Scouting

From Wikinfo

Scouting, a world-wide movement, aims to develop young people so that they can take a constructive place in society at local, national and international levels.

Contents 1 Origins 2 Early History 3 UK Developments 4 Other Scouts around the world 5 See also 6 External Links 6.1 References

Origins

Lord Robert Baden-Powell founded the Scouting movement in 1907 in England. He also introduced Girl Guides (known as Girl Scouts in the US) on March 12, 1912.

The seeds of Scouting began in Mafeking, South Africa, where Baden Powell served as the commanding officer during the Boer War of 1899 - 1902. Baden Powell defended the town against the Boers (or Afrikaners, who outnumbered his troops eight to one. He formed the Mafeking Cadet Corps to help support the troops. The Corps consisted entirely of boy volunteers. Baden Powell trained the boys and they acquitted themselves well, helping in the successful defence of the town (1899 - 1900). Each Cadet Corps member received a badge, a combination of a compass point and a spearhead. This logo eventually became the fleur-de-lis, which Scouting adopted as its international symbol.

As a result of the status of national hero that he had acquired at Mafeking, Baden Powell's military training manual for young recruits, Aids to Scouting (written in 1899), became something of a best-seller, used by teachers and youth organisations.

In 1906, Baden Powell received a book in the mail called The Birchbark Roll of the Woodcraft Indians, by Ernest Thompson Seton. Seton, a British-born Canadian living in the United States, met with Baden Powell and they shared ideas.

Baden-Powell decided to re-write Aids to Scouting to suit a youth readership, and by 1907 he had finished a draft called Boy Patrols. The same year, on July 29, he held a camp on Brownsea Island in Poole Harbour, Dorset, England for 22 boys of mixed social background to test out some of his ideas. His organizational method, now known as the Patrol Method, the foundation of Scouting, allowed the boys to organize themselves into small patrols with an elected patrol leader. The book Scouting for Boys, now commonly considered the first edition of the Boy Scout Handbook, subsequently appeared in 1908 in six installments. At the time Baden Powell intended that the book would provide ideas for established organisations, in particular the Boys' Brigade. However boys spontaneously formed Scout Troops and the Scouting movement had inadvertently started.

Early History

A small number of Scout groups founded in 1908 have the right to wear a green neckerchief in recognition of their membership of the first groups to form.

Scouting began to spread throughout Great Britain soon after the publication of Scouting For Boys and the Boy Scouts quickly became a organization in and of itself. 10,000 boys and a number of girls turned out for the first Scout rally at Crystal Palace, London, in 1910. Canada became the second country with a Boy Scout program, followed by Chile, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. By 1910, Sweden, Denmark, France, Finland, Norway, Mexico, Argentina and the United States had Boy Scouts.

In the years following the First World War, ex-Scout John Hargrave, who had broken with what he considered to be the Scouts' militaristic approach, founded a breakaway organisation that in 1925 would become known as The Woodcraft Folk.

UK Developments

In the UK, the Boy Scout Association changed its name to the Scout Association in 1967 as part of a package of radical reform and modernisation.

In 1976 girls were allowed into the movement as Venture Scouts. This was extended as an option to all sections of the movement in the late 1980s, along with additional reforms to the uniform.

Other Scouts around the world

In Israel, the Scouting movement began in 1919 as a non-political organization but reflecting Zionist and Jewish-oriented ideas. However, in contrast to other places in the world, it never separated boys and girls.

In the United States, the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) and the Girl Scouts of the USA (GSUSA) represent the Scouting movement.

See also

• Eagle Scout
• International Scout Jamboree
• Pioneer movement
• World Organization of the Scout Movement
• Sea Scout
• Air Scout

External Links

• Scouting Frequently Asked Questions
• Two world-wide organizations coordinate the scouts and the guides of the world:
  • The WOSM for boys and mixed groups.
  • The WAGGGS for the girls-only groups.

References

• Adapted from the Wikipedia article, "Scouting" http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scouting August 2, 2003