Cleveland Plain Dealer - November 18, 1998

The 87-year-old "Boy Scout
Handbook" has been revised for
the first time in nearly a decade.

Scouts’ new bible to keep them fit,
savvy on Internet

By CLINT O’CONNOR, PLAIN DEALER REPORTER

Wouldn’t it be great if life came with an owner’s manual?

The Boy Scouts of America licked that one long ago with "The Boy Scout Handbook," a guide to camping, hiking and adventuring. As every Tenderfoot knows, the handbook was where to look for proper tent-pitching techniques, how to tie a clove hitch and how to tell poison ivy from poison oak. Tattered copies have been carried by Scouts since 1911, a year after the organization was founded.

But the 11th edition of the handbook, out next month, has a new twist. Scouts also will learn how to properly navigate the Internet, and there is a greater emphasis on community-service projects and personal fitness.

"We’ve tried to modernize it," said David Corti, development director for the Boy Scouts’ Greater Cleveland Council. "Scouting has always been about preparing for life. We’ve just updated the hand-book to bring it into the ‘90s and the next century."

New sections of the 87-year-old "Boy Scout Handbook" emphasize personal responsibility and growth.

Although the new edition is packed with practical camp-site advice and the road to merit badges, missing are some previous standards such as information on animals, insects, plant life and fire-building which have been moved to the next edition of "The Boy Scout Field Guide".

The new handbook, the first revised edition in nearly a decade, is also more environmentally friendly, with tips on "low impact" and "no trace" camping - leaving the area in better shape than when you arrived. In its early years, the Bov Scouts had closer ties to the military, and the initial handbooks offered lessons in chivalry, patriotism and life-saving and elaborate advice for treating your horse.

But. as Scouts evolved, so did the handbook. Past editions included inserts for parents on protecting children from abuse and drugs. The new edition, aimed at the nation’s 930,000 Boy Scouts, has put those warnings in the handbook itself in a section titled "Prepared for Life."

Scouts are also taught about the Internet: "Don’t respond to messages or Web sites that make you feel uncomfortable or that you know are meant only for adults."

Under "Sexual Responsibility," the handbook says that "a healthy relationship is supportive and equal," and adds that "abstinence until marriage is a very wise course of action."

The handbook also offers facts on what tobacco, alcohol and drugs can do to your body and mind, and how to fend off peer pressure to use them.

"We hope these are the things that will be discussed. at Scout meetings and at home," said Renee Fairrer, spokeswoman for the Boy Scouts of America in Irving, Texas. The new themes are about "respecting others even if you disagree with them, respecting the environment and respecting animals."

A spokeswoman for the Girl Scouts of America in New York said their handbooks had contained passages on computers, dating and domestic abuse for years, and that they would continue to be updated.

Although the original pioneering Boy Scouts never dreamed of the Internet, much of their handbook remains unchanged.

There is still the Scout Oath, "On my Honor I will do my best to do my duty to God and my country..."; The Scout Law, "A Scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent"; and the Scout Motto, which resonates on every page: Be prepared."