Page 95 - Culture Media Language Working Papers in Cultural Studies

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Green Farm Scout Camp*

Roger Grimshaw

Having just entered the troop, I had my first lesson in the niceties of Scouting’s
social relations on the first night of the camp—Friday. It was only a week since I
had met the leaders, and our acquaintance was still quite recent. This explains the
following incident, in which I was ‘put right’ by Bruce. Here I learned the spatial
rules which underpin leader control.
Just before we all went to bed Bruce, Tim and I were sitting in Bruce’s tent
chatting when, somewhat lost for conversation, I noticed that the groundsheet
was folded back from the door of the tent. So I remarked that it was a good thing
that the groundsheet did not reach the entrance to the tent, since this would save
people from trampling on the groundsheet when they entered. Bruce immediately
responded in a firm tone. There was a rule in Scouting, he said, that boys never
entered the Scouters’ tents. I gave ground by saying something to the effect that I
understood what he meant. It was, of course, quite understandable that Bruce
should see a non-uniformed stranger as a person liable to make errors and that he
should be alert to the possibility of correcting him, should the need arise. What
Bruce was reminding me of sums up a whole (largely unspoken) set of rules
about the relations between leaders and lads. While the leader has the power to
find out what is happening in a tent occupied by lads, the same power is denied
to the lads in relation to the leaders. Nor is it possible for a leader to invite lads
into his tent except for special reasons.
While these rules are embodied mainly in practice and reveal themselves only
in responses to their breach, they are nonetheless powerful indicators of the field
of social relations operating at camp. Where there is a need actively to enrol
some of the boys as agents of leadership for a particular purpose this can be
signified, in rare instances, by an invitation to enter tents within the leader’s
terrain. The Patrol Leaders (PLs) are, of course, the most likely people to be
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given this privilege. Pat was observed to invite them into his tent to give them
information, to outline special tasks or indicate the future course of camp
activities. They would also be told, in this context, about the running totals
achieved in the patrol competition. In so far as the leader’s tent belongs to the
leadership’s sphere of action, the choice of this situation to remind the PLs of their
responsibilities is an apt one. We can see that the rule, as enunciated by Bruce, was
not to be interpreted entirely literally; few common-sense rules are to be viewed