Scouting’s Gay Founder? - The New York Times The New York Times The Opinion Pages |Rainbow Merit Badge Search Continue reading the main story WITH more and more American institutions becoming inclusive and even openly gay-friendly, the Boy Scouts of America has just reaffirmed its unregenerate straights-only status: a special committee, formed in 2010, recently announced the organization’s intention of sticking with the 2000 Supreme Court decision that it is within its constitutional rights to exclude gays from leadership roles. All this is richly ironic in view of the fact that the founder of the Boy Scouts, Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell (raised to the peerage as Lord Baden-Powell) was in probability a gay man himself — though closeted, of course, considering the circumstances. A Victorian military hero who skyrocketed to fame after his valiant defense of the besieged city of Mafeking during the Second Boer War, Baden-Powell was one of the British Empire’s most adulated soldiers, looked to as the very model of muscular Christianity.

Baden-Powell, the author of the hugely popular and influential “Scouting for Boys” (1908), inspired a national cult of manliness even as he entertained serious worry about his own sexuality. “Was B-P a closet queen?” Ian Buruma asked in The New York Review of Books two decades ago. “The pointers are hard to ignore.” Indeed they are, as a perusal of Tim Jeal’s superb and definitive 1989 biography of the hero, “The Boy-Man,” will show. Baden-Powell’s formidable mother, left an impecunious widow with a large family, forced all of her children to participate in her fierce and occasionally demeaning struggles to promote the family’s fortunes and social status. Young “Stephe” was a sensitive boy who liked playing with dolls, and as he grew into a young man he formed deep attachments to other boys. Once in the army he made a name for himself playing female roles in army theatricals. Throughout his life he openly admired muscular men and pretty boys, while attractive women sent him into a state of anxiety; he was much more comfortable with plain, companionable ones.

He was 55 before he decided to marry, but he panicked soon after his union with the lovely young Olave Soames, developing agonizing headaches that were relieved only when he left the matrimonial bed and returned to his ascetic soldier’s cot. Baden-Powell’s strongest emotional bond was with Kenneth McLaren, a fellow army officer. The two met while serving in India, in 1881, acting in an army performance of a farce called “The Area Belle” in which Baden-Powell, for once, played a male part, while McLaren, a 20-year-old who looked 14, appeared in the ingénue’s role. Baden-Powell nicknamed McLaren “The Boy,” and the two remained extremely close for years. McLaren’s second marriage, in 1910, put strains on the friendship — Baden-Powell did not hide his disapproval of the match or his distaste for the bride — but it was not until his own marriage that the partnership ended definitively, for Olave was jealous of her husband’s old friends in general and of this special favorite in particular.

The two men never met again; “The Boy” slipped into clinical depression during World War I and spent the last few years of his life in an asylum. Continue reading the main story Historians’ speculations about Baden-Powell’s sexuality have usually hinged on the question of whether the relationship with McLaren was a physical one, but this is not necessarily germane. A man as steeped in the puritan, idealistic mores of his era as Baden-Powell clearly was might well have been too repressed to act on urges that he, and everyone in his social circle, would have considered not only transgressive but sinful. Advertisement Continue reading the main story Baden-Powell was no revolutionary; he did not question the rigid sexual ethos of his time. Mr. Jeal, after very extensive research, found no direct evidence of a physical relationship between Baden-Powell and McLaren, but he certainly did not conclude from this lack that his subject was therefore a heterosexual. Victorian England had a tradition of intense but chaste male-on-male friendships, of course, but “we are perfectly entitled,” Mr.

Jeal asserted, “to question today whether the attempt to deny the undoubted link between love and sexual desire could have succeeded as well as it did without repression, sublimation, and in many instances massive doses of self-deception.” He added that “available evidence points inexorably to the conclusion that Baden-Powell was a repressed homosexual.” Geoffrey Wheatcroft, writing several years before the biography appeared, expressed the same opinion. “Without hard evidence,” Mr. Wheatcroft insisted, “it is not unfair to speculate — without hard evidence, speculate is all we can do — on B-P’s own fascination with boys and ‘boyology.’ In the absence of physical attraction, after all, most adult men find most adolescent youths a pain in the neck.” There is no particular reason that an awareness of the first Boy Scout’s sexual proclivities should affect the decision of the special committee convened by the Boy Scouts of America. Were Baden-Powell himself to be consulted on the subject, he would no doubt be horrified by any mention of open homosexuality in the Scouting movement. His mother’s training had taught him that sex was dirty, and this was an opinion he did his best to impart to the boys — and girls — who took up scouting.

(“A Scout is clean in thought, word, and deed,” after all.) Still, Baden-Powell’s life is a poignant story that should be known. This man who gave so much to so many suffered from the forces of repression and taboo. It is unfortunate that the American branch of the movement he founded should perpetuate them. Brooke Allen, a teacher of literature at Bennington College, is the author, most recently, of “The Other Side of the Mirror: An American Travels Through Syria.” infed.org | Robert Baden-Powell as an educational innovator search Robert Baden-Powell as an educational innovator Robert Baden-Powell as an educational innovator. Famous for his contribution to the development of Scouting, Robert Baden-Powell was also able to make a number of educational innovations. His interest in adventure, association and leadership still repay attention today.

contents: introduction · the early development of scouting · Robert Baden-Powell and ‘doing good’ · citizenship, taking responsibility and participation · harnessing the imagination: woodcraft and adventure · learning through doing · conclusion: robert baden-powell as an educational innovator · further reading and references · links · how to cite this article Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell (1857 – 1941) was an accomplished soldier who first came to wide public notice as the ‘hero of the Siege of Mafeking’(1899 – 1900) during the Boer War. He is better known as the founder of the Boy Scout movement. This achievement and his concern with ‘old values’ has sometimes obscured the innovational nature of his educational thinking. What is overlooked is his concern with the social lives and imagination of young people, and how he was able to build on this to develop an associational educational form.

