Podcast 366 – Scout Advancement

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How does Scout advancement achieve the main aim of Scouting?

Todays talk about advancement continues our foundations series. I’ve written extensively in detail about many aspects of Scout advancement, but this is different. In this podcast I ask how Scout advancement fits into the overall game of Scouting.

You’ll hear me read from Baden-Powell’s Aids to Scoutmastership –

If once we make Scouting into a formal scheme of serious instruction in efficiency, we miss the whole point and value of Scout training, and we trench on the work of the schools without the trained experts for carrying it out. We want to get all our boys along through cheery self-development from within and not through the imposition of formal instruction from without.

But the object of the Badge System in Scouting is also to give the Scoutmaster an instrument by which he can stimulate keenness on the part of every and any boy to take up hobbies that can be helpful in forming his character or developing his skill.

“Cheery self development” is all about building character, but if we aren’t specific in our aims Scout advancement can become anything but cheery.

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Podcast Notes

Baden-Powell’s thoughts on advancement “Proficiency Badges”

Happy Wanderer Opening Music

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