PRACTICAL ACTIVITIES FOR SCOUTS

1. Scoutcraft:  Boy Scouts’ organization, scout laws, discipline, scouts’ secret signs, badges, etc.

2. Campaigning:  Camp life and resourcefulness.  Hut and mat making.  Knots.  Fire lighting.  Cooking.  Boat management.  Judging distances, heights and numbers.  Swimming.  Cycling.  Finding the way.

SIGN POSTS

1.  Do not have in the same patrol boys of great disparity in ages.  For instance, the boy of twelve should not be in the same group with the sixteen-year-old boy, if it can possibly be avoided.  You must remember that in most cases the things that appeal to the younger boy will have no attraction for the older boy.

2.  Do not enroll boys under twelve.  If you do you are certain to lose your older boy.  The movement is distinctly for boys of the adolescent period and is designed to help them to rightly catch the spirit of helpfulness.

3.  Do not try to do everything yourself.  Try to remember that the boys are always willing and anxious to take hold.  Let the boys understand that the whole proposition is theirs.  It is what they make it.  Your contract with them should be largely of a big brother nature.

4.  Do not burden nor weary the boys with excessive military drills and tactics.  The movement is not a military one.  The military virtues of obedience, neatness, order, endurance and erect, alert bearing, however, are scout virtues.  Use everything that develops boys.  This is good scoutcraft.

5.  Do not confine the activities of the patrols to things of one character.  Touch every activity as far as possible.  Do not omit anything.  Get the proper agencies to cooperate with you for these ends—­a military man for signalling; a naturalist for woodcraft; a physician for first aid, etc.

6.  Do not permit the boys to fail in the proper keeping of the scout oath and law.

7.  Never fail to keep an engagement with your patrol or troop.  If something should delay your coming or should you find yourself unable to keep an appointment with them, be sure to notify the patrol leaders beforehand.  It might be well to require the same of the boys.

8.  A real danger point is the failure of a scout master to visit the boys in their homes.  Knowing the boys’ parents means much, and their cooperation will be much heartier when they know the man to whose care they entrust their boy, after he has discussed with them the real purpose of the scout movement.

9.  Do not hesitate to give a boy a hard task, but not an impossible one.  A boy likes to do hard things.

10.  Do not attempt right at the start to give the boy every bit of detail regarding the activities of the troop.  Work out the plans with the boys from time to time, always reserving some things of interest for the next meeting.  Your attempt to give them everything at one time will cause the whole proposition to assume the nature of a task instead of pleasurable education, as was originally intended.