Robert Baden-Powell placed a special value on adventure; on children and young people working together – and taking responsibility (his ‘patrol’ building on the idea of ‘natural’ friendship groups and ‘gangs’); on developing self-sufficiency; and on ‘learning through doing’ (he was deeply suspicious of curriculum forms). In this article we examine some of the key aspects of his approach. Robert Baden-Powell and the early development of Scouting In 1885 Robert Baden-Powell started collecting material for a book on army scouting. Eventually published in 1899, because of his celebrity status, it became an instant bestseller- selling more 100,000 copies within the first few months. The ideas were seized upon by a number of people working with boys and young men and Robert Baden-Powell was encouraged to write a version for boys. He was also working on his own ideas about education.

The Boys Brigade (founded October 4, 1883 in Glasgow by William Smith [1854-1914) was an obvious place for his work – but while there were many things for Robert Baden-Powell to admire in their activities he was put off by the emphasis on drill and what he saw as a lack of attention to developing the mind and sympathy with others. Robert Baden-Powell had become concerned about the well-being of of the nation – and of particular young people. It has been said that the poor physical condition of the young men attempting to join the army during the Boer War was a central factor in his championing and fashioning of Scouting. One report at the time (1904) claimed that of every nine who volunteered to fight, only two were fit to do so. Diet, poor housing, and harmful working conditions were identified as contributory factors. However, he was equally worried about people’s physical and mental well-being. Physical ‘deterioration’ and ‘moral degeneracy’ became themes in many of the talks and speeches that Robert Baden-Powell gave – especially in the period after the Boer War.

Reflecting on his experience of the Boys’ Brigade he first thought that something could be done within that organization to move away from an over-focus on marching and drill: Something, I think, also [could] be done towards developing the Boy’s mind by increasing his powers of observation, and teaching him to notice details. I believe that if some form of scout training could be devised in the Brigade it would be very popular, and could do a great amount of good. Preliminary training in this line might include practice in noting and remembering details of strangers; contents of shop windows, appearances of streets etc. The results would not only sharpen the wits of the Boy, but would also make him quick to read character and feelings, and thus help him to be a better sympathiser with his fellow-men. (Robert Baden-Powell in the Boys’ Brigade Gazette, 1 June 1904 – quoted by Jeal 1989: 362) Having looked at various different schemes – including Ernest Thompson Seton’s vision of camping and woodcraft, and explored different educational forms, in August 1907 he conducted the famous Brownsea Island Experimental Camp.

Robert Baden-Powell wanted to test out the ideas he had been working on for his scheme of work for ‘Boy Scouts’. He had completed the first draft of Scouting for Boys. With the experience of the camp validating much of his thinking, he began a long series of promotional lectures around the country arranged with the YMCA (Reynolds 1942: 147-8). On January 15, 1908, the first part of Scouting for Boys was published. Like modern day ‘bit-parts’ it appeared at fortnightly intervals (6 parts) price at 4d each. It quickly appeared in book form (May 1). Sales were extra-ordinary and quickly groups of young men were approaching suitable adults to form troupes (Springhall 1977). The involvement of Arthur Pearson (the publisher) had given the whole enterprise an unedifying commercial edge. Robert Baden-Powell had unwisely entered into a ‘gentleman’s agreement’ with him – and had lost various rights and a large amount of money as a result. Considerable efforts were made to set up a separate organization and to limit the publisher’s power.

Scouting for Boys was also read and taken up by a significant number of middle class girls on a self-organized basis (Kerr 1936: 16). In September 1908 at Crystal Palace the first big rally was held with some 10,000 Boy Scouts as well as a number of self-organized Girls Scouts attending (Reynolds 1942: 150). Robert Baden Powell was approached by some Girl Scouts asking him to do something for them also. In the second edition of Scouting for Boys he suggest a uniform for Girl Scouts – blue, khaki or grey shirt (as with the boys) and blue skirt and knickers. However, Robert Baden-Powell had decided to set up a separate organization and scheme. He decided ‘Scout’ was inappropriate and alighted on ‘Girl Guide’. The scheme was ‘to make girls better mothers and guides to the next generation’. In Robert Baden-Powell’s mind though, it was to be fairly similar in structure and activity as the boys – ‘Girls must be partners and comrades rather than dolls’ (Jeal 1989: 470).

(Details of Baden-Powell’s ‘Scheme for “Girl Guides”‘ was published in the Scout’s Headquarters Gazette in Novemer 1909. It is reproduced in full by Kerr [1932: 29-34]). With the move to Victoria, the Girl Guides were allocated a separate office and Agnes Baden-Powell (Robert’ sister) was asked to form a committee. As John Springhall (1977: 64) has noted, in the decade from 1908 to 1919, ‘no other influence upon British boyhood came anywhere near Baden-Powell’s movement’. He continues: The actual timing of the appearance of the first Boy Scout may be explained as an outcome of the post-Boer War mood of imperial decline and social reassessment… [H]owever, the historian needs to go back further, at least to Thomas Hughes idealization of Rugby and the ‘muscular Christianity’ of the third quarter of the nineteenth century.

Despite subsequent new directions, the ideological roots of Scouting remain buried in the public school ethos of Charterhouse in the 1870s, the methods of colonial warfare in the 1880s and 1890s, and the intellectual climate of the 1900s. The key words of the old Scout Law: honour, loyalty and duty were part of the old public school tradition; and Robert Baden-Powell’s stress on the worth of activity and games (and disdain for ‘effeminate’ and intellectual scholarship) could have come directly from the pages of Thomas Hughes’ Tom Brown’s Schooldays (Springhall 1977: 54). When this was combined with woodcraft and a love of the open air, a desire for class harmony and an appreciation of what might be happening in the imaginative life of boys then the scene was set for some serious innovation in informal education practice. Robert Baden-Powell and ‘doing good’ One of the fascinating features of Robert Baden-Powell’s scheme is the centrality accorded to ‘doing good’. As we noted above, there is a strong link here with his own experience of public school.

