Smoking And Intoxicating Liquors

It would seem wise counsel to recommend to a man training youth in the way that they should go, that he go that way himself.

The Scoutmaster who urges his Scouts to keep their teeth clean but who does not do so himself, thereby weakens his influence. The Scoutmaster who expects his boys to be prompt and is himself not prompt is in a vulnerable position.

Smoking by boys is admittedly undesirable. Therefore Scoutmasters who smoke at all will undoubtedly be willing to follow the policy of the National Council upon the use of tobacco and alcoholic liquors by Scout Officials as expressed in the following resolution, adopted February 11, 1913:

"RESOLVED, That the National Council recommend that intoxicating liquors be not used in connection with Scout meetings, and that all Scoutmasters and other officials while on active duty refrain from the use of tobacco, and that those who are accustomed to the use of tobacco do not conceal the fact from the boys, but discuss frankly with them the desirability of refraining from its use until they have attained their full development."

Attributes of a boy growing in Scouting

Bronze-bodied, supple-limbed, clear-eyed, clean-minded. Attributes of a boy growing in Scouting.

Mentally Awake

To help the boy become "mentally awake" we recognize and use in Scouting all those activities of Troop or Patrol in which the boy takes part physically (the Activities Program), the various enterprises which carry the boy forward in his Scouting rank (the Advancement Program), and those which fill many of his quiet moments (the Reading Program).

The Activities Program

Every detail of our activities program is devised to make the boy "mentally awake."

Preparing for hike and camp, learning new skills, and playing new games cause him to think, to judge, to decide. Observation, deduction, and the like sharpen his capacity for noticing things and develop his memory.

To assure the boys' growth, the full application of the activities suggestions in this Handbook is called for.

The Advancement Program

The advancement program presents to the boy numerous opportunities for mental training, while providing him with an outlet for his desire for action and for achievement

We shall not enter into a discussion of this subject here. It is treated thoroughly in a later section. See Index: Advancement.

The Reading Program

"I look upon the Reading Program," says Chief West, "as one of the most important factors in our whole Movement. I know that the printed page has great influence in the lives of boys. I know that the good, wholesome story will often make an impression where the spoken word utterly fails. I know that if we are genuine in devoting our lives and service to the development of character in the boys of America, we cannot ignore the fact that every boy-some boys more than others, but every boy, more or less-is influenced by what he reads."

A difficulty sometimes observed is that Scoutmasters too often become enmeshed in the mechanics of the

Reading and how and such good reading

Reading and how-and such good reading. Adventure with a clean snap to it. Thrills-laughs-knowledge, all packed in BOYS' LIFE.

Scout Requirements, and so lose sight of the many opportunities for character training and mental alertness inherent in the reading by their Scouts of good books.

Your Opportunity

By helping your boys in their reading, you are adding to the effectiveness of the work to which you have dedicated yourself. But that presupposes that you yourself are interested in reading, and that you will be able to stir a similar interest in your Scouts. The following suggestions may be helpful:

1.Through story telling, you have a means of starting the boys on their reading venture. See Index: Story Telling.

2. Try a Patrol contest in dramatization of an episode in a book. In one Troop, Tom Sawyer's whitewashing stunt was chosen as a theme with the result that a craze for reading Mark Twain swept the Troop.

3. You may make arrangements with your local library to withdraw a number of books at a time to be read by Troop members. In order to ensure that the boys use library books, they should be encouraged to hold library cards.

4. There is some doubt as to the wisdom of maintaining a Troop library, especially when public libraries are available, but the more frequently boys are exposed to books, the more they are likely to read them.

5. Debates about books may be encouraged for older Scouts.

6. The Reading Merit Badge encourages reading, while the Journalism Merit Badge provides an opportunity for the promotion of both writing and reading.

7. The official magazine for Scouts, BOYS' LIFE, is edited and published by the Boy Scouts of America for the specific purpose of helping the Scoutmaster by giving the boy a good magazine, stimulating his interest in worth while reading, stimulating his interest in Scouting because of its Scouting content, and thus helping to hold the boy's interest in the Troop. The Troop Budget System and the BOYS' LIFE Scout Concession Offer bring a subscription to the official magazine of our Movement within easy reach of every Scout.

Morally Straight

The Scout Oath and Law are the moral groundwork of our Movement. Your success as a Scoutmaster will be written in terms of your ability to make the Oath and Law vital in the lives of your boys.

He keeps clean in body and thought

"A Scout is Clean." He keeps clean in body and thought, stands for clean speech, sports and habits, and travels with a clean crowd.

Your Example

And to. reach that result, your own example is of the utmost importance.

The old advice: "Do what I tell you to do and not what I do!" is as inadequate in a Scout Troop as it is elsewhere. The Scoutmaster will make a great mistake if he seeks to encourage boys to live up to a moral standard which he, himself, does not practice. The boy is direct and penetrating in his mental analysis, and will be quick to recognize the sham of pretension.

Your example influences the boy far more than your teaching. By living the same Oath and Law that they are expected to live, you are making the fullest use of Scouting's moral codes in your training of the Scouts under your leadership.

Right Atmosphere

Your most potent allies in reaching your aim are strong traditions within the Troop for upholding the Scout ideals-traditions based upon active performance of the Good Turn and insistence in the Troop's daily life on trustworthiness, loyalty, helpfulness and the other qualities of the Scout Law. Those traditions, firmly established, will create an atmosphere conducive to the furtherance of our ideals.

"In an atmosphere of sympathy, appreciation, expectation, trust, enthusiasm, comradeship, your boys will rise to the highest that is in them," says V. Barclay in Good Scouting. "And that is something very high indeed."