THE Scoutmaster has to look after and care for all the Scouts in his Troop, collectively and individually. It is a large family he has on his hands, but he should regard them all as his Scout family. They are noisy and troublesome at times, but they are full of enthusiasm, of love of the heroic and adventurous, of generous trust, and respond quickly to the calls that are made on them. So they bring a reward for hard work and prolonged thought, provided, as always, that the proper atmosphere is in evidence.
The Scoutmaster wrestles with the problems of his family, with the characters of the individual boys in the family; he thinks, prays, longs, plans in regard to each one of them in the same way as a father or mother might do. Unless the Scoutmaster is able to assume that kind of a relationship to his boys, the Scouting that he does with them is liable to be something that affects outward appearances only, and that does not penetrate down into the depths of their beings as is intended. Numbers, efficiency and so on are as nothing unless the real spirit of Scouting is also there.
First of all there is the question of control to be considered. The Scoutmaster has to exercise control over his Troop and the members of it, and a great deal depends on the method he adopts. Some can do this entirely in the right way by instinct, but most of us have to learn, by degrees and by repeated trials and failures. Some exercise control by using their personality only, which is all very well so far as they themselves are concerned, but is rather bad luck on their helpers and successors. If we depend for our control on personality alone, it is likely to become a somewhat transient quality.
If we are to make a real success of our endeavours to control boys and to further their development, we must give the subject some consideration and endeavour to acquire certain qualities which will help us.
The successful Scouter, then, must have the ability to place himself on the right plane with his boys as a first step, and must possess something of the Boy Spirit himself. He must acquire – chiefly by experience – some knowledge of the varying characteristics of boys at different ages. He must make use of discovery methods in trying out each boy and discovering what is in him with a view to eliminating the bad by encouraging the good. He must promote a corporate spirit among all the Scouts in the Troop in order to gain the best results. This last is merely a reiteration of what has already been said in regard to the Patrol system and the other Scouters of the Troop.
So far as the right plane is concerned, it may be taken for granted that the Scout expects a Scouter to be genuine and modest and to have superior ability and power. On the Scouter’s part this must all be real, for the Scout will readily see through a mere veneer of modesty and ability.
If possible, and so far as the average Scouter is concerned it is not impossible, he should be able to do some one thing or other really well. Whatever his mental or physical abilities may be, the Scouter who can live the life of his boys in camp and otherwise will find very little difficulty in making a success of the average Troop. The Scouter who pretends, or who is afraid of his Troop, will find great difficulty in achieving any kind of success.
No two boys are alike, and so no one set of rules or general principles can be blindly applied to the handling of boys. It is quite beyond the majority of us to guess what move the boy’s interests or thoughts will prompt him to take. We can make a guess perhaps, and in course of time, as we gain experience, our guesses may approximate to what actually will happen, and that depends on a variety of factors usually hidden from our view. For instance, the same talk may bore one boy to death, and fire another with enthusiasm; it may bore the boy to death in one
mood, and inspire the same boy in another mood. So it is that we must proceed warily and carefully along our trail, observing, comprehending and analysing all the signs that appear upon it.
One important fact that we have to realise is that most of the important decisions in a boy’s life are made between the ages of fourteen and eighteen. His character is being built up, but character is an animate thing which is contagious; it is caught more than taught – in the same way as religion. If a group of boys is exposed to a man of strong character they will tend to become like him, even if they have been exposed to his influence only for a short time. It is what we do and are that counts more than what we say. Mention has already been made of individuality as one of the important materials to be used in our building of the Scout home; it is just as essential a material in the development of the Scout family.
We have to realise that a boy, though capable of reasoning, acts not on reason but on impulse.
The boy can give excellent reasons in the abstract for what his conduct should be, but when it comes to action this conduct will be largely governed by impulse. As the boy develops reason will gradually take a larger place in his actions; but not till he is fully grown up will it dominate.
This emphasizes the importance of cultivationg good influences, and of giving good directions to vague energies.
If you tell a boy how important self-control is, he will very likely agree with you, but let a little excitement come in and there will not be much sign of the desired quality. There is some chance, however, of increasing his self-control if he is encouraged to play such games as Creep Mouse, Freezing, Blind Pirate or Stalking, because he cannot make a success of any such games without unconsciously using self-control.
