouting were always first and foremost in his mind. The game was
essential. The patrol the organizing principle. And values the goal. That
is why, from the earliest days he referred to the Movement as "a game with a
purpose."
Terry is right to applaud those adults who come back to the basic motivation
of Scouting and see it clearly as a game with a purpose. That also tends to
be where it is most successful.
Yours in Scouting
Lew Orans
Sam Houston Area Council

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