2023-02 Pearls of Wisdom - Quotes From Baden-Powell

This Scouter’s Minute is a redo from back before I had this podcast in 2018. This redo also seems very fitting for today, since Lord Robert Baden-Powell left this earth on January 8th, 1941, that we reflect on some of his quotes. Now, I realize that most of his quotes here do not include girls even though Baden-Powell assisted with the beginnings of the Girl Guides. That’s because this was back in the early days of the Boy Scouts and the Boy Scouts of America with only boy membership. With that being said, you could apply “girl” for most of these and they would be applicable. So, without any further ado, here are some of the awesome things that this great man said.

"We Must change boys from a 'what can I get' to a 'what can I give' attitude"

"The code of the knight is still the code of the gentleman today"

"The real way to gain happiness is to give it to others"

"In Scouting you are combating the brooding of selfishness"

"Scoutmasters deal with the individual boy rather than with the mass"

"A boy on joining wants to begin Scouting right away"

"A fisherman does not bait his hook with food he likes. He uses food the fish likes. So with boys."

"Scouting is a man's job cut down to a boy's size."

"Scouting is a game for boys under the leadership of boys under the direction of a man."

"Where is there a boy to whom the call of the wild and the open road does not appeal?"

"It is important to arrange games and competition so that all Scouts of the troop take part."

"We are not a club or a Sunday school class, but a school of the woods."

"Fun, fighting, and feeding! These are the three indispensable elements of the boy's world."

"Scoutmasters need to enter into boy's ambitions."

"A boy is supremely confident of his own power, and dislikes being treated as a child."

"Boys can see adventure in a dirty old duck puddle, and if the Scoutmaster is a boys' man he can see it, too."

"The spirit is there in every boy, it has to be discovered."

"Teach Scouts not how to get a living, but how to live."

"Can we not interpret our adult wisdom into the language of boyhood?"

"It is only when you know a boy's environment what you can know what influences to bring to bear."

"It's the spirit within, not the veneer without, that makes a man."

"It is risky to order a boy not to do something; it immediately opens to him the adventure of doing it."

"You can only get discipline in the mass by discipline in the individual."

"The Scoutmaster must be alert to check badge hunting as compared to badge earning."

"The Scout Oath and Law are our binding disciplinary force."

"A week of camp life is worth six months of theoretical teaching in the meeting room."

"A boy is not a sitting-down animal."

"Vigorous Scout games are the best form of physical education because most of them bring in moral education."

"A boy is naturally full of humor."

"An invaluable step in character training is to put responsibility on the individual."

"When a boy finds someone who takes an interest in him, he responds and follows."

"The sport of Scouting is to find the good in every boy and develop it."

"Success in training the boy depends largely on the Scoutmaster's own personal example."

"Correcting bad habits cannot be done by forbidding or punishment."

"Show me a poorly uniformed troop and I'll show you a poorly uniformed leader."

"The more responsibility the Scoutmaster gives his patrol leaders, the more they will respond."

"The Scoutmaster teaches boys to play the game by doing so himself."

"O God, help me to win, but in thy wisdom if thou willest me not to win, then O God, make me a good loser."

"In Scouting, a boy is encouraged to educate himself instead of being instructed."

"There is no teaching to compare with example."

"We do not want to make Scout training too soft."

"The Good Turn will educate the boy out of the groove of selfishness."

"When you want a thing done, "Don't do it yourself is a good motto for Scoutmasters."

"Loyalty is a feature in a boy's character that inspires boundless hope."

"See things from the boy's point of view."

"The boy is not governed by don't, but is led by do."

"The object of the patrol method is not so much saving the Scoutmaster trouble as to give responsibility to the boy."

"The most important object in Boy Scout training is to educate, not instruct."

"Scoutmasters need the capacity to enjoy the out-of-doors."

"If you make listening and observation your occupation you will gain much more than you can by talk."

"A boy carries out suggestions more wholeheartedly when he understands their aim."

"The Scoutmaster guides the boy in the spirit of an older brother."

2021-08 Fluer-De-Lis

One of the most notable symbols within Scouting is the Fleur-de-lis.  This symbol has been used by many European nations, most notably within France where the translation is respectively “flower lily”. 

This symbol is capable of holding many meanings at the same time. Religious, political, artistic, symbolic, and emblematic. Throughout history the fleur-de-lis has been used by French royalty.  Within the Catholic church the Virgin Mary and Saint Joseph are often depicted with a lily. This symbol is also often used on the compass rose found on maps and globes, a tradition started by Pedro Reinel. Some of you may even follow a pro football team that places this flower lily on everything that bears their name.

In the early creation of the Boy Scouts, Lord Baden-Powell implemented the fleur-de-lis into the Scout’s badge.  Here is what he has to say about the subject. Found in the book, Lessons from the Varsity of Life, by Lord Baden-Powell.

Lord Baden-Powell -

Years ago, soon after the Boy Scouts were first started, certain critics accused the movement of being a military one.

Whenever anything new is started there are bound to be people who get up on their hind legs to find fault with it, often before they know what it is all about.

In this case they said that the Scout movement was designed to teach the boys to be soldiers, and they quoted in proof that the crest of the movement was, as they described it: “A spear-head, the emblem of battle and bloodshed.”

I was asked by cable what I had to say about it. I telegraphed back: “The crest is the fleur-de-lys, a lily, the emblem of peace and purity.”

But it wasn’t for that reason that Scouts took it. In the Middle Ages, Charles, King of Naples, owing to his French descent had the fleur-de-lys as his crest.

It was in his reign that Flavio Gioja, the navigator, made the mariner’s compass into a practical and reliable instrument. The compass card had the initial letters of North, South, East and West upon it.  In Italian the North was “Tramontana.”

So, he put a capital T to mark the North point. But in compliment to the King he made a combination of the letter T with the King’s fleur-de-lys crest. From that time the North point has been universally shown on the maps, charts, and compass cards by that sign.

The actual meaning to be read from the fleur-de-lys badge is that it points in the right direction (and upwards) turning neither to the right nor the left, since these lead backward again. The stars on the two side arms stand for the two eyes of the Wolf Cub having been opened before he became a Scout, when he gained his First-Class Badge of two Stars. The three points of the fleur-de-lys remind the Scout of the three points of the Scout’s Promise - Duty to God and King, Helpfulness to other people, and Obedience to the Scout Law.