For some years prior to the publication of Scouting for Boys Robert Baden-Powell in his speeches to various youth groups and organizations had been encouraging boys and young men to ‘do good’. By ‘doing good’, he once wrote (in 1900), ‘I mean making yourselves useful and doing small kindnesses to other people – whether they are friends or strangers’ (quoted by Jeal 1989: 363). This concern famously became incorporated into Scout Law: 3. A scout’s duty is to be useful and to help others. And he is to his duty before anything else, even though he gives up his own pleasure, or comfort, or safety to do it. When in difficulty to know which of two things to do, he must ask himself, “Which is my duty?” that is, “Which is best for other people?” – and do that one. He must Be Prepared at any time to save life, or to help injured persons. An he must try his best to do a good turn to somebody every day. 4. A Scout is a friend to all, and a brother to every other scout, no matter to what social class the other belongs.

Thus if a scout meets another scout, even though a stranger to him, he must speak to him, and help him in any way that he can, either to carry out the duty he is then doing, or by giving him food, or, as far as possible, anything that he may be in want of. A scout must never be a SNOB. A snob is one who looks down upon another because he is poorer, or who is poor and resents another because he is rich. A scout accepts the other man as he finds him, and makes the best of him. “Kim”, the boy scout, was called by the Indians, “Little friend of all the world”, and that is the name that every scout should earn for himself. (Robert Baden-Powell 1908: 49-50 – these became laws 4 and 5 in the second edition of Scouting for Boys – 1909) Recent conceptions of informal education such as that of Jeffs and Smith ( 1990 , 1999) have also placed a strong emphasis upon seeking to live life well, and of looking to the well-being of others.

However, such an approach (drawn from broadly from Aristotle and virtue ethics) clearly prioritizes the ‘good’ over the ‘correct’ – and this is a tension that Robert Baden-Powell would have found troubling. His conception of the good was deeply entwined with notions of duty – particularly towards his country. The Scout Law stated: 2. A Scout is loyal to the King, and his officers, and to his country, and to his employers. He must stick to them through thick and thin against anyone who is their enemy, or who even talks badly of them. 7. A Scout obey orders of his patrol leader or scout master without question. Even if he gets an order he does not like he must do as soldiers and sailors do, he must carry it out all the same because it is his duty; and after he has done it he can come and state any reasons against it: he must carry out an order at once. That is discipline.

(Robert Baden-Powell 1908: 49, 50) For Robert Baden-Powell, then, there existed a possibility that those above in the hierarchy might have a questionable understanding of what might be for the best in particular situation – but it is still the duty of the scout to carry out their wishes. Michael Rosenthal (1986: 162) has commented that the Scout Law and the overall direction of Scouting for Boys provided scouting with ‘a model of human excellence in which absolute loyalty, an unbudgeable devotion to duty, and the readiness to fight, and if necessary die for one’s country, are the highest virtues’. Duty and patriotism were certainly central to Robert Baden-Powell’s vision – but so was kindness to others. The Scout Laws also call upon Scouts to smile and whistle, to be a friend to animals and to be courteous. What is less clear is what happens when there is conflict between the different laws. Citizenship, taking responsibility and participation Keep before your mind in all your teaching that the whole ulterior motive of this scheme is to form character in the boys – to make them manly, good citizens….

Aim for making each individual into a useful member of society, and the whole will automatically come on to a high standard. (Baden-Powell 1909: 361) In Scouting for Boys we can see that Robert Baden-Powell’s view of character is wrapped up with notions of citizenship. He wanted to encourage ‘a spirit of manly self-reliance and of unselfishness – something of the practical Christianity which (although they are Buddhists in theory) distinguishes the Burmese in their daily life’ (Baden-Powell: 1909: 292). This particular aspect of his vision was shared with a significant number of other workers at the time. While Robert Baden-Powell’s analysis of the social and moral situation in Britain certainly diverged from the more progressive thinking of Christian Socialists and many of the workers involved in the settlement movement , there were important commonalities. For example, he was opposed to extremes of wealth.

In the first edition of Scouting for Boys (part VI, page 339), Baden Powell wrote: [W]e are all Socialists in that we want to see the abolition of the existing brutal anachronism of war, and of extreme poverty and misery shivering alongside of superabundant wealth, and so on; but we do not quite agree as to how it is to be brought about. Some of us are for pulling down the present social system, but the plans for what is going to be erected in its place are very hazy. We have not all got the patience to see that improvement is in reality gradually being effected before our eyes. This passage was to disappear in later versions of Scouting for Boys (from the third edition on), but it does establish that Robert Baden-Powell cannot be categorized in some simple way as ‘deeply conservative’. As Tim Jeal (1989: 413) has argued, there was more of an emphasis on taking responsibility and independent thinking than many commentators would allow. ‘A boy’, Robert Baden-Powell once wrote, ‘should take his own line rather than be carried along by herd persuasion’.

In his list of ingredients of ‘character’, he places intelligence and individuality before loyalty and self-discipline (Jeal 1989: 413). One of the fascinating aspects of Robert Baden-Powell’s scheme was his emphasis upon the group and of the young leader. In his reflections on the experimental camp at Brownsea Island he comments: The troop of boys was divided up into ‘Patrols’ of five, the senior boy in each being Patrol Leader. This organization was the secret of our success. Each patrol leader was given full responsibility for the behaviour of his patrol at all times, in camp and in the field. The patrol was the unit for work or play, and each patrol was camped in a separate spot. The boys were put ‘on their honour’ to carry out orders. Responsibility and competitive rivalry were thus at once established and a good standard of development was ensured throughout the troop from day to day. (Robert Baden-Powell 1908: 344) While not giving the degree of freedom, association , and lightness of adult intervention that characterized Seton’s vision of woodcraft , Robert Baden-Powell did, nevertheless, capture something.

