Having looked at various different schemes
- including Ernest Thompson Seton's vision of camping and
woodcraft, and explored different educational forms, in August
1907 he conducted the famous Brownsea Island Experimental
Camp. Robert Baden-Powell wanted to test out the ideas he
had been working on for his scheme of work for ‘Boy
Scouts’.
He had completed the first draft of Scouting
for Boys. With the experience of the camp validating
much of his thinking, he began a long series of promotional
lectures around the country arranged with the YMCA (Reynolds
1942: 147-8). On January 15, 1908, the first part of Scouting
for Boys was published. Like modern day ‘bit-parts’
it appeared at fortnightly intervals (6 parts) price at 4d
each. It quickly appeared in book form (May 1). Sales were
extra-ordinary and quickly groups of young men were approaching
suitable adults to form troupes (Springhall 1977). The involvement
of Arthur Pearson (the publisher) had given the whole enterprise
an unedifying commercial edge. Robert Baden-Powell had unwisely
entered into a ‘gentleman’s agreement’ with
him - and had lost various rights and a large amount of money
as a result. Considerable efforts were made to set up a separate
organization and to limit the publisher’s power.
Scouting for Boys was also read and taken up by a significant
number of middle class girls on a self-organized basis (Kerr
1936: 16). In September 1908 at Crystal Palace the first big
rally was held with some 10,000 Boy Scouts as well as a number
of self-organized Girls Scouts attending (Reynolds 1942: 150).
Robert Baden Powell was approached by some Girl Scouts asking
him to do something for them also. In the second edition of
Scouting for Boys he suggest a uniform for Girl Scouts - blue,
khaki or grey shirt (as with the boys) and blue skirt and
knickers. However, Robert Baden-Powell had decided to set
up a separate organization and scheme. He decided ‘Scout’
was inappropriate and alighted on ‘Girl Guide’.
The scheme was ‘to make girls better mothers and guides
to the next generation’. In Robert Baden-Powell's mind
though, it was to be fairly similar in structure and activity
as the boys - ‘Girls must be partners and comrades rather
than dolls’ (Jeal 1989: 470). (Details of Baden-Powell's
'Scheme for "Girl Guides"' was published in the
Scout's Headquarters Gazette in Novemer 1909. It is reproduced
in full by Kerr [1932: 29-34]). With the move to Victoria,
the Girl Guides were allocated a separate office and Agnes
Baden-Powell (Robert’ sister) was asked to form a committee.
As John Springhall (1977: 64) has noted, in the decade from
1908 to 1919, 'no other influence upon British boyhood came
anywhere near Baden-Powell's movement'. He continues:
The actual timing of the appearance of the first Boy Scout
may be explained as an outcome of the post-Boer War mood of
imperial decline and social reassessment... However, the historian
needs to go back further, at least to Thomas Hughes idealization
of Rugby and the 'muscular Christianity' of the third quarter
of the nineteenth century. Despite subsequent new directions,
the ideological roots of Scouting remain buried in the public
school ethos of Charterhouse in the 1870s, the methods of
colonial warfare in the 1880s and 1890s, and the intellectual
climate of the 1900s.
The key words of the old Scout Law: honour,
loyalty and duty were part of the old public school
tradition; and Robert Baden-Powell's stress on the worth of
activity and games (and disdain for 'effeminate' and intellectual
scholarship) could have come directly from the pages of Thomas
Hughes' Tom Brown's Schooldays (Springhall 1977: 54). When
this was combined with woodcraft and a love of the open air,
a desire for class harmony and an appreciation of what might
be happening in the imaginative life of boys then the scene
was set for some serious innovation in informal education
practice.
Robert Baden-Powell and 'doing good'
One of the fascinating features of Robert Baden-Powell's scheme
is the centrality accorded to 'doing good'. As we noted above,
there is a strong link here with his own experience of public
school. For some years prior to the publication of Scouting
for Boys Robert Baden-Powell in his speeches to various youth
groups and organizations had been encouraging boys and young
men to 'do good'. By 'doing good', he once wrote (in 1900),
'I mean making yourselves useful and doing small kindnesses
to other people - whether they are friends or strangers' (quoted
by Jeal 1989: 363). This concern famously became incorporated
into Scout Law:
3. A scout's duty is to be useful
and to help others. And he is to his duty before
anything else, even though he gives up his own pleasure, or
comfort, or safety to do it. When in difficulty to know which
of two things to do, he must ask himself, "Which is my
duty?" that is, "Which is best for other people?"
