Wood Badge training: Difference between revisions

On completion of the course, participants are awarded the [[Wood Badge]] beads to recognize significant achievement in leadership and direct service to young people. Recipients of the Wood Badge are known as ''Wood Badgers'' or ''Gilwellians''.

Soon after founding the [[Scouting|Scout movement]], [[Robert Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell|Robert Baden-Powell]] saw the need for leader training. Early [[Scoutmaster]] training camps were held in London in 1910, and in Yorkshire in 1911. Baden-Powell wanted his training to be as practical as possible, and that meant holding it in the outdoors in [[camp]]. World War I delayed the development of leader training, so the first formal Wood Badge course was not offered until 1919.<ref name="wbfounding"/><ref name="gillwbhist"/><ref name="origins"/> [[Gilwell Park]], just outside of London, was purchased specifically to provide a venue for the course and was opened for use on [[June 2]], [[1919]]. Francis Gidney, the first Camp Chief at Gilwell Park, conducted the first Wood Badge course there from [[September 8]] to [[September 19]], [[1919]]. It was produced by Percy Everett, the Commissioner of Training, and Baden-Powell himself gave lectures. The course was attended by 18 participants, and other lecturers. After this first course, Wood Badge training continued at Gilwell Park, and it became the home of leadership training in the Scout movement.<ref name="gillwbhist2">{{cite web | url = http://pinetreeweb.com/woodbadg.htm | title = The Wood Badge Homepage | publisher = Pinetree Web | accessdate = 2006-08-01}}</ref>

Part of the transformative power of the Wood Badge experience is the effective use of [[metaphor]] and tradition to reach both heart and mind. In most Scout associations, "working your ticket" is the [[culmination]] of Wood Badge training. Participants apply themselves and their new knowledge and skills to the completion of items designed to strengthen the individual's leadership and the home unit's organizational [[resilience]] in a project or "ticket". The ticket consists of specific goals that must be accomplished within a specified time. Effective tickets require much planning and are approved by the Wood Badge course staff before the course phase ends. Upon completion of the ticket, a participant is said to have earned his way back to Gilwell.<ref name="21stticket">{{cite web | last = Barnard | first = Mike | year = 2003 | url =http://www.woodbadge.org/WB21/wb21ticket.htm | title = What is a Wood Badge Ticket? | publisher = Woodbadge.org | accessdate= 2007-01-07}}</ref>

The first Wood Badge training took place on Gilwell Park. The estate continues to provide the service in 2007, for British Scouters of [[The Scout Association]] and international participants. Original trainers include Baden-Powell and Gilwell Camp Chiefs [[Francis Gidney]], [[J. S. Wilson|John Wilson]] and, until the 1960s, John Thurman.   

Other sites providing Wood Badge training have taken the Gilwell name. Gilwell Ada's Hoeve, Ommen in the Netherlands, was the locale of the first Wood Badge training outside the United Kingdom, held in July 1923 by Scoutmaster [[Jan Schaap]].<ref name="neth">{{cite web | url = http://www.kelpin.nl/fred/padvinderskroniek.htm | title = Piet Kroonenbergs Padvinderskroniek | language = Dutch | publisher = Kelpin | accessdate= 2006-06-01}}</ref> At Gilwell Sint Walrick, [[Overasselt]], the Catholic Scouts had their training. Since approximately 2000, the Dutch Wood Badge training takes place on the Scout campsite ''Buitenzorg'', Baarn, or outdoors in Belgium or Germany under the name 'Gilwell Training'.

[[fi:Gilwell-kurssi]]