He connected with the way in which groups of boys often formed ‘gangs’ and then used that form as a way of creating an environment for learning and activity. The patrol [F]irst and foremost: The Patrol is the character school for the individual. To the Patrol Leader it gives practise in Responsibility and in the qualities of Leadership. To the Scouts it gives subordination of self to the interests of the whole, the elements of self-denial and self-control involved in the team spirit of cooperation and good comradeship. But to get first-class results from this system you have to give the boy leaders real free-handed responsibility-if you only give partial responsibility you will only get partial results. The main object is not so much saving the Scoutmaster trouble as to give responsibility to the boy, since this is the very best of all means for developing character. The Scoutmaster who hopes for success must not only study what is written about the Patrol System and its methods, but must put into practice the suggestions he reads. It is the doing of things that is so important, and only by constant trial can experience be gained by his Patrol Leaders and Scouts. The more he gives them to do, the more will they respond, the more strength and character will they achieve.

Robert Baden-Powell (1930) ~mbrownin/badenp/bp_scout.htm As Robert Baden-Powell explained later, educators should ‘become the students, and … study the marvellous boy-life which they are at present trying vainly to curb and repress’. He went on ‘why push against the stream, when the stream, after all, is running in the right direction?’ (Baden-Powell 1930: 40). Harnessing the imagination: woodcraft and adventure Robert Baden-Powell wanted children to be brought up ‘ as cheerfully and as happily as possible’. He also wrote, ‘in this life one ought to take as much pleasure as one possible… because if one is happy, one has it in one’s power to make all those around happy’. (From a speech made in 1902 and reported in the Johannesburg Star July 10, 1902 – quoted by Jeal 1989). One of the great innovations of Scouting was to harness the imagination and desire on the part of many boys and girls for ‘adventure’.

Boys are full or romance, and they love ‘make believe’ to a greater extent than they like to show. All you have to do is to play up to this and to give rein to your imagination to meet their requirements. (Baden-Powell 1908: 356) As we have seen, Robert Baden-Powell placed a special emphasis on adventure – on encouraging young people to look to enlarge their experiences. What had eluded him was a suitable framework to handle this and his other concerns – although he worked at various ways of approaching a scheme. Ernest Thompson Seton provided what he was looking for in his short book The Birch Bark Roll of the Woodcraft Indians. Seton had sent Robert Baden-Powell a copy of book in 1906 – and Baden-Powell was impressed by the scheme of activities had designed around camp life. In Seton’s plan groups of between 15-50 boys and young men were gathered together in a ‘band’ supervised by a ‘medicine man’. From this base various activities and adventures could be undertaken – and the life and needs of the ‘band’ provided a useful reference point and organizing idea.

Two further elements also impressed Robert Baden-Powell to ‘borrow’ them for his scheme. Seton had developed a system of non-competitive badges linked to the various activities in his programme. A similar range of badges with a non-competitive orientation was adopted by Robert Baden-Powell. Another element of the Seton scheme imported into Scouting was the use of a totem such as an animal or a bird to identify each Scout patrol. The scale of this importation (some of which was not initially acknowledged properly) became the focus of considerable tension between Seton and Robert Baden-Powell. Seton grew increasingly aggrieved at the plaudits conferred on Baden-Powell as the inventor of Scouting, a grievance obviously exacerbated by the enormous popularity of Baden-Powell’s movement as opposed to the substantially more modest success of his own Woodcraft Indians…. His resentment was nourished by a sense that Baden-Powell had betrayed the purity of the woodcraft ideal, substituting for the true woodcraft way, a narrowly self-serving military training that had nothing to do with real character building.

(Rosenthal 1986 70; 71) Rosenthal argues that Robert Baden-Powell’s encounter with Ernest Thompson Seton was ‘critical to the development of Scouting’ and that his was ‘the vital influence who brought before Baden-Powell the model of an efficient, attractive, self-contained system toward which he had been working for two years’ (ibid.: 80-81). The scale of the borrowing is disputed by Jeal (1989: 378) but even Rosenthal concludes that the structure produced by Seton’s idealism was transformed by Baden-Powell. To this extent, Robert Baden-Powell ‘engaged in a genuinely original, creative act’ (1986: 81). Learning through doing The key to successful education is not so much to teach the pupil as to get him to learnfor himself. Dr Montessori has proved that by encouraging a child in its natural desires, instead of instructing it in what you think it ought to do, you can educate it on a far more solid and far-reaching basis. It is only tradition and custom that ordain that education should be a labour.

(Robert Baden-Powell manuscript circa 1913-14) quoted by Jeal 1989: 413) In the process of preparing Scouting for Boys, Robert Baden-Powell read some quite diverse books and materials concerning the education of young men. Michael Rosenthal (1986: 64) lists some of his influences and they include: Epictetus, Livy, Pestalozzi , and Jahn on physical culture. He had also explored different techniques for educating boys within different African tribes, studied the Bushido of the Japanese, and the educational methods of John Pounds and the ragged schools (op. cit.). As we have already seen, he also drew upon the work of contemporaries such as William Smith , Ernest Thompson Seton and Dan Beard. He came to appreciate the philosophy and methods of Maria Montessori . Be prepared In his notes for instructors, Robert Baden-Powell discusses the need for Scouters (as they were later to be known) to have the ability to ‘read character, and thereby to gain sympathy’.

Robert Baden-Powell also stresses ‘the value of patience and cheery good temper; the duty of giving up some of one’s time and pleasure for helping one’s country and fellow-men; and the inner meaning of out motto, “Be Prepared”‘ (1909: 295). He continues:But as you come to teach these things you will very soon find (unless you are a ready-made angel) that you are acquiring them yourself all the time. You must ‘Be Prepared’ yourself for disappointments at first, though you will as often as not find them outweighed by unexpected successes. You must from the first ‘Be Prepared’ for the prevailing want of concentration of mind on the part of boys, and if you then frame your teaching accordingly, I think you will have very few disappointments. Do not expect boys to pay great attention to any one subject for very long until you have educated them to do so. You must meet them half way, and not give them too long a dose of one drink. A short, pleasing sip of one kind, and then off to another, gradually lengthening the sips till they become steady draughts….

