It is the essence of the individual  >> Sunday, May 12, 2013  I
have often said that one of the reasons Guiding makes a great
out of school activity is because of the lack of competition.
This can have parents raising eyebrows.  Competition is a good
thing right?  Bring back a proper sports day and all that!  Not
always no.  "But you are always working towards badges, where is
the difference between that and school or music exams or karate
gradings?"  It's different,  there is no pass rate per se. 
I've always struggled to explain why I know it is 'downtime' for
the kids and yet still challenges and develops them.  But I've
found the best explanation I've ever heard.  I've bought a
number of very old books about the Chief Scout and Chief Guide
written by people that worked with them for decades.  This is a
quote from "27 Years with Baden-Powell" by EK Wade. She quotes
him, so I guess it is originally from one of his own books.
"There are nearly sixty different subjects among which every boy
should be able