Globusz^® Publishing 

The number in a Troop should preferably not exceed thirty-two. I suggest this number because in training boys myself I have found that sixteen was about as many as I could deal with - in getting at and bringing out the individual character in each. I allow for other people being twice as capable as myself and hence the total of thirty-two. Men talk of having fine Troops of 60 or even 100 - and their leaders tell me that their boys are equally well trained as in smaller Troops. I express admiration ("admiration" literally translated means "surprise"), and I don't believe them.

"Why worry about individual training?" they ask. Because it is the only way by which you can educate. You can instruct any number of boys, a thousand at a time if you have a loud voice and attractive methods of disciplinary means. But that is not training - it is not education.

Education is the thing that counts in building character and In making men. The incentive to perfect himself, when properly instilled into the individual, brings about his active effort on the line most suitable to his temperament and powers.

It is not the slightest use to preach the Scout Law or to give it out as orders to a crowd of boys: each mind requires its special exposition of them and the ambition to carry them out.

That is where the personality and ability of the Scoutmaster come in.

So, let us consider a few of the qualities, moral and mental that go to make Character, and then see how the Scoutmaster can get the boy to develop these for himself through Scouting.