Scouting, Volume 33, Number 1, January 1945 Page: 7
24 p. : ill. ; 28 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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glf Most of us believe in the
□1 Patrol Method, but lots of
us don't make it work as well
as we would like to. Baden-
Powell was responsible for the
Patrol idea and when a recent
series of articles, based on his
thinking, appeared in THE
SCOUTER, the British Boy
Scouts Association leader's mag-
azine, we decided to reprint the
entire series. We believe all
Troop leaders will find it inter-
esting and helpful.
1
%
From THE SCOUTER
The key words here are RESPONSIBILITY, EN-
JOYABLE, and SMALL UNITS, and these were later
to be the key ideas of the Boy Scout way of training
through the Patrol Method.
This brief sketch of the origin of this method
brings out an important fact; the Patrol Method
was applied to boy training because it had already
proved its value in practical experience. It was not
a theory evolved from a professor's brain as he sat
in his study contemplating the problems of training
men or boys from a safe distance. It was a method
developed in the field by a very practical man with
some of the toughest material possible — the young
soldier in the last quarter of the Nineteenth Century.
When B.-P. came to extend his ideas to the train-
ing of boys, he did not realize the difficulty Scout-
masters would have in grasping the possibilities of
the Patrol Method; to him it seemed so natural after
using it for many years.
In "Scouting For Boys," the method is described in
the following words,
"Each Troop is divided into Patrols of six to eight
boys, and the main object of the Patrol Method is to
give real responsibility to as many boys as possible
with a view to developing their characters. If the
Scoutmaster gives his Patrol Leader real power, ex-
pects a great deal from him, and leaves him a free
hand in carrying out his work, he will have done
more for that boy's character expansion than any
amount of school training could ever do."
But in spite of further notes and suggestions, few
realized that here was the key to success. The group-
ing of the boys in Patrols was of course done, but
some Scoutmasters were content to leave it at that.
So in May 1914, B.-P. wrote to The Scouter:
"Many Scoutmasters and others did not, at first,
recognize the extraordinary value which they could
get out of the Patrol Method if they liked to use it,
but I think that most of them seem to be realizing
this more and more. The Patrol Method, after all,
is merely putting your boys into permanent gangs
under the leadership of one of their own number,
which is their natural organization whether bent
on mischief or for amusement. But to get first-class
results from this method, you have to give the Leader
a real free-handed responsibility — if you only give
partial responsibility you will only get partial re-
sults. 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. It is generally the boy with the
most character who rises to be the leader of a mis-
chief gang. If you apply this natural scheme to your
own needs, it brings the best results.
"It is the business of the Scoutmaster to give the
aim, and the several Patrols in a Troop vie with each
other in attaining it, and thus the standard of keen-
ness and work is raised all round."
Even today, Scoutmasters sometimes fail to make
full use of the Patrol Method. Various reasons may
be suggested for this failure; some men do not like
parting with authority — they want to be the only
BIG NOISE; others dotfbt if boys are really capable
of using responsibility; some have not thought out
the implications of the idea; some may have made
half-hearted experiments, and then timidly drawn
back; it may be that a few are, by personality, not
suited to this way of training and would be happier
in work which does not involve using the Patrol
Method. For let it be again emphasized SCOUTING
is not SCOUTING without the PATROL METHOD.
In the articles which follow an attempt will be
made to show how this method can be put into prac-
tice in the Troop.
JANUARY, 1945 7
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Boy Scouts of America. Scouting, Volume 33, Number 1, January 1945, periodical, January 1945; New York, New York. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth313110/m1/9/: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Boy Scouts of America National Scouting Museum.