The Purpose of Scouting

The Purpose of Scouting

Priority One - To Teach ‘Age Appropriate’ Outdoor Skills

Scouting is the Ultimate Outdoor Youth Program.

We will teach our members to be outdoors persons with all the skills to enjoy the outdoors. Each section will deliver an ‘‘Age Appropriate’ set of skills and experiences which develop them as good outdoors persons.

A "Good Program" is a program which delivers a wide variety of ‘Age Appropriate’ experiences which will enable the individual to accomplish personal growth.

Programs at each level, uniform, and the delivery of meetings need rethinking. Programs should have the same basic structure at each level consisting of a clear set of ‘Age Appropriate’ outdoor skills; Troop being the best program model. Uniforms should consist of clothing and material ideal for the outdoors and less about ceremony.

Weekends (monthly or weekly) should be the focus, with the weekly meetings being used to organize weekend activity. We must all work toward maintaining the program over a full twelve-months; utilizing the outdoors virtually at all times and using hiking and camping as the vehicle. It would appear that most programs being offered are more entertainment, with very little to do with actual program content.

Scouting needs to remove barriers and enable participating in all outdoor programs; i.e. Scuba and Skiing.

The Program should be delivered by the Leaders with Youth involvement as follows:

Colony - Leader Lead
Pack - Leader Lead with Youth Input
Troop - Youth Lead with Leader Input
Company - Youth Lead with Leader Oversight
Crew - Youth Lead with Leader Oversight

Leaders are obliged to deliver all elements of the program over the various three year programs, in the “Outdoors”. Leaders and New Leaders must have their B.P. Woodsman and Scout Craft I and II to assure they are able to assist the Youth with awareness of their surroundings.

Submitted by Scouter Greg Hunt
Burlington Area Commissioner

I am not sure whether to laugh at this or cry

I understand the concept, and agree that Scouting has a large entertainment base to it, but every weekend or two for 12 months. You would need dedicated kids, leaders and parents in this with the kids having little to no other outside interests. As it stands, leaders kids tend to be the only ones that attend 100% of meetings and weekend outings because the leader has to go. This would solve the leader problem, because there would be a one-to-one ratio - the leaders and their kids. What kid would want to come to a planning meeting during the week and not be able to go to the weekend event because of hockey or soccer or some other committment, repeatedly over the year?

Greg, could you point me to the place where this purpose of Scouting is to be found. Thanks
YIS

I've been trying to decide how to react to this suggestion. While outdoor activities are part--and in some groups a major part--of the Scouting program, under current Program Standards they aren't the whole. To suggest a program entirely based on the outdoors would turn the current Scouting program on its head.

Where, for instance, are components related to becoming good citizens, community participation and personal development? I'm sure these could be included in the outdoor elements outlined, but learning is by doing so shouldn't these be practiced in their own natural environments: the community, school and home?

Even B-P, who emphasized the outdoors, recognized in Scouting for Boys, some youth might not have access to the outdoors and frequently suggested alternatives, such as found in his section on tracking.

To change Scouting to the suggestion given here, I think, would end up in a further loss of youth and leaders - and the closure of many effective groups who turn out the model citizens that Scouting is intended to - without camping every weekend or two for a whole year.

Hi Greg;

In "Aids To Scoutmasters" B-P said: "The aim of the Scout training is to improve the standard of our future citizenhood, especially in Character and Health; to replace Self with Service, to make the lads individually efficient, morally and physically, with the object of using that efficiency for their fellow-men."

That was in 1919. Fast forward to the 21st Century: Scout's Canada's Mission Statement (which is identical to the WOSM's) is "to contribute to the education of young people, through a value system based on the Scout Promise and Law, to help build a better world where people are self-fulfilled as individuals and play a constructive role in society."

I'd humbly suggest that you read the article that I wrote which appeared in the Feb. 2008 Leader Magazine, entitled, "And to Obey the Scout Law." This is an excerpt:

"You may have noticed that nowhere in the Scout Promise does it say 'I promise to go camping once a month.' The Scout Law doesn't mention that a 'Scout can light a fire with one match.

"A popular modern catch-phrase is that 'three-fifths of SCOUT is OUT', and certainly Scouting has always been primarily an out-of-doors Movement. But there is a danger, especially in our leisure-oriented modern society, to treat the camping, hiking and other outdoors activities as an end unto themselves, rather than as a means to the true goal of Scouting, which is the development of character.

