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BULLETIN, 1921, No. 41

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EDUCATIONAL WORK OF THE
BOY SCOUTS

By

LORNE W. BARCLAY

DIRECTOR OF THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA

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[Advance sheets from the Biennial Survey of Education
in the United States, 1918-1920]

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EDUCATIONAL WORK OF THE BOY SCOUTS.

SCOUTING AND THE SCHOOLS.

Scouting continues to enjoy the cordial indorsement of school men
everywhere all over the country. More and more those interested are
coming to see the enormous possibilities of cooperation between the
scout movement and the schools. Many schools now give credit for
scout work done outside of the schools. Many more are in hearty
sympathy with the program as an extraschool activity.

In 1919 there were organized in connection with public schools 1,942
troops and 170 in connection with private schools. The records also
show that for the same year 1,623 scoutmasters were also school-teachers.
Many troops have their meetings in the school buildings and in
turn render good service by taking charge of fire drills, first aid and
safety first instruction, yard clean ups, flag drills, etc.

Scout leaders take the utmost pains to see that scout activities do
not in any way interfere with school duties, and troop meetings are
regularly held on Friday evening for that reason. The best results
have been obtained not by formalizing scouting, but by supplementing
and vitalizing the book work by the practical activities of the
scout program. Through scouting many a boy’s healthy curiosity to
know has been whetted, so that he comes for perhaps the first time in
his life to see “sense” in books. As one school man has said, “Scouting
has done what no other system yet devised has done—made the
boy want to learn.”

The National Education Association, meeting in Chicago in 1919,
had a special scouting section which was particularly helpful, interesting,
and conducive to closer cooperation between the scout movement
and the public schools.

The department of education of the National Council is at present
engaged in working out the development of a national policy governing
the relations between scouting and the schools, for important and[4]
successful as the work has hitherto been, it is believed that only the
very outskirts of the possible fields of mutual helpfulness have yet
been reached.

SCOUTING AND CITIZENSHIP.

The making of good citizens is one of the chief aims of the scout
movement. Everything in its program contributes directly and indirectly
to this end. Every boy who associates himself with the
movement is impressed with a sense of personal responsibility. If
he sees a heap of rubbish that might cause a fire or collect disease-carrying
germs, he is taught to report these traps to the proper
authorities without delay. He is enlisted in every movement for
community betterment and good health. Scouts are organized for
service and have participated in hundreds of city-clean-up and city-beautiful,
and “walk-rite” campaigns. They fight flies and mosquitoes
and fever-carrying rats. They assist forest wardens and
park commissioners in preserving and protecting trees and planting
new ones. They help the police in handling traffic in crowded conditions,
as in parades, fairs, etc., and work with fire departments in
spreading public information as to fire prevention, as well as actively
participating in cooperation with fire brigades.

All this means the making of an intelligent, alert, responsible citizenry,
dedicated to being helpful to all people at all times, to keep
themselves physically strong, mentally awake, morally straight, to
do their duty to God and country.

THE PIONEER SCOUT.

In order that boys who live in remote country districts may enjoy
the benefits of the scout training, even though it is not possible
for them to join a regular troop, the Pioneer Division of the Boy
Scouts of America has been established. Pioneer Scouts follow the
same program as other scouts do, taking their tests from a specially
appointed local examiner, usually a teacher, pastor, or employer.
On January 31, 1920, there were 758 active Pioneer Scouts on record
at national headquarters. Much interest has been manifested in
this branch of scouting, which has been found to fill a real need
among country boys. The State agricultural departments and colleges
have given generous aid and indorsement, as have also the
Grange, Antituberculosis League, and other local institutions. The
United States Department of Agriculture is also lending its hearty
support and indorsement to this branch of scout work. The Secretary
of Agriculture, the Hon. E. T. Meredith, says: “The Boy
Scout program fits in with the work of the rural school, the rural
church, the agricultural boys’ club, and other rural welfare organizations.
They should go hand in hand.”[5]

SCOUTING AND AMERICANIZATION.

Mr. James E. West, Chief Scout Executive, makes the following
statement in his tenth annual report rendered to the National
Council, Boy Scouts of America:

SEA SCOUTING—A BRANCH OF THE BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA.

Sea scouting is another important branch of scouting which aims
to develop water scouting and nautical activities and training of all
sorts. Chief Sea Scout James A. Wilder says:

During the year 1919 the sea scouting department tripled its membership
and had regularly commissioned ships in 19 States. It is
essentially an older-boy plan and is not a substitute for scouting
but a development of it. Only boys over 15 years of age are eligible
to join a sea scout ship, though a preliminary rank, that of Cabin
Boy, is open to younger scouts who are able to meet certain tests in
“water preparedness” and take the Sea Promise.

Like all scouting, sea scouting is both recreation and education. A
sea scout has a jolly good time in the water and on it, but at the
same time he is acquiring a tremendous amount of practical knowledge
and nautical efficiency which will stand him in good stead
whether he follows the sea or not.

NATIONAL COUNCIL’S ENDEAVOR TO DISCOVER VITAL FACTS
IN REGARD TO THE BOYHOOD OF THE NATION.