This making the mind amenable to the will is one of the important inner points in our training. For this reason it is well to think out beforehand each day what you want to say on your subject, and then bring it out a bit at a time as opportunity offers – at the camp fire, or in intervals of play and practice, not in one long set address…. To get a hold on your boys you must be their friend; but don’t be in too great a hurry at first to gain this footing; until they have got over their shyness of you. Robert Baden-Powell (1909) Scouting for Boys, pages 295 and 294 There was a strong antipathy in some of Robert Baden-Powell’s writing to rote learning, the attempt to cram information into ‘young heads’ and abstract ideas that were not tied to practical expression. As an educational approach this element along with Robert Baden-Powell’s concern with ‘training for active citizenship’, his focus on character, ‘the appreciation of beauty in Nature’, and service to others (Baden-Powell 1930) appealed strongly to many progressive headmasters (like Cecil Reddie at Abbotsholme).

Such thinking also found its way into various experiments in education – such as that undertaken by Leonard Elmhirst and Rabindranath Tagore in India. One of the key concerns in that work was to utilize scouting and woodcraft as a way of developing forms of schooling for village children that ‘took full account of their natural surroundings’ (Stewart 1968: 129). Conclusion: Robert Baden-Powell as an educator innovator How are we to judge Robert Baden-Powell as an educator? While the ‘faculty psychology’ on which he based significant elements of his scheme may be discredited (Macleod 1983: 251) and his imperial vision of duty is distasteful to many – there is still much to admire and acknowledge in Robert Baden-Powell’s work. He did look to the social lives and imagination of children and young people. He placed a special value on adventure; on children and young people working together – and taking responsibility (his ‘patrol’ building on the idea of ‘natural’ friendship groups and ‘gangs’); on developing self-sufficiency; and on ‘learning through doing’.

It has been one of the ironies of youth work over the last fifty years that while club and project workers may talk of participation and question many of the methods of uniformed organizations, one of the most sustained and widespread example of self-organization and participation flows from Robert Baden-Powell’s scheme set out in 1908. It may well be that we need to look again at notions of character, virtue and duty – to see how they may be reinterpreted for today’s conditions and within a more dialogical, just and convivial framework. Further reading and references Baden-Powell, Robert S. S. (1899) Aids to Scouting for NCOs and Men, London: . Robert Baden-Powell’s first best seller – whose central message was that military scouting bred self-reliance. This was achieved because they had to use their intelligence and act on their own initiative. Scouts frequently operated away from the guidance of officers. Baden-Powell, Robert S. S. (1908) Scouting for Boys. A handbook for instruction in good citizenship, London: Horace Cox. 398 pages.

First published in six fortnightly parts in 1908 (at 4d. per part) a combined volume was quickly republished in the same year. A second edition appeared in 1909 (Arthur Pearson, 310 pages) – and there have been various editions since. The original bit part version was republished by the Scout Book Club in 1938. The cover of Part One (see right) was by John Hassell and as Tim Jeal has said, the implication was clear – this was an invitation not to just read about adventures but to live them too. Its impact was phenomenal – with four reprints in the first year and well over 60,000 copies sold in its second year. Part one dealt with scoutcraft and scout law; part two with observation and tracking, woodcraft and knowledge of animals. Part three looked at campaigning and camp life, pioneering and resourcefulness; part four with endurance and health, chivalry and brave deeds, discipline; part five with saving life and first-aid, patriotism and loyalty. Finally, part six dealt with scouting games, competitions and plays, plus words to instructors. Baden-Powell, Robert S. S.

(1922) Rovering to Success. A book of life-sport for young men, London, Herbert Jenkins. 253 pages. Basically, advice to young men on how to avoid pitfalls around gambling, drinking, sexual temptation, (political) extremists and irreligion. Baden-Powell, Robert S. S. (1929) Scouting and Youth Movements, London, Ernest Benn. Baden-Powell, Robert S. S. (1930) Aids to Scoutmastership: A Guidebook For Scoutmasters On The Theory of Scout Training, London: Herbert Jenkins. On-line version: ~mbrownin/badenp/bp-aids.htm . With chapters on the scoutmaster, the boy, scouting, character, health and strength, handicraft and skill, and service to others, this book provides a collection of thoughts and hints based on the experience of the scheme. Jeal, T. (1989) Baden-Powell, London: Hutchinson. Brilliant, balanced and extremely well researched biography. Reynolds, E. E. (1942) Baden-Powell, London: Oxford University Press.

This is an ‘official’ reading – undertaken at the request of the Scout Association. That said, it does contain a good deal of interesting detail. Online at: Rosenthal, M. (1986) The Character Factory. Baden-Powell and the origins of the Boy Scout Movement, London: Collins. Controversial study that dwells heavily on Baden-Powell’s supposed racism, militarism and homosexuality and on his ideas on ‘character’. Well worth reading – especially alongside Jeal (1989). References Baden-Powell, A. and Baden-Powell, Robert (1912) How Girls Can Help Build Up the Empire, London. Baden-Powell, Robert S. S. (1908) Scouting for Boys. A Handbook for instruction in good citizenship, London, Horace Cox. Baden-Powell, Robert S. S. (1909) Scouting for Boys. A handbook for instruction in good citizenship. (rev. edn.), London, Pearson. Baden-Powell, Robert S. S. (1916) The Wolf Cub’s Handbook, London, Pearson. Baden-Powell, Robert S. S.

(1941) B-P’s Outlook. A selection of articles for the Scouter, London, Pearson. Jeffs, T. and Smith, M. (1990) Using Informal Education. An alternative to casework, teaching and control?, Milton Keynes: Open University Press. Jeffs, T. and Smith, M. K. (1999) Informal Education: Conversation, democracy and learning, Ticknall: Education Now. Kerr, R. (1932) The Story of the Girl Guides, London, Girl Guides Association. Macleod, D. I. (1983) Building Character in the American boy. The Boy Scouts, YMCA and their forerunners, Madison: Wisconsin University Press. Springhall, J. (1977) Youth, Empire and Society. British youth movements 1883-1940, Beckenham: Croom Helm. Stewart, W. A. C. (1968) The Educational Innovators. Volume II: Progressive schools 1881-1967, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.

