SCOUT NOTES

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 151, 23 March 1938, Page 5

SCOUT NOTES

Swimming Carnival

EDUCATIONISTS’ 7 OPINIONS

(By

GOLD STAR.)

Entries for the tests for the athlete's badge close at Metropolitan Headquarters at 5 p.m. on Friday. The tests will be held on Saturday afternoon, April 2. Entries for the next first-class badge test field day will close at Metropolitan Headquarters at 5 p.m. on Friday, April 1. This field day will be held on Saturday, April 9.

Scouters and rovers are reminded of the garden party to meet the Dominion Chief Commissioner and members of the Dominion executive, which is to be held at Mr. J. E. F. Vogel's home, Woburn Hoad, Lower Hutt, on Saturday. Entries for the patrol campcraft competitions to be held at Easter must be at Metropolitan Headquarters by 5 p.m. on Friday, April 1.

Swimming Carnival. The Wellington Metropolitan Swimming- Competitions were held at the Thorndon Baths on Saturday afternoon. This was a most successful function, and fully justified the alterations made in the procedure as compared with previous years. Instead of districts in the area holding eliminating competitions, the winners of which were entered in the Metropolitan competitions, all troops could enter direct in the Metropolitan competitions, with a limit of two scouts from any one troop for any one event. Also, cub events -were included this time, and the rover scouts combined their competitions with the rest. The presence of so many members of all three sections of the movement, and of the large number of parents and friends, made this the happiest and most enthusiastic gathering held for many years. The thanks of the Scout Association are given to the members of the New Zealand Amateur Swimming Association, .Wellington centre, who gave their assistance; also to Mr. A. Dale, of the Dominion Headquarters staff, who so efficiently organised the carnival. After allowing for those who entered for more than one event, it was found that more than 200 different boys were entered by the groups in the area. Taking into account the necessary restrictions on entries, previously mentioned, this is a very satisfactory result, and shows quite clearly that the emphasis placed by the Scout Association on the importance of all boys being able to swim is bearing fruit. In the rover section the Raukawa Rover Sea Scouts were the winners with 30 points. Wadestown were second with 20 points. In the scout (senior) events, St. Joseph’s Troop were the winners with 25 points, with Ist. Karori Troop second, 144 points. In the scout (junior) event, the winners were Collingwood Troop, with 10 points, and St. Mark’s, Roseneath, and Khandallah Troops, second equal with 8 points. Khandallah pack gained the most points in the cub section, gaining 10 points, St. Mark’s pack coming second with 6 points.

Scouting and Education. Many leading educationists have paid tribute to the value of scouting in education. Here are a few examples. Dean Russell, of Columbia University, wrote thus:— "1 declare the Boy Scout movement to be the most significant educational contribution of our time. The naturalist may praise it for its success in putting the boy close to nature’s heart; the moralist for its splendid code of ethics; the hygienist for its methods of physical training; the parent for its ability to keep the boy out of mischief; but, from the standpoint of the educator, it has marvellous potency for converting the restless, irresponsible, self-centred boy into the straightforward, dependable, helpful young citizen. To the boy who will give himself to it, there is plenty of work which looks like play, standards of excellence which he can appreciate, rules «f conduct, which he must obey, positions of responsibility which he may occupy as soon as he qualifies himself; in a word, a programme that appeals to a boy's instincts, and a method adapted to a boy’s nature. ‘•Scoutcraft,” 'Dean Russell goes on, “is not intended to be a substitute for schooling. It is a device for supplementing the formal instruction of the schools, by leading the boy into new fields and giving him a chance to make practical use of all his powers, intellectual, moral and physical. The best thing about it is its extraordinary diversity, reaching out to boys of all degrees of mental ability, in all kinds of social environment, and creat- • ing for them a real need to do their level best.”

Two more recent tributes to the educational value of' scouting may be quoted. . The first is from Sir George Newman's y annual report for 1928 on "The Health of the School Child”.: — “There are still worthy people who, being ignorant of physiology, live in an unreal world, and are even yet unaware that unless and until you cultivate and develop the-body and brain of the child, all attempts at intellectual instruction will prove futile. ■ They are witnesses of the triumphant contribution of the Boy Scout movement, and render it lip service of praise, but they decline to learn from it. Yet its lesson is profoundly true and full of meaning to all educationalists in this generation. It is a lesson of physical discipline, of educational adventure, of youthful training and glad obedience; it is one of the wisest interpretations of that service which is perfect freedom; it educates by equipping the body first and drawing out its faculties and senses; it both harnesses and develops the boy and leads him of his own interest and desire into the path of manual work and the arts and crafts; it trains men not for the classroom or the pedagogue, but for life. Thus, it has become a vast health movement, doing for the boy what, the education authority all too often fails to do. It is, perhaps, the greatest demonstration in practical education that the world has seen.”

The second quotation is from an article by Dr. L. P. Jacks, which appeared in “The Observer”:— “Among the names of modern discoverers, none ranks hisrher than BadenPowell. He made a discovery in the human field, the implications of which, when a reformed education has developed them, will affect the civilisation of the future not less than Watt’s application of the power of steam, or Edison’s of the electric current have affected our own. He discovered how the play-hunger of the young human animal, his love of adventure and fun, his sporting instincts, and even his devilries, can be converted by skilful hands’into the means of making a man of him, for building him up in selfcontrol, self-respect, courage, loyalty, discipline, good fellowship, responsibility and competence. I count it a great discovery and the forerunner of others greater than itself; for there ean be little doubt that the educational discoveries of the future will be made in the same field of the wasted human forces and take the same line—that of converting them into creative activities.”