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As the boy becomes conscious of no longer being a Tenderfoot, but of being a responsible and trusted individual with power to do things, he becomes self-reliant. Hope and ambition begin to dawn for him.
He could not but feel himself a more capable fellow than before, and therefore, he should have that confidence in himself which will give him the hope and pluck in time of stress in the struggle of life, which will encourage him to stick it out till he achieves success.
First aid or firemanship, or trek cart or bridge building are of value for handiness and use of wits, since the boy, while working in co-operation with the others, is responsible for his own separate part of the job.
Swimming has its educational value - mental, moral, and physical - in giving you a sense of mastery over an element, and of power of saving life, and in the development of wind and limb.
When training the South African Constabulary I used to send the men out in pairs to carry out long distance rides of two or three hundred miles to teach them to fend for themselves and to use their intelligence.
But when I had a somewhat dense pupil he was sent out alone, without another to lean upon, to find his own way, make his own arrangements for feeding himself and his horse, and for drawing up the report of his expedition unaided. This was the best training of all in self-reliance and intelligence, and this principle is one which I can confidently recommend to Scoutmasters in training their Scouts.
Of all the schools the camp is far and away the best for teaching boys the desired character-attributes. The environment is healthy, the boys are elated and keen, all the interests of life are round them, and the Scoutmaster has them permanently for the time, day and night, under his hand. In camp the Scoutmaster has his greatest opportunity for watching and getting to know the individual characteris- tics of each of his boys, and then apply the necessary direction to their development; while the boys themselves pick up the character-forming qualities incident to life in camp, where discipline, resourcefulness, ingenuity, self-reliance, handcraft, wood- craft, boat-craft, team sense, nature lore, etc., can all be imbibed under cheery and sympathetic direction of the understanding Scoutmaster. A week of this life is worth six months of theoretical teaching in the meeting room, valuable though that may be.
Therefore, it is most advisable that Scoutmasters who have not had much expe- rience in that line should study the subject of the camp in its various bearings.
Help the boy to become self-reliant, resourceful, to "paddle his own canoe"- that is, to look ahead and shape his own course in life.
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