Generations Story of the Month

This is about someone who was a member of the patrol of mine at Ullswater when I was a permanent instructor in 1964. On the first evening I used to encourage the individual members to goive a brief talk to the other members of the patrol as to their background, somethong we all found useful. On this particular occasion I had a lad from borstal, who I was told to watch at all times as he
might run away - an instruction thay i intended to ignore - he was here to get an experience and to be treated as an equal! Before the informal chat J drew him to one side and we worked out a strategy - he was to say that he went
to a special school with strict discipline and many restricctions; He was under strict instructions, to be well behaved, he was going to say, but was here to prove himself. He would name the school on the last night of the course. The other members, who had talked openly.. were puzzled but respected his privacy. From that moment on he shone,, not as a leader, but putting in an unbelievable effort. At the end of the course he was voted as being the outstanding member of the course. His patrol members could not believe that he was a member of borstal!
Years later he wrote to me - very briefly - that the course had changed his life and that he had not been in trouble since - thank you Outward Bound were his words. Fifty years on I still remember him.