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WW4BSA > SCOUTS 20.02.24 23:04l 39 Lines 1864 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 7004_WW4BSA
Read: GAST
Subj: B.-P.'S OUTLOOK (PART 3)
Path: DB0FFL<OE2XZR<OE6XPE<DB0ERF<OK0NAG<F3KT<EA2RCF<I0OJJ<N6RME<CX2SA<
N3HYM<WW4BSA
Sent: 240220/1814Z 7004@WW4BSA.NEFL.FL.USA.NOAM BPQ6.0.24
Efficiency Badges
WE have recently approved of a number of badges of efficiency, which it is
hoped will serve as encouragement to Scouts to qualify themselves as useful
men, whether at home or in a colony.
While these were under consideration, there reached us a complaint that in
certain centres the difficulty of passing the tests for any badges was
becoming so great that what had been an attractive measure for the boys was
now fast becoming another " examination bugbear."
This, I am afraid, is due to faults in the application of the idea.
These badges are merely intended as an encouragement to a boy to take up a
hobby or occupation and to make some sort of progress in it: they are a sign
to an outsider that he has done so; they are not intended to signify that he
is a master in the craft which he is tested in. Therefore, the examiners
should not aim at too high a standard, especially in the first badge.
Some are inclined to insist that their Scouts should be first-rate before
they can get a badge. That is very right, in theory; you get a few boys
pretty proficient in this way, but our object is to get all the boys interested,
and every boy started on one or two hobbies, so that he may eventually find
that which suits him the best and which may offer him a career for life.
The Scoutmaster who uses discretion in putting his boys at an easy fence or
two to begin with will find them jumping with confidence and keenness,
whereas if he gives them an upstanding stone wall to begin with, it makes
them shy of leaping at all.
At the same time we do not recommend the other extreme, of which there is
also the danger, namely, that of almost giving away the badges on very slight
knowledge of the subjects. It is a matter where examiners should use their
sense and discretion, keeping the main aim in view.
April, 1910.
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