1st aid, emergency aid, lemonade.....

Well, the learning ability of younger people has once again been proved to the almost satisfaction of the GSL's mind.. by the teaching of emergency aid procedures to the youngest section, towards the stage 1 emergency aid badge.. luckily for us we have (as well as the obvious 1st response holders!) one well qualified DIY store first aider, and a nurse among our leaders, plus myself, an expired St Andrews certificate holder.. if anyone remembers them... indeed, are they still going? If so, I'd love to know... there was a very good reason why they taught me first aid akl those years ago instead of the more obvious St Johns, but that reason (as usual) escapes me.. but then I am a GSL... reason is a stranger to most of my breed..... but that's by the by... the fact is that we never fail to be surprised by the beavers' apparent lack of attention span, compared to their phenomenal retention, as compared to the exact iopposite amongst Scouts... and before we all go blaming the water, or the junk food, or even the evils of the electronic babysitter, may I just say that i vaguely remember it being the same in my long ago youth... i well remember my frustration with other members of my patrol, when it seemed that they simply hadn't learned something.....of course, there were always anomalies like myself; i admit i often learn for the sake of learning (or for being insufferably big headed, depending upon to whom you speak...) but i alweays remember most of us being told, being shown, then being made to practice, then not being able to do it at all the next week.. although, to be fair, eventually it did all seem to click in place.. usually... but that just seems to be a normal learning pattern, despite the obvious frustrations for leaders.. which brings me to some sort of point.. I'm sure we've all been guilty of this at some point, but some more (some a lot more!) than others... i've seen it happen plenty of times that leadeers pass on a skill as an end in itself..... which is not necessarily a bad thing as far as it goes... but not totally good... the upshot is usually a feeing of boredom, the same sort of frustration that formal maths education engenders... the feeling of "why learn it.. we'll never use it..." Now in my group, as in many others, we teach skills in order taht the Scouts, cubs, beavers, et al, can accomplish some task.. for instance, what is the point of a scout learning to read a map if he is never put in a position where it is a necessary skill? Now, when I was a scout( yawn...) our leaders gave us a fantastic test of our map reading abilities.. and knowing that it would happen to us made us learn incrediby well.... not a sit down test, oh no.. the very opposite.. they always referred to it as "The Mystery Tour..." and it involved the whole patrol being blindfolded, put in the back of a van (those were the days! nowadays of course the van would not happen.. and the blindfolds would possibly be frowned on....) and we would be driven two days walk away.. usually between 30 and 40 miles.... we would then put up a tent for the leaders, make tea, and be thrown some maps... it was then our job to decide which map we were on, and whereabouts on that map.... once we thought we knew, we showed our leaders... and we were usually wrong....so we'd go back and do it all again.. and when we had finally workee out where we were, our leaders would give us the next task... they would have made arrangements for us to camp at a certain point.. they gave us the map reference, and we then had to plot a course to that place... only using roads where absolutely necessary.. points were awarded for making the route interesting... then we plotted a route from that place to our hq..... the leaders would check it, ask questions, be unsatisfied, and make us do it again.... and again, until they were happy with it... then it would be sleep, and next morning, we bade goodbye to all the adults, and went along our route, knowing that when we arrived, our tents and evening meal would be there, for us to cook and pitch, depending... unknown to us, we were always shadowed by a couple of leaders.... but the point is, if we couldn't do the map work well enough, we would be stuck in a field and look like idiots... the point i'm trying to make is that the best way to make skills seem relevant is to make sure we use them... and not just in pointless tests... and any group that sees the skill as the end result, rather than as a tool to do the real job, is going to miss out on a lot.... on the wall opposite my GSLs desk is a sign that says "Follow Through" which is good advice.. in most circumstances... but I'm beginning to ramble... i must update you all on the tent-living teacher trainee Andy... well, the adventure is getting underway. thanks to eBay and the generosity of tent selling Pam McCormack, and despite some Morris related malarkey.. Alec Issigonis, your best (or second best, depending) design... still working after all these years.. more on that soon... so until next time, make it relevant, and keep Scouting....