Another matter of importance is that we should realise that boys do not develop regularly and equally. A boy may suddenly lose all interest in what he has enjoyed for some time past. This is not fickleness, but the natural way in which his mind develops. It is not a question of his mind going up an inclined plane, but up a pyramid with steep, uneven steps. Sometimes one of these steps leads to a period of unruliness, and the boy becomes defiant, difficult and rude. These symptoms must be discouraged, but at the same time great patience must be exercised. For no apparent reason there may be another sudden change, and the aggressive, difficult boy becomes helpful and orderly. Very likely he is quite unconscious that he was anything else during the difficult period.
Some boys become apparently sullen, others slightly hysterical, others clumsy and shy. The danger is that we get annoyed with them because they are not the “nice little boys” of eleven!
Unspoken sympathy will do much to help, coupled with plenty of activity and responsibility.
Then again it will be found that every natural boy demands advancement. He longs to be a little older than he is, he longs to know a little more than he does, he longs to be able to do more than he can. We can use this desire, but must not speed it up. Gradual development is what the boy needs for his future welfare, not any kind of forced, unnatural growth. The programme of activities that we offer the boy must recognize the principle of progression, and so will appeal to the boy. The programme that we offer must also contain something for the older boy that is different from what is offered to the younger boy. This sounds difficult until it is realised that responsibility as Patrol Leader, as Second and so on, goes a long way to meet the older boy’s needs.
Then the Scouter has to remember that the law of interest is deep in the roots of boy nature.
His problem is to create and maintain interest, sometimes to replace desires by better ones made to appear so attractive as unconsciously to displace undesirable ones. There are various ways in which the problem can be solved, and there are certain words that give the key to various solutions – actions, out-of-doors, surprise, mystery, the unusual, the doing of things, initiative. At one time or another something has been said in this book on each one of these points, but I would say more on the question of initiative.
The exercise of initiative by the Scouts themselves, though taking more time, though more difficult to control and supervise, is more full of results than any formal subordination of the Scouts, to the Scouter with all its seeming quickness and convenience. The Scouter must realise that the older the boy becomes, the more and more must adult influence become advisory – giving way to the captaincy of the boy over himself.
Having ranged somewhat widely and discursively over the field of boy nature, it is time to set down one or two lines of general treatment that the Scouter can adopt.
Obviously kindness and sympathy are better than sternness, but we have to realise, as already mentioned in discussing the subject of discipline, that weakness is no sign of either kindness or sympathy. Any suspicion of favouritism and any tendency towards sloppishness or mawkish sentimentality must be rigorously avoided. Genuine interest in, enjoyment of, and time for, the things which the boy himself enjoys are the keynotes to success. The Scouter has to think with the mind of the Scout, to put himself in his place. This is the only way in which to track him down, to discover his aims and desires. It is quite natural for a young boy, whose mind is maturing, to do remarkable, and at times unreasonable things. When such things as that happen there is no need for us to get worried or alarmed. On the contrary it is fairly safe to say that the boy who never does anything wrong or mischievous is either sick, or his will has been broken. Whatever the cause may be it needs our sympathy and treatment.
So what the Scouter has to do is to be fair, just and considerate so far as each boy in his Troop is concerned. He has to try and understand him, to study his habits and characteristics. The boy who is discouraged must be heartened; the boy who is slow or weak must be encouraged; the boy who is quick-tempered must be restrained; the boy who is a boaster must be taken down a peg in a friendly but firm fashion; the boy who gives himself airs must be brought down to earth, sometimes even with a bump; the boy who is mischievous must be kept busy and occupied; the boy who has marked ability must be given responsibility so that he can advance farther; that boy who has no marked ability must be given opportunities to prove to himself that he can do things, and some small responsibility to prove to him that he is trusted; the boy who is forgetful must receive special training in details such as Kim’s Games; the boy who is inclined to be silly must be associated with the more sensible Scouts who are in a position to be able to cure him.
It is to be remembered that the boy’s present habits are not necessarily lasting ones. Habits are built up, new replace old almost unconsciously if the new are made more attractive, while old habits die quickiy if they cause discomfort. Sometimes a boy is in grip of a bad habit, which he cannot break unless his will is reinforced by someone else’s will. With real sympathy it is possible for the Scouter to induce the boy to go into partnership with the best that is in himself and make a fight for it, knowing that the Scouter is there to back him up in his struggle and to sympathise with him even in his failures.
Volumes have been written on this subject of boy nature; it is quite impossible to deal with it in the scope of a few pages. My object has been more to get Scouters thinking along certain lines, to convey an attitude, rather than to attempt the impossible and tell them how to control and develop the boys of their Troops.