Links Go no further than the truly excellent US site Pine Tree Web . This is a comprehensive collection of material about Scouting across the world and has extensive material on Baden-Powell. Acknowledgements: Picture: postcard celebrating Robert Baden-Powell 1900, believed to be in the public domain as the work was published before January 1, 1923 and it is anonymous or pseudonymous due to unknown authorship. Sourced from Wikipedia Commons: . To cite this article: Smith, M. K. (1997; 2002; 2011). ‘Robert Baden-Powell as an educational innovator’, the encyclopedia of informal education. [ . Retrieved: insert date]. © Mark K. Smith 1997, 2002, 2011 Share this: History of Cub Scouting History of Cub Scouting The Beginning of Scouting Scouting's history goes back to the turn of the 20th century to a British Army officer, Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell. While stationed in India, he discovered that his men did not know basic first aid or the elementary means of survival in the outdoors.

Baden-Powell realized he needed to teach his men many frontier skills, so he wrote a small handbook called Aids to Scouting, which emphasized resourcefulness, adaptability, and the qualities of leadership that frontier conditions demanded. After returning from the Boer War, where he became famous by protecting the small town of Mafeking for 217 days, Baden-Powell was amazed to find that his little handbook had caught the interest of English boys. They were using it to play the game of scouting. Baden-Powell had the vision to see some new possibilities, and he decided to test his ideas on boys. In August 1907, he gathered about 20 boys and took them to Brownsea Island in a sheltered bay off England's southern coast. They set up a makeshift camp that would be their home for the next 12 days. The boys had a great time! They divided into patrols and played games, went on hikes, and learned stalking and pioneering. They learned to cook outdoors without utensils. Scouting began on that island and would sweep the globe in a few years. The next year, Baden-Powell published his book Scouting for Boys, and Scouting continued to grow.

That same year, more than 10,000 Boy Scouts attended a rally held at the Crystal Palace; a mere two years later, membership in Boy Scouts had tripled. American Origins About this same time, the seeds of Scouting were growing in the United States. On a farm in Connecticut, a naturalist and author named Ernest Thompson Seton was organizing a group of boys called the Woodcraft Indians; and Daniel Carter Beard, an artist and writer, organized the Sons of Daniel Boone. In many ways, the two organizations were similar, but they were not connected. The boys who belonged had never heard of Baden-Powell or of Boy Scouts, and yet both groups were destined to become Boy Scouts one day soon. But first, an American businessman had to get lost in the fog in England. Chicago businessman and publisher William D. Boyce was groping his way through the fog when a boy appeared and offered to take him to his destination. When they arrived, Boyce tried to tip the boy, but the boy refused and courteously explained that he was a Scout and could not accept payment for a Good Turn. Intrigued, the publisher questioned the boy and learned more about Scouting.

He visited with Baden-Powell as well and became captured by the idea of Scouting. When Boyce boarded the transatlantic steamer for home, he had a suitcase filled with information and ideas. And so, on February 8, 1910, Boyce incorporated the Boy Scouts of America. The "unknown Scout" who helped him in the fog was never heard from again, but he will never be forgotten. His Good Turn is what brought Scouting to our country. After the incorporation of the BSA, a group of public-spirited citizens worked to set up the organization. Seton became the first Chief Scout of the BSA, and Beard was made the national commissioner. The first executive officer was James E. West, a young man from Washington who had risen above a tragic boyhood and physical disability to become a successful lawyer. He dedicated himself to helping all children to have a better life and led the BSA for 32 years as the Chief Scout Executive. Scouting has grown in the United States from 2,000 Boy Scouts and leaders in 1910 to millions strong today.

From a program for Boy Scouts only, it has spread into a program including Tiger Cubs, Cub Scouts, Webelos Scouts, Boy Scouts, Varsity Scouts, and Venturers. The Beginning of Cub Scouting Back in England, younger boys were eager to become Boy Scouts. In 1914, Baden-Powell began implementing a program for younger boys that was based on Rudyard Kipling's Jungle Book. The Wolf Cub program began in 1916, and since that time, Wolf Cubbing has spread to other European countries with very little change. In America, hundreds of Cub Scout-age boys and their families were clamoring for a program of their own. As early as 1920, Scout executives at the first national training conference discussed the needs of younger boys. The BSA, however, felt it wise to postpone any action until there was more objective evidence. In 1925, Dr. Huber W. Hurt, a research psychologist and veteran Scouter, was authorized to study existing organizations for younger boys, such as Boy Rangers, Boy Pioneers, American Eagles, and Boys' Clubs.

He found that only one boy in 50 participated regularly in any type of organized leisure-time program. He also found that younger boys responded better to leadership and program efforts than older boys. He worked closely with Ernest Thompson Seton. Both men recommended that the BSA adopt a program for younger boys, with older Boy Scouts as leaders, to tie into home, church, school, and Boy Scouting. The National Executive Board authorized the Chief Scout Executive to thoroughly investigate the matter. An advisory committee worked with the BSA to develop a plan and produce the necessary literature. Advice was obtained from leading psychologists, sociologists, teachers, school superintendents, professors of education, college executives, and recreation and welfare directors. By 1929, the new Cubbing program (it wasn't called "Cub Scouting" until several years later) was taking shape and was introduced as a demonstration project in a limited number of communities. Its structure was similar to today's Cub Scouting, except that dens were led by Boy Scout den chiefs. The plan included a neighborhood mothers' committee to encourage Cubs and den chiefs.