- and do that one. He must Be Prepared at any time to save
life, or to help injured persons. An he must try his best
to do a good turn to somebody every day.
4. A Scout is a friend to all,
and a brother to every other scout, no matter to what social
class the other belongs. Thus if a scout meets another scout,
even though a stranger to him, he must speak to him, and help
him in any way that he can, either to carry out the duty he
is then doing, or by giving him food, or, as far as possible,
anything that he may be in want of. A scout must never be
a SNOB. A snob is one who looks down upon another because
he is poorer, or who is poor and resents another because he
is rich. A scout accepts the other man as he finds him, and
makes the best of him.
"Kim", the boy scout, was called by the Indians,
"Little friend of all the world", and that is the
name that every scout should earn for himself. (Robert Baden-Powell
1908: 49-50 - these became laws 4 and 5 in the second edition
of Scouting for Boys - 1909)
Recent conceptions of informal education such as that of
Jeffs and Smith (1990, 1999) have also placed a strong emphasis
upon seeking to live life well, and of looking to the well-being
of others. However, such an approach (drawn from broadly from
Aristotle and virtue ethics) clearly prioritizes the 'good'
over the 'correct' - and this is a tension that Robert Baden-Powell
would have found troubling. His conception of the good was
deeply entwined with notions of duty - particularly towards
his country. The Scout Law stated:
2. A Scout is loyal to the King,
and his officers, and to his country, and to his employers.
He must stick to them through thick and thin against anyone
who is their enemy, or who even talks badly of them.
7. A Scout obey orders
of his patrol leader or scout master without question.
Even if he gets an order he does not like he must do as soldiers
and sailors do, he must carry it out all the same because
it is his duty; and after he has done it he can come and state
any reasons against it: he must carry out an order at once.
That is discipline. (Robert Baden-Powell 1908: 49, 50)
For Robert Baden-Powell, then, there existed a possibility
that that those above in the hierarchy might have a questionable
understanding of what might be for the best in particular
situation - but it is still the duty of the scout to carry
out their wishes. Michael Rosenthal (1986: 162) has commented
that the Scout Law and the overall direction of Scouting for
Boys provided scouting with 'a model of human excellence in
which absolute loyalty, an unbudgeable devotion to duty, and
the readiness to fight, and if necessary die for one's country,
are the highest virtues'. Duty and patriotism were certainly
central to his vision - but so was kindness to others. The
Scout Laws also call upon Scouts to smile and whistle, to
be a friend to animals and to be courteous. What is less clear
is what happens when there is conflict between the different
laws.
Citizenship, taking responsibility
and participation
Keep before your mind in all your teaching that the whole
ulterior motive of this scheme is to form character in the
boys - to make them manly, good citizens.... Aim for making
each individual into a useful member of society, and the whole
will automatically come on to a high standard. (Baden-Powell
1909: 361)
In Scouting for Boys
we can see that Robert Baden-Powell's view of character is
wrapped up with notions of citizenship. He wanted to encourage
‘a spirit of manly self-reliance and of unselfishness
– something of the practical Christianity which (although
they are Buddhists in theory) distinguishes the Burmese in
their daily life’ (Baden-Powell: 1909: 292). This particular
aspect of his vision was shared with a significant number
of other workers at the time. While Robert Baden-Powell's
analysis of the social and moral situation in Britain certainly
diverged from the more progressive thinking of Christian Socialists
and many of the workers involved in the settlement movement,
there were important commonalities. For example, he was opposed
to extremes of wealth. In the first edition of Scouting for
Boys (part VI, page 339), Baden Powell wrote:
[W]e are all Socialists in that we want to see the abolition
of the existing brutal anachronism of war, and of extreme
poverty and misery shivering alongside of superabundant wealth,
and so on; but we do not quite agree as to how it is to be
brought about. Some of us are for pulling down the present
social system, but the plans for what is going to be erected
in its place are very hazy. We have not all got the patience
to see that improvement is in reality gradually being effected
before our eyes.
This passage was to disappear in later versions of Scouting
for Boys (from the third edition on), but it does establish
that Robert Baden-Powell cannot be categorized in some simple
way as 'deeply conservative'. As Tim Jeal (1989: 413) has
argued, there was more of an emphasis on taking responsibility
and independent thinking than many commentators would allow.