Earnest search reveals the lack of any comprehensive and uniform
data as to the youth of the Nation, although such data are absolutely
essential if we are to reach every boy and assure him the educational
and other opportunities to which he is entitled. At the instigation
of the chief scout executive, Mr. James E. West, the National Council
of the Boy Scouts of America is endeavoring to start in motion an
aggressive campaign in the ascertaining and collecting of such facts.
Each local council is charged with the responsibility of studying conditions
in its own locality. Realizing the importance of making this
study of nation-wide extension, the National Council, at its last annual
meeting (March, 1920), passed the following resolution:

INTERNATIONAL ASPECTS OF SCOUTING.

Scouting as a world movement was represented in the summer of
1920 by the International Scout Jamboree held at London, England,
at which delegates were present from 34 of the 53 nations in which
scouting is definitely established. The Boy Scouts of America were
represented by a group of about 250 scouts and scout leaders representing
the whole country. The gathering was most interesting and
impressive in every way, and the value of the scout movement in
training boys to healthful, useful activities by a program which is
both educational and recreational was triumphantly demonstrated.
Aside from their participation in the jamboree itself, the trip was of
immense value to our own boys, as it allowed of extensive visiting of
points of interest and historic association both in England and
France, and in Belgium, where the delegation was reviewed by King
Albert, of Belgium.

At the invitation of the American Committee for Devastated
France, the National Council loaned its department of education director,
Mr. Lorne W. Barclay, to be in charge of the scout camp at
Compiegne, France, on the bank of the Aisne.

SCOUT HANDBOOKS, ORGANS, AND OTHER LITERATURE.

Handbook for Boys.—The Handbook for Boys continues to be
increasingly in demand. Two or three printings of the book are required
annually, each printing including a 1,000,000 edition, to supply
the demand for what is said to be the most popular boy’s book in
the world. It is now in its twenty-fourth edition and is the official
interpretation of the scout movement.[8]

Leaders’ handbooks.—The new Scoutmaster’s Handbook contains
a wealth of valuable material for scout leaders and other adults interested
in the movement. It is prepared by experts and based upon
sound pedagogical principles as well as good scouting. The new
handbook for executives, called Community Boy Leadership, is now
in circulation and is proving valuable.

Magazines.—Boy’s Life, the official scout magazine for boys, is a
live, wholesome, interesting publication issued monthly, containing
stories and articles by well-known authors and specialists.

Scouting, issued monthly, is prepared especially for scout leaders
not under council, while The Scout Executive, another monthly bulletin,
is directed chiefly to the field under council.

Merit Badge pamphlets.—The editorial department of the Boy
Scouts of America has prepared and edited a series of valuable
pamphlets in connection with the Merit Badge subjects, which
is filling a long-felt want among scouts and others interested. There
are 68 different pamphlets, each written by a recognized authority in
the respective subject, and each submitted before printing to a large
number of experts, over 500 of whom were consulted for critical suggestion
and guidance. No effort has been spared to make these
booklets accurate and interesting. They contain over 3,000 pages of
printed matter and over 800 illustrations, as well as valuable bibliographies
and biographical matter. The pamphlets have already attracted
considerable favorable notice among school men, and several
colleges are placing the whole series in their reference libraries.

A classified list of the subjects for which pamphlets have been issued
follows:

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Other literature.—The National Council also issues a large number
of other informational and interpretative publications, such as
the Manual of Customs and Drills, The Seascout Manual, What
Every Scoutmaster Wants to Know, Scouting and the Public Schools,
Your Boy and Scouting, What Scouts Do, Membership in the Boy
Scouts of America, The Boy Scout Movement (as approved by the
Religious Education Association), etc.

Cooperation with publishers.—The department during the year
has maintained through its director constant contact with publishers
and authors. More than 100 new books published for boys in 1919
have been carefully examined (a good many in manuscript form) for
review in Boys’ Life or inclusion in some one of our book lists and,
of these, of the few really good books for boys published in 1919,
it is a joy to report that more than half of these were first published
serially in Boys’ Life, a record that stands alone.

New books edited.—The director has edited as usual the Boy
Scouts’ Year Book, compiled from last year’s issues of Boys’ Life,
the sales of which have been more than a third larger than in previous
years. More notable still has been the success of the Boy
Scouts’ Book of Stories, a compilation of stories of interest to boys
selected, one each, from the writings of our best American and English
short-story writers. The purpose of the director in editing such
a book was to interest boys in stories that have the quality of fine
writing, and so help to develop in them a taste for literature that
will make them lovers of the great and good books of all ages. The
very nature of the book warranted the conclusion that it would take
considerable time to make it a good seller. Once again the unexpected
has happened in that the first year’s sales of the Boy Scouts’
Book of Stories has equaled the first year’s sale of the Boy Scouts’
Year Book, and the present promise is that for years to come this[10]
book will more than hold its own. In the coming year material is
being gathered for a companion volume to be published under the
title the Boy Scouts’ Book of Stories in Verse.

Motion pictures for scouts.—The director of the library department
of the National Council, Mr. Franklin K. Matthews, has served
as a literary adviser to a motion-picture company. As a result of
this collaboration a large number of educational and scout films
have been put into circulation, including the popular “Knights of
the Square Table,” by Chief Seascout James A. Wilder. It is believed
that these films offer splendid opportunities not only to show
the educational possibilities of the scout movement but also to interest
and instruct the public in the joys and benefits of outdoor life, the
necessity for safety first and fire-prevention measures, and other
features which are accentuated by the scout program. The films can
also be admirably used in connection with the Americanization
movement.