Lord Baden-Powell on Adventure

1. Boys can see adventure in a dirty old duck-puddle, and if the Scoutmaster is a boy-man*, he can see it too.

2. Watch that lad going down the street, his eyes are looking far out.  Is his vision across the prairie or over the gray-backed seas?  At any rate, it isn’t here.  Don’t I know it!

Have you never seen the buffaloes roaming in Kensington Gardens?  And can’t you see the smoke from the Sioux Lodges under the shadow of the Albert Memorial?  I have seen them there these many years.

Through Scouting the boy has now the chance to deck himself in a frontier kit as one of the great Brotherhood of Backwoodsmen.  He can track and follow signs, he can signal, he can light his fire and build his shack and cook his grub.

3. The spirit of adventure is inherent in almost every boy, but adventure is hard for him to find in the crowded city.

footsteps

* 548.  To be a successful Scoutmaster, a man has simply to be a boy-man, that is:

1) he must have the boy spirit in him and must be able to place himself on a right plane with his boys as a first step;

2) he must realize the needs, outlooks and desires of the different ages of boy life;

3) he must deal with the individual boy rather than with the mass;

4) he then needs to promote a corporate spirit among his individuals to gain the best results.


Baden-Powell of Gilwell, Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell – Mario Sica – Nuova Fiordaliso – 2002

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