New Britain herald. [microfilm reel] (New Britain, Conn.) 1890-1976, 1915-08-13
Course in Boy Scouting Now in
Columbia University Curriculum
Everything from First Aid to Slip Knots Taught Students
Y Being Prepared During the Summer for
" Scout Masters.

! It's blow if your notion of uni
versity education has been of clo1s-
tered absorption in Plato, Kant ana
spiral nebulae to discover what thlngs
nave crept into the university Dill OF
| fare. Football NAV have wrenched
your early expectations and the cir
| riculum, on millinery given a new
| filup to the academic flavor, and now
so stern a place as Columbia has
| gone. all the way. It gives a course
| in Boy Scouting.
No books are needed. Professor
| James G. Elsom-who has done 1t all
before at the universities OF Virginia
and Wisconsin-may point a reference
or two in lecture time to anthropo-
logical volumes that trace the theory
| of boy development, as one which
/ retraces in every human life the SLOW
development Of the race from saw
|agery to civilization but books are
few. How could the class use them,
when, half the time the class meets
in a swimming pool or ON the campus
bencheS?.
Chinese Students Learn.
Professor Elsom is a member of
the National Counotl of the Boy
Scouts of America, and the fifteen men
who are his pupils will soon, If they
are not already, be scout masters. On
the side many of them are teachers,
school superintendent and social
workers from many divers places. Two
are from China-two young men,
who know that though West may be
West and East may be East in the
rhyme, that boys are boys, almond
eyed, or pug-nosed, brown white or
black, the world around.
Il" Sign Talk.
Neither you nor a visiting Oxford
don must lift the questioning eyebrow
if just by chance you should catch the
class Of, unawares and find them thin
men and fat, making signs of knife
in the stomach. It is only an hour in
the sign language Of the Chippewas,
perhaps, or the Zunis. And the class
lis saying: I'VE are hungry" If they
are raising two fingers and wigwag-
ging you are hearing them mention
God, or if you catch them sweeping
the air just as high as their hearts,
know that the word is good"
! Day For First Aid.
And don't waste your sympathy 1t
you see the whole group tied up in
bandages or the very earnest young
Chinese being borne away. on a
stretcher. This only means that Tues
day is the day for first aid as the
scout masters are going to have to
teach it. And don't imagine yourself
in the presence of a collection of de-
mented young seafaring men If you
find the class all in a row with hemp in
the hands tying knots. That too, is
part of the game. No need to dodge
possible motion picture man If you
see the whole fifteen wildly waving
the arms of floating flags. It isn't
a Charlie Chaplin plot, but a lesson
in signalling.
So it goes-practica1 things, jolly
ones, these are the things our col
leges have come around to teaching
! to fit men for the task Of dealing with
the regular boy, the kind that to save
his soul can't help from being de.
liciously what he is, a young bar.
barian with the need for something
| to do, for somewhere to go, for tests
and games and cargo Of facts about
trees and water and air. but for al
| that the kind of a person that, like
his English brothers in time of family
|
thousands strong to be the swift youns
errand-running feet Of great events.
Professor Elsom's other course, OF
the educational principles under1yin,
the Scout programme, is quite as in
spring. Ineeed, one Of the bigges
values Of either course Is in simpl.
knowing Professor Elsom; in realiz
ing that this is the kind Of man tina
, stands for the Scout movement; an
in knowing and sharing his enthusi
asm. Who wouldn't be "goo
Scout with Professor E1som to sho,
him how?
Helpful Speakers.
Part of the course consists in hear
J ing and questioning speakers who ar
authorities in particular lines G
Scout activities Among these speak
ers are Mr.. James e. West. Chic
Scout Executive; Mr.. E. M. Robinson