NOW TO PATROL LEADERS

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 117, 3 June 1937, Page 8

NOW TO PATROL LEADERS

Eeally you are the'?most dmportant ehaps in Scouting; if you don't back up your Scouter to the fullest that is m you your patrol will not progress, and if your patrol does not get on, llien your troop will not. You have to train your chaps, but t'or goodness sake don't try to rain it into their minds in a dry and uninteresting way. Pills are often coated wdth sugar to make them taste nico, so wiiat you teach your patrol must be put in an interesting manner so the boys will learn without realising it. They get cnough of sitting down in school, so your methods of teaching must be entirely difierent. Give them their knowledge in games and competitions as tnuch as you possibly can; if you have to resort to drier ways, do not keep them at one subject too long. Give them the practical use of everything you show them. It is no use showiug them how to tie a sheet bend if you do not tell them when it is used; :t is no use telling them that to stop bleeding in the arm tliey must stop the flow in the bracliial artery. Names are no use to Scouts at all; we must have the practical work at all times. Use wood, etc., to show the traclcing signs, and not chalk. Watch your chaps, and if you find any losing their interest in Scouts just 1 1ook things over; it maj'- quite likcly 'bc that you have got out of the. wav

of making it interesting for them. It is just as iinportant for you to get tbe ideas of the most reliable of your chaps as it ds for your Scouter to get your ideas when considering the runuing of your troop as a whole. And wfien at a Court of Honour, don't play about. Your troop- needs your proper thought, and you cannot get plans made if you play the ass and won't give your Scouter a fair go. Also that action is sure to get him worried and he will get to asking himself that question that I have mentiioned in the notes to Scouters. A leader is a leader in the Scouts, and remember that at all times. Not only on Scout nights, not only on special occasions, bnt all day and every day he has to remember that his is a responsible job. If he does not feel that he wants to face the responsibility tlien let him resign his job and pass at on to some otherchap.