'A boy', Robert Baden-Powell once wrote, 'should take his
own line rather than be carried along by herd persuasion'.
In his list of ingredients of 'character', he places intelligence
and individuality before loyalty and self-discipline (Jeal
1989: 413).
One of the fascinating aspects of Robert Baden-Powell's scheme
was his emphasis upon the group and of the young leader. In
his reflections on the experimental camp at Brownsea Island
he comments:
The troop of boys was divided up into 'Patrols' of five,
the senior boy in each being Patrol Leader. This organization
was the secret of our success. Each patrol leader was given
full responsibility for the behaviour of his patrol at all
times, in camp and in the field. The patrol was the unit for
work or play, and each patrol was camped in a separate spot.
The boys were put 'on their honour' to carry out orders. Responsibility
and competitive rivalry were thus at once established and
a food standard of development was ensured throughout the
troop from day to day. (Robert Baden-Powell 1908: 344)
While not giving the degree of freedom, association, and
lightness of adult intervention that characterized Seton's
vision of woodcraft, Robert Baden-Powell did, nevertheless,
capture something. He connected with the way in which groups
of boys often formed 'gangs' and then used that form as a
way of creating an environment for learning and activity.
The patrol
First and foremost: The Patrol
is the character school for the individual. To the Patrol
Leader it gives practise in Responsibility and in the
qualities of Leadership. To the Scouts it gives subordination
of self to the interests of the whole, the elements
of self-denial and self-control involved in the team
spirit of cooperation and good comradeship.
But to get first-class results
from this system you have to give the boy leaders real
free-handed responsibility-if you only give partial
responsibility you will only get partial results. The
main object is not so much saving the Scoutmaster trouble
as to give responsibility to the boy, since this is
the very best of all means for developing character.
The Scoutmaster who hopes for
success must not only study what is written about the
Patrol System and its methods, but must put into practice
the suggestions he reads. It is the doing of things
that is so important, and only by constant trial can
experience be gained by his Patrol Leaders and Scouts.
The more he gives them to do, the more will they respond,
the more strength and character will they achieve.
Robert Baden-Powell (1930)
Aids to Scoutmastership |
As Robert Baden-Powell explained later, educators should
‘become the students, and … study the marvelous
boy-life which they are at present trying vainly to curb and
repress’. He went on ‘why push against the stream,
when the stream, after all, is running in the right direction?’
(Baden-Powell 1930: 40).
Harnessing the imagination: woodcraft and adventure
Robert Baden-Powell wanted children to be brought up ' as
cheerfully and as happily as possible’. He also wrote,
‘in this life one ought to take as much pleasure as
one possible... because if one is happy, one has it in one’s
power to make all those around happy’. (From a speech
made in 1902 and reported in the Johannesburg Star July 10,
1902 - quoted by Jeal 1989). One of the great innovations
of Scouting was to harness the imagination and desire on the
part of many boys and girls for 'adventure'.
Boys are full or romance, and they love 'make believe' to
a greater extent than they like to show. All you have to do
is to play up to this and to give rein to your imagination
to meet their requirements. (Baden-Powell 1908: 356)
As we have seen, Robert Baden-Powell placed a special emphasis
on adventure - on encouraging young people to look to enlarge
their experiences. What had eluded him was a suitable framework
to handle this and his other concerns - although he worked
at various ways of approaching a scheme. Ernest Thompson Seton
provided what he was looking for in his short book The Birch
Bark Roll of the Woodcraft Indians. Seton had sent Robert
Baden-Powell a copy of book in 1906 - and Baden-Powell was
impressed by the scheme of activities had designed around
camp life. In Seton's plan groups of between 15-50 boys and
young men were gathered together in a 'band' supervised by
a 'medicine man'. From this base various activities and adventures
could be undertaken - and the life and needs of the 'band'
provided a useful reference point and organizing idea. Two
further elements also impressed Robert Baden-Powell to 'borrow'
them for his scheme. Seton had developed a system of non-competitive
badges linked to the various activities in his programme.
A similar range of badges with a non-competitive orientation
was adopted by Robert Baden-Powell. Another element of the
Seton scheme imported into Scouting was the use of a totem
such as an animal or a bird to identify each Scout patrol.
The scale of this importation (some of which was not initially
acknowledged properly) became the focus of considerable tension
between Seton and Robert Baden-Powell.