In 1930, Cub Scouting was formally launched, with 5,102 boys registered at the end of that first year. By 1933 the time had come to promote Cub Scouting throughout the country as a part of Scouting. All experimental restrictions were removed, and the first national director of Cub Scouting was appointed. Den mother registration was optional for the first few years. By June 1938, 1,100 den mothers had registered and soon became an important part of Cub Scouting. The first dens met weekly at a member's home, where boys played games and enjoyed crafts and ceremonies. The pack met weekly or semimonthly for games, den competitions, awards, stunts, and other activities. Cubs advanced from Bobcat (for all new members) to Wolf (age 9), Bear (age 10), and Lion (age 11) and joined a Boy Scout troop at age 12. In 1949, the age requirement was lowered to between 8 and 10 for Cub Scouts. In 1982, Tiger Cubs was started based on shared leadership of boy-adult partner teams and the school year calendar.

In 1986, Cub Scouts could register as second-grade boys. Cub Scouting in America is different from the younger-boy programs of other countries because it is centered in the home and neighborhood. With the encouragement of family and leaders, boys enjoy a program that covers a wide variety of interesting things. It suggests activities that boys enjoy doing on their own when adults are not supervising them. These activities are particularly suited to boys of Cub Scout age and are different from those they will encounter in Boy Scouting. A strong influence from Kipling's Jungle Book remains today. The terms "Law of the Pack," "Akela," "Wolf Cub," "grand howl," "den," and "pack" all come from the Jungle Book. At the same time, the Gold and Silver Arrow Points, Webelos emblem, and Arrow of Light emblem are taken from our American Indian heritage. Baden-Powell's Legacy Although Scouting has changed over the years, the ideals and aims have remained the same: character growth, citizenship training, and personal fitness. Scouting is updated periodically to keep pace with a changing world.

It isn't the same as it was on Brownsea Island in 1907, but the ideals are still based on principles that Baden-Powell had been taught as a boy. Scouting's founder was never able to completely overcome his surprise at Scouting's worldwide appeal. As it swept the globe, Scouting brought him new adventures and responsibilities as Chief Scout of the World. He traveled extensively and kept in touch with Scouting around the world. Eventually, Baden-Powell's health began to fail. He set up a winter home at Nyeri, Kenya, in 1938, where he spent his remaining years until his death in 1941. Scouts of different races carried him to his final resting place in the small cemetery at Nyeri. His grave is marked with a simple headstone that bears his name and the Scout sign for "I have gone home." Today, in Westminster Abbey, a tablet records his name, along with the names of some of the greatest Britons of all time. After Baden-Powell's death, a letter was found in his desk that he had written to all Scouts.

It included this passage: "Try and leave this world a little better than you found it." These words are a fitting epitaph, for as he won the respect of the great by his strength, he won the hearts of youth by his example. 1910 Boy Scouts of America incorporated on February 8. Baden-Powell visits America to talk with leaders. President Taft becomes first honorary president of the BSA; Theodore Roosevelt first honorary vice-president. 1912 Great Britons: Robert Baden-Powell - The British Founder of the Boy Scout Movement - Anglotopia.net Issue #4 Now Shipping! We received Issue #4 from the printer last week and have begun the process of shipping out. There’s almost 900 to send, so it will take a about 7-10 days to ship them all out. It will be with you soon! Related Issue #4 is Almost Done! We’re almost done with Issue #4 which is taking a bit longer than we planned to get ready. It’s with our copy editor now and we’ll be sending it to the printer this week. We expect to begin shipping out in 2-3 weeks. Related The London Annual Has Gone to Press!

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You will received an email from us, be sure to check your SPAM folder if you haven’t received it today. Email us right away and we’ll send you a different link to […] Issue #3 Has Been Printed and We’ll Begin Shipping Them We have just picked up Issue #3 of the Anglotopia Magazine from the printer. It looks beautiful! We’ll begin shipping them out tomorrow. It’s going to take us about a week to get them all out. We have about 600 subscribers and pre-orders to get through. Last time we used a third party shipping company […] Pre-order Issue #3 Now To make sure that you can get a copy of the next issue of the Anglotopia magazine, we recommend pre-ordering. We’re only getting 900 copies and 600 or so have already been reserved. We will likely sell out again. Click here to preorder. Related By Jonathan 2 Comments Robert Baden-Powell was the epitome of the ‘King and Country’ personality of the Victorian Era. He was a skillful soldier in the Boer War and turned his reconnaissance abilities into a world-wide movement to build the character of young men, the Scouting Movement.

Key Facts About Robert Baden-Powell Born 1857, died 1941 Fought in the 2nd Boer War Founded the Boy Scouts Movement A Short Biography of Robert Baden-Powell Robert Stephenson Smyth Powell was born on the 22nd of February, 1857 into the Paddington household of an Oxford don, the Reverend Baden Powell, who had married Robert’s mother, Henrietta Grace Smyth in 1846. She was his third wife and was 28 years younger than him. There were already six children in the household when Stephe, as Robert was usually known, was born. The eldest two were from his father’s second marriage and in a few years the family would grow to eight children, not actually exception for the times. When his father died in 1860 Henrietta gave all her children the name ‘Baden-Powell’ to distinguish them from their half-siblings and other relatives. After attending a preparatory school he won a scholarship to Charterhouse, one of the most prestigious ‘public’ (i.e. private, fee-paying) schools in England.

There he excelled in music and art, as well as enjoying outdoor activities yachting and canoeing during the summer holidays. His first experience in scouting skills was apparently found avoiding detection in the out-of-bounds wood around the school. He had little interest in academic subjects but on graduation he won an immediate commission as an officer in the 13th Hussars cavalry regiment. He had impressive military skills which he developed while the 13th Hussars were stationed in South Africa and he was quickly promoted, soon finding himself a Major and stationed on the Mediterranean island of Malta as Director of Military Intelligence. In 1896 he returned to South Africa and while fighting there he commanded reconnaissance actions behind enemy lines, or scouting, as it was referred to. He met the American scout Frederick Russell Burnham, who showed him skills developed during the opening up of the American West and in the wars against American Indians. He began at that time to wear the Stetson hat and neckerchief that was to become the Boy Scouts uniform.

