THE CHIEF SCOUT

Hokitika Guardian, 5 September 1931, Page 6

THE CHIEF SCOUT

FURTHER. VOYAGES. , EDUCATION IN NEW ZEALAND. LONDON, July 16. Someone with a journalistic bent was fortunate enough to see the Chief Scout when he came up to London for a few hours, and has recorded some of the latter’s observations in the Evening News. Lord Baden-Powell is naturally pleased to have a few days’ rest at his home in Hampshire. His desk at the Boy Sconfc headquarters t covered with maps and time tables .(writes the, contributor to the Evening News). London has become to him merely another... port of call. “For the next two or three days,” said Lord Baden-Powell, “I shall be busy dealing with routine-matters and celaring up the accumulation of work after my tour. ■, “Then I shall be off again, heading for Austria and other countries on the Continent.” He jumped up from his chair at the desk and paced the office with a springy stride. • “I find it difficult to sit down for any length of time,” he said. “When you have once fallen to the lure of travel it makes you feel eager to be wandering again—even at 74.” Lord Badent-PowelL has the travel- . ler’s eye for detail. During his tour . he has covered thousands of miles, met every type of personality and has compared conditions' abroad with those, at home.. “They are fine boys and girls in New Zealand, Australia and South Africa,” he said, “but\E cannot understand why, in those countries, where opportunities .for expansion are. so great, they should he herded together . in crowded communities. MASS-PRODUCTION METHODS. “In Australia and New Zealand they are following the example of this coun. try and bringing up children by massproduction methods of education, j “That system is all wrong. In this country the education authorities are I making a great mistake, and it is a i mistake which is being,copied the world over. | “The mind of the modern boy and girl has changed. I liave. watched it \ changing since the Scout - movement began 23 years ago. But the minds of those who minister to their eduear tion are in the same old ruf. | “Modern youth demands freedom and the absence of irksome restrictions. It has no use of reading, writing, and arithmetic. It wants to be unfettered and unrestrained. “Our boys and girls clamour for selfexpression,” h G said, “and our education .authorities pack them together in. classrooms and evolve a mass-produc-tion model. “Can me survive if we continue to hold the theory that children should he equipped for the world by a process similar to that used for turning out a. cheap motor car? “There should he smaller classes. in schools and every .child should be carefully nurtured.”

'Lord Baden-Powell smiled as he concluded: “It is about 23 years since fl'© world said that the youngsters who were then joining the Scout movement would grow up to be wild and irresponsible. Those boys are tho best type of men in th p world.”