Seton grew increasingly aggrieved at the plaudits conferred
on Baden-Powell as the inventor of Scouting, a grievance obviously
exacerbated by the enormous popularity of Baden-Powell's movement
as opposed to the substantially more modest success of his
own Woodcraft Indians.... His resentment was nourished by
a sense that Baden-Powell had betrayed the purity of the woodcraft
ideal, substituting for the true woodcraft way, a narrowly
self-serving military training that had nothing to do with
real character building. (Rosenthal 1986 70; 71)
Rosenthal argues that Robert Baden-Powell's encounter with
Ernest Thompson Seton was 'critical to the development of
Scouting' and that his was 'the vital influence who brought
before Baden-Powell the model of an efficient, attractive,
self-contained system toward which he had been working for
two years' (ibid.: 80-81). The scale of the borrowing is disputed
by Jeal (1989: 378) but even Rosenthal concludes that the
structure produced by Seton's idealism was transformed by
Baden-Powell. To this extent, Robert Baden-Powell 'engaged
in a genuinely original, creative act' (1986: 81).
Learning through doing
The key to successful education is not so much to teach the
pupil as to get him to learn for himself.
Dr Montessori has proved that by encouraging a child in its
natural desires, instead of instructing it in what you think
it ought to do, you can educate it on a far more solid and
far-reaching basis. It is only tradition and custom that ordain
that education should be a labour. (Robert Baden-Powell manuscript
circa 1913-14) quoted by Jeal 1989: 413)
In the process of preparing Scouting for Boys, Robert Baden-Powell
read some quite diverse books and materials concerning the
education of young men. Michael Rosenthal (1986: 64) lists
some of his influences and they include: Epictetus, Livy,
Pestalozzi, and Jahn on physical culture. He had also explored
different techniques for educating boys within different African
tribes, studied the Bushido of the Japanese, and the educational
methods of John Pounds and the ragged schools (op. cit.).
As we have already seen, he also drew upon the work of contemporaries
such as William Smith, Ernest Thompson Seton and Dan Beard.
He came to appreciate the philosophy and methods of Maria
Montessori.
Be prepared
In his notes for instructors,
Robert Baden-Powell discusses the need for Scouters
(as they were later to be known) to have the ability
to 'read character, and thereby to gain sympathy'. Robert
Baden-Powell also stresses 'the value of patience and
cheery good temper; the duty of giving up some of one's
time and pleasure for helping one's country and fellow-men;
and the inner meaning of out motto, "Be Prepared"'
(1909: 295). He continues:
But as you come to teach these
things you will very soon find (unless you are a ready-made
angel) that you are acquiring them yourself all the
time.
You must 'Be Prepared' yourself
for disappointments at first, though you will as often
as not find them outweighed by unexpected successes.
You must from the first 'Be Prepared'
for the prevailing want of concentration of mind on
the part of boys, and if you then frame your teaching
accordingly, I think you will have very few disappointments.
Do not expect boys to pay great attention to any one
subject for very long until you have educated them to
do so. You must meet them half way, and not give them
too long a dose of one drink. A short, pleasing sip
of one kind, and then off to another, gradually lengthening
the sips till they become steady draughts....
This making the mind amenable
to the will is one of the important inner points in
our training.
For this reason it is well to
think out beforehand each day what you want to say on
your subject, and then bring it out a bit at a time
as opportunity offers - at the camp fire, or in intervals
of play and practice, not in one long set address....
To get a hold on your boys you
must be their friend; but don't be in too great a hurry
at first to gain this footing; until they have got over
their shyness of you.
Robert Baden-Powell (1909)
Scouting for Boys, pages 295 and 294
|
There was a strong antipathy in some of Robert Baden-Powell's
writing to rote learning, the attempt to cram information
into 'young heads' and abstract ideas that were not tied to
practical expression. As an educational approach this element
along with Robert Baden-Powell's concern with 'training for
active citizenship', his focus on character, 'the appreciation
of beauty in Nature', and service to others (Baden-Powell
1930) appealed strongly to many progressive headmasters (like
Cecil Reddie at Abbotsholme). Such thinking also found its
way into various experiments in education - such as that undertaken
by Leonard Elmhirst and Rabindranath Tagore in India. One
of the key concerns in that work was to utilize scouting and
woodcraft as a way of developing forms of schooling for village
children that 'took full account of their natural surroundings'
(Stewart 1968: 129). |
