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, signalling, 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 programme 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.