How to Instruct Scouts

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Classroom methods are one way to instruct Scouts, but they are the least effective, (and least fun) way to get the job done. Many of us just don’t know how to instruct Scouts without the classroom approach. Baden-Powell encouraged us to do better;

Our aim is merely to help the boys, especially the least scholarly ones, to become personally enthused in subjects that appeal to them individually, and that will be helpful to them.

We do this through the fun and jollity of Scouting; by progressive stages they can then be led on, naturally and unconsciously, to develop for themselves their knowledge. But if once we make it into a formal scheme of serious instruction for efficiency, we miss the whole point and value of the Scout training, and we trench on the work of the schools without the trained experts for carrying it out.

B.P.’s Outlook  November, 1921.

Fun, effective methods for instructing Scouts in the spirit of B.P.’s advice are demonstrably different.

Because the academic classroom approach is so common let’s eliminate a few things before we look at alternatives;

• No lecturing
  (a lecture, for our purposes, is defined as pupils passively listening to an instructor speak for more than 120 seconds).
• No tests, evaluation forms, or workbooks
  (Blue cards and merit badge books excepted.)
• No handouts over 1 page long (back and front),
  (And only when absolutely necessary.)
• No PowerPoint, videos, or the like.
• No note taking or written work.
  (Unless specifically stated in the requirements.)
• No ‘homework’.

That eliminates most of the common methods used in Scout Troops. How in the world can we instruct without these things?

Links to alternative methods that inspire the spirit of inquiry and active learning that is the goal of Scouting are below:

Introduction to this series
Get Instructional Methods for Scouts as a PDF document along with many other resources in the ScoutmasterCG PDF package

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