THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS MONDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 1931. YOUTH AND CITIZENSHIP.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20805, 23 February 1931, Page 8

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS MONDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 1931. YOUTH AND CITIZENSHIP.

None who heard Lord and Lady Baden-Powell speak to Scouts and Guides at the Domain rally could retain any doubt as to the aim of the one movement that includes both boys -and girls. .The movement has beeu occasionally misunderstood, even assailed, as militarism "under the rose," but this could be only by the mind prone to think every bush an officer. There are, to be sure, military touches—or so they seemin name, organisation, uniform, badges and what not —but to argue militarism from such things is no saner than to charge the Salvation Army with sabotage. The analogy is justified. k ln both of these worldwide institutions is a purpose of rescue, based on a belief in an inherent goodness in even the most unpromising, and applied in a positive rather than a negative way—by presenting something to do instead of inhibiting a reckless will with a perpetual "don't." To capture the vagrant energies of youth, to divert them to wholesome exercise, and to do this without any thwarting or crushing of natural instincts, are of the essence of the movement. It is not a case of putting old heads on young shoulders—the making of monstrosities—but the training of inborn aptitudes for decent, honourable and serving lives. It is the new view of education, as .this age has come to know it—to greet children where they live, not in. any condescending way but in appreciation of their possibilities of rapid growth from a selfcentred forgetfulness of others to a self-sacrificing forgetfulness of themselves. In short, it is to attract them to what is meant by good citizenship, and it begins with the assumption that they are waiting and wanting to be attracted. "It is the spirit within, not the veneer without, that does it," wrote the Chief Scout ten years or so ago; "and the spirit is there in every boy when you get him, only it has to be discovered and brought to light: we reckon on there being 5 per cent, of good somewhere in the boy, however bad a hooligan he may be." This suggestion of a potential citizen of quality in even the most unlikely urchin must not be taken to mean that Scouting and Guiding are designed as gigantic missions to juvenile "down-and-outs." What is implied in the .movement is a need, on the unconscious part of every adolescent, more or less, of opportunity to express native instincts in a safe and serviceable way. There is a period of life when self-assertive-ness and selflessness meet in a veritable tide-rip. The period lasts through many years, all the way from childhood to adulthood—a long bridge of many spans; and every child, no matter how softly or roughly born, must expect to take that way. But there is school, it may be said, to supplement the deficient home and to give the requisite direction to the wayward will. Something is to be allowed to this point of view. Modern education is doing much to provide the old, lamented lack of "men's schools." However, it must be said that Lord BadenPowell, in the early days of his soldiering, found a just cause of complaint against the school. He started classes of training in his regiments—training in scouting and campaigning—"with a view." as ho himself says, "to developing character —i.e., manliness, self-reliance and reliability—as well as field-efficiency, since these were largely lacking in lads coming to the Army from the ordinary Board school." So was it with the South African Constabulary —the same need, the same methods. Then came the touch of genius—another name for common sense using the powers of constructive imagination—the application of this experience to the boys themselves, the training of the young shoot at the most opportune time instead of leaving the job alone until arduous and perilous bending processes alone could be used. The boys of Mafeking responded magnificently to calls on their handiness, their resourcefulness, their honour. They could be trusted, they delighted to be trusted, they learned rapidly to take a socially responsible outlook on their life. The circumstances were exceptional, certainly; but the truth was out. In every boy was the real citizen-spirit. To find it, to lure it on, to give it hands and feet—not gauntlets nor divers' boots —to set it happily to work in serving the world, all this might be done everywhere.

So came the idea of the "good turn" every day, the loyalty, the kindliness, and the respect for law ; and the blending of play with work, that happiness might be nurtured and priggish ness be averted. To reach the ideal entailed on every Scout—later in the scheme, the Guides carao in without any fundamental distinction of method, for none was needed—a fit body and mind. "Be prepared" served to keep individual effort .alive, effort to become proficient against emergency ; but always and everywhere the social purpose lived in the aim and the method. In the training of ' the average school-boy,"—the , phrase is Lord ex-

pressing an experience—deficiency lay,, he found, in character and general intelligence, skill in handicrafts, physical development and health knowledge, • and service for others and the State. • In that diagnosis there was found , a large and urgent need to develop a sturdy individual, as is clear from a review of those points; but it is the last of them—the service for others and the State—that gathers into itself the ultimate purpose as it was first conceived in Scouting, This perspective has nfever changed. The social aim still stands as the ultimate target. „ There can be no gainsaying the value of the purpose. Were good citizenship the rule among adults, the face of every civilised State would be changed for the better; economic problems would be manageable, crime would be unknown, and bigotry be banished. As Scouts and Guides are now in every considerable nation, there is a wider possibility still of producing social good. The outlook invites; it is but a question of men and women and sufficient means to make it attainable.