He was promoted to colonel and given command of the 5th Dragoon Guards in India, where he wrote his first training-guide to scouting, Aids to Scouting, based on many of the lessons in wilderness-survival he had learned from Frederick Burnham and his own skills in reconnaissance. He returned to South Africa to fight in the 2nd Boer War, where he was the garrison commander at Mafeking, which was famously laid siege by Boer forces for 217 days, reducing the British forces to eating their own horses. The siege ended with Baden-Powell a hero and promoted to Major-General at the young age of 43. It was a Mafeking that he was saw the use of boys as message carriers, guarding and working in the field hospitals, so that troops could be freed from these duties and go to the front line. He was impressed with their courage and sense of duty so much that he used them as an example in his first scouting book, Scouting for Boys, published in 1908.

On his return to England in 1903 Baden-Powell was surprised to find his book, Aids to Scouting, being used by the burgeoning youth organizations spreading across the country. Most prominent of these was the Boy’s Brigade, which had started in Glasgow 20 years earlier and had spread rapidly. As Brigade Secretary and in charge of the scouting activities of the Brigade, he decide to re-write the book for a younger audience and had the first scouting camp on an island in Poole Harbour, Dorset with some Boys Brigade members and the sons of some of his friends – around 32 boys in all. The product of his re-write and field studies was Scouting for Boys, which went on to eventually sell 150 million copies. Scouting Troops sprang up and the movement seemed to have its own momentum in a country enamoured with the romance of war, the outdoors, wilderness tales from the opening up of the American West, idealization of the American Indian and a hyper-patriotism that would in a few years plunge Britain and Europe into the blood-bath of World War I.

The first Rally for Scouts, the pre-cursor of the World Scout Jamborees which were to follow, was attended by 11,000 boys at the Crystal Palace. This enormous glass and iron building had been erected in 1851 in Hyde Park, London, for the Great Exhibition of that year and stood until 1936 when it was destroyed by fire. In 1910 the Girl Guides was inaugurated under the guidance of one of Baden-Powell’s sisters, Agnes. In 1912, while sailing to New York, he met the 23-year-old Olave St Clair Soames. Baden-Powell was 55 at the time, but in the tradition of his family the couple were married in a secret ceremony later the same year. Every Scout in England donated a penny to buy the couple a car as a wedding present. At the outbreak of WWI Baden-Powell, who had resigned from the military in 1910 to devote himself to Scouting, attempted to re-enter the military, but he was turned down as it was felt he could do more for his country continuing his work with the Scouting Movement.

After the war he and Olave moved to a home in Pax Hill, Hampshire. In 1921 he was made a Baronet. The first World Scout Jamboree was held in 1920 at Olympia, a large exhibition space in West Kensington. 8,000 scouts attended from across the world. Baden-Powell was declared Chief Scout of the World. The movement continued to grow, with an estimated one million Scouts in 32 countries by 1922 and 3.3 million or more by 1939. In 1937 Baden-Powell resigned from Scouting. His birthday continues to be marked in the movement as Founders Day. Two years later he and Olave moved to Nyeri, Kenya, to a cottage on the grounds of a hotel owned by Eric Sherbrooke Walker, who had been Baden-Powell’s first secretary. Walker went on to found the famous Treetops Hotel in Kenya. They blended in with the white ruling-elite present in Kenya in large numbers during that period. Baden-Powell died there on the 8th of January, 1941.

His Legacy Despite recurrent questions about Baden-Powell’s ruthlessness with native troops and civilians in South Africa; his early embracing of fascism and an brief admiration for Hitler – dropped as war approached; and even questions about his sexuality, Baden-Powell is generally remembered fondly for the Scouting Movement he founded and the work it did in exposing so many young people to outdoor activities and a positive approach to life. Today there are well over 40 million Scouts and Guides around the world. Baden-Powell’s early emphasis on military values of unswerving obedience, acceptance of one’s position in life and unquestioning patriotism has been greatly tempered in the modern movement with emphasis on personal growth and contributing to society. Sites to Visit Baden-Powell’s grave is in St. Peter’s Cemetery in Nyeri, Kenya. There is a statue of Baden-Powell at the corner of Queens Gate and Cromwell Road in South Kensington, London, in front of Baden-Powell House, the World Scouting Headquarters. There is also a statue at Poole Harbour Dorset, and a memorial on Brownsea Island in Poole Harbour where the first Scout camp was held.

There is an English Heritage blue plaque at 9 Hyde Park Gate, Kensington, London, where he lived. Further Research Most of Baden-Powell’s books on scouting are still available in print and on-line. There are several Biographies of Baden-Powell, including: Baden-Powell: Founder of the Boy Scouts, by Tim Jeal (1989) The Character Factory: Baden-Powell and the Origins of the Boy Scout Movement, by Michael Rosenthal (1986) Baden-Powell: The Man Who Lived Twice, by Mary Drewery (1975) His early Autobiography, My Adventures as a Spy (1915), is also still available. Baden-Powell - definition of Baden-Powell by The Free Dictionary Baden-Powell - definition of Baden-Powell by The Free Dictionary Also found in: Acronyms , Encyclopedia . Ba·den-Pow·ell (bād′n-pō′əl), Robert Stephenson Smyth First Baron Baden-Powell. 1857-1941.

British general who founded the Boy Scouts (1908) and with his sister Agnes (1858-1945) the Girl Guides (1910). Baden-Powell (ˈbeɪdənˈpəʊəl; -ˈpaʊəl) n (Biography) Robert Stephenson Smyth (smɪθ, smaɪθ), 1st Baron Baden-Powell. 1857–1941, British general, noted for his defence of Mafeking (1899–1900) in the Boer War; founder of the Boy Scouts (1908) and (with his sister Agnes) the Girl Guides (1910) Ba•den-Pow•ell (ˈbeɪd nˈpoʊ əl) n. Robert Stephenson Smyth (smaɪθ) 1st Baron, 1857–1941, British general: founded the Boy Scouts and, with his sister Lady Agnes, the Girl Guides.

Question: Which movement was founded by Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell?
Answer: Boy scouts