The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 27, 1911. SCHOOLS FOR SCOUTS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 62, 27 October 1911, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 27, 1911. SCHOOLS FOR SCOUTS.

The Education Committee of Manchester lias just approved and adopted a somewhat remarkable scheme of evening classes, planned for Boy Scouts. The object of the system is to qualify Scouts to obtain proficiency badges in ambulance work, in pathfinding, as carpenter, handyman, lea-ther-worker, and clerk and in swimming and life-saving. The plan is, apparently, quite a new one. The London County Council some time ago advertised classes for Boy Scouts, but in this case the arrangement was only to provide particular facilities to Scouts to attend the ordinary evening classes. The Manohcester scheme has the purpose not only of gathering in Boy Scouts for educational purposes, and dealing with them corporately, as it docs by restricting attendance at the classes to hoys who are Scouts, by teaching them together, and in uniform, it aims also at giving them a unified course of instruction which will bo directed by the ideals of their organisation, and will bs of practical importance to them in everyday life. The pathfinder course, for instance, is an interesting development of geographical teaching. Every boy will be taught, in increasing detail, the geography of a twqnty-fivo miles radius area, a mile radius area, md a half-mile radius area of his home. The geography of the Ship Sanal will lie a part of the course, with its relation .to its distributing area, and its oversea connections. The city will ho treated as a rarilway centre, and the boys will be expected to learn all the possibilities of transport between their own homes and the stations. They will he taught a certain amount of surveying, and they will bo instructed in the very useful art of giving clear directions to a casual stranger. In England the Boy Scout movement appears to be something more than mere play, and we hope that young New Zealanders will bearthemselves equally well in the ranks if the Dominion’s Scout companies.