"B-P used the outdoors activities as a 'hook' to catch boys into the Movement. He never downplayed the practical value of Scouting skills, but he made clear to Scouters that the purpose of Scouting was to build good citizens. The challenge, of course, is to deliver the message of the Scout Law without losing the interste of the Scouts:

" '...if you try to preach to them what you consider elevating matter, you won't catch them. Any obvious 'goody-goody' will scare away the more spirited among them, and those are the ones you want to get hold of. The only way is to hold out something that really attracts and interests them.' (B-P 1919)"


So Greg, if you can affer a 12 month program which includes at least one weekend of camp per month, great...you're well on your way to attracting enough youth to run an effective Troop. I managed to run such a Troop myself when I was in Bancroft (before I had kids...). In five years with that Troop, we camped 175 nights. It was great, I had a great time, the kids had a great time. But much more important than the number of nights of camp each of those Scouts completed, was the type of young men and women they've turned into. That accompishment means a lot more to me than the seven canoe trips, two jamborees, two international trips, and 100 km of day dikes that we completed.

Steve B

I'll also point out that the B-P Woodsman Award was a youth award that was discontinued in the late 90s. Scoutcraft I and II have also been discontinued, as the material has been rolled back into Woodbadge II (where it belonged in the first place).

http://scout.org/en/about_scouting/mission_vision/the_mission


The mission of Scouting is to contribute to the education of young people, through a value system based on the Scout Promise and Law, to help build a better world where people are self-fulfilled as individuals and play a constructive role in society. This is achieved by:

* involving them throughout their formative years in a non-formal educational process
* using a specific method that makes each individual the principal agent of his or her development as a self-reliant, supportive, responsible and committed person
* assisting them to establish a value system based upon spiritual, social and personal principles as expressed in the Promise and Law.


While I totally want to help keep the OUT in scOUT, I'm not sure the "purpose" of scouting is so easily defined. It is in many ways whatever the youth make it.

I recommend to everyone (and in fact hand a copy out at every WB I train) Scouting: An Educational System created by WOSM. Like many world bureau documents it's wordy but it's excellent.

http://cserkesz.hu/strategia/htr/ScoutEducSyst_E.pdf

Garth
Alberta

I like Greg's sentiments. A monthly outing would increase interest and allow the outdoors to be utilized more than it is by most groups. Of course an outing doesn't have to be an overnight camp but it could be.

The weekly meetings should be used to organize the troop to prepare for the outing. Note that organizing doesn't necessarily mean planning. The weekly meetings should be a preparation time where the youth leaders are training the other youth in some skill or aspect. They should be fun and well prepared. The monthly outing is then used to reinforce the concepts and skills taught during the week.

Since two of my daughters began university this fall a good analogy is the weekly meetings are the classroom lecture while the monthly outing is the lab.

Personally, I also like the concept of a large scale event in the summer that the troop has been preparing for all year. On the bottom of page 5 of this month's Scouting Life you'll see two of my scouts at one of three in-pool canoe training sessions my group did last year as part of our year-long buildup to the week long canoe trip we did in July. Not every weekly meeting was used to prepare for the trip but at least one meeting a month was. Once the ice melted on the lakes this past spring our monthly outings/campout were all used to prepare for the trip.

A year round program is, in my opinion, essential. I have numerous groups in my area that end in April or May. How do you provide youth a great week long summer adventure by doing that? How can we accomplish this without leader burnout? More leaders!!! Not every leader has to attend every camp or outing. A well organized troop, with trained and properly functioning PL's can easily support a year round program. You also won't get every youth at every activity all year but it's still doable. I know it is because I've done it for years and I've seen it done by others.
I've found that it can be difficult to recruit a leader when you start telling them the time commitments. By spreading the time and labour around it's easier to recruit five leaders than one. My 'mantra' at every area meeting is that many hands make light work.

Garth
Alberta

The topic of getting OUT more often came up at another forum I participate in. A member there pointed us at an article by Grant Peterson published in Adventure Cyclist magazine. I think it's pretty clear how it can be applied to scouting.

S24Os: Bicycle camping for the time challenged by Grant Peterson

An S240 (es-two-four-oh) is a Sub-24 hour Overnight camping trip that takes less than 24 hours, door to door. A Saturday morning arrival and a Sunday morning departure still gives you a full afternoon and evening of program time.You can do an S240 on a regular midweek meeting night and still have the pack, troop, or company dressed and ready for school the next day.

Excellent post and article Karl. We should be using ideas like this to encourage more outdoor use. A campout doesn't have to be a full weekend or even on a weekend.

With proper preparation and skill development you could declare an S24O night and go with whatever gear a scout has ready for use!

Garth
Alberta