THE SCOUTS’ CAMP

To go camping should mean more than merely living under canvas away from the piles of brick and stone that make up our cities. To be in the open air, to breathe pure oxygen, to sleep upon “a bed of boughs beside the trail,” to look at the camp fire and the stars, and to hear the whisper of the trees—all of this is good. But the camp offers a better opportunity than this. It offers the finest method for a boy’s education. Between twelve and eighteen years the interests of a boy are general ones, and reach from the catching of tadpoles and minnows to finding God in the stars. His interests are the general mass interests that are so abundant in nature, the activities that give the country boy such an advantage for the real enjoyment of life over the city lad. Two weeks or two months in camp, they are too valuable to be wasted in loafing, cigarette smoking, card playing or shooting craps. To make a camp a profitable thing there must needs be instruction; not formal but informal instruction. Scouting, nature study, scout law, camp cooking, signaling, pioneering, path finding, sign reading, stalking for camera purposes, knowledge of animals and plants, first aid, life saving, manual work (making things), hygiene, sex instruction, star gazing, discipline, knowing the rocks and trees, and the ability to do for one’s self, in order that a boy may grow strong, self-reliant, and helpful. This is a partial list of the subject in the camp curricula.
A model scout camp program is given here. It takes eight days to carry it out, but there is material enough to run ten times the number of days specified.