Scouting or the Scout Movement is a youth movement which became popularly established in the first decade of the 20th century.
It follows the Scout method of informal education with an emphasis on practical outdoor activities, including camping, woodcraft, aquatics, hiking, backpacking, and sports. A widely recognized movement characteristic is the Scout uniform, by intent hiding all differences of social standing and encouraging equality, with neckerchief (known as a scarf in some countries) and (originally) a campaign hat or comparable headwear. Distinctive insignia include the fleur-de-lis, as well as merit badges or patches. In many countries, girls-only organizations, whose members are often called Guides instead of Scouts, use a trefoil insignia instead of the fleur-de-lis.
The original program was for youths between the ages of 11 and 17. Other programs for youths who are too young to be in the main program and take the Scout Promise sometimes exist within an organization. Early examples are Wolf Cubs and Brownies. Programs can also exist for those who are older. Early examples are Rovers or Rangers. The actual names or even existence depend on organization and time period. Speciality programs, such as Sea Scouts, exist.
In 2019, over 55 million Scouts and Guides were in at least 155 countries. The Scout movement is a pluralist movement, not a unitary organization. Numerous local, national, and international Scout organizations have been formed. The largest international organizations are the World Organization of the Scout Movement and the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts; some national organizations belong to both.
History Origins In the late 19th and beginning of the 20th century, popular interest in frontier and military scouts existed. Boys and girls read fictional and nonfictional stories about scouts and emulated these scouts in dress and activities and used self-help manuals. Some teachers and youth leaders instructed boys and girls in scout craft. Reconnaissance and Scouting (1884) and Aids to Scouting, books on military scout training written by Robert Baden-Powell, were among the sources used for instruction. Sales of Aids to Scouting were fueled by Baden-Powell's fame as hero of the Second Boer War.
Inspired by the interest in his books on scout training and urged by the Boys' Brigade founder, William A. Smith and leaders, some of whom had adopted Scout training, and by the publishers, C. Arthur Pearson Ltd, Baden-Powell began writing a book for boy readership. Baden-Powell was also motivated by his experience with the Mafeking Cadet Corps and the poor physical standards of recruits and their poor preparation for colonial wars. He studied other youth training schemes. In July 1906, Ernest Thompson Seton, a British-born Canadian raised naturalist, artist and writer living in the United States, sent Baden-Powell a copy of his 1902 book The Birchbark Roll of the Woodcraft Indians and they met in October 1906 and shared ideas about youth training, providing Baden-Powell with a scheme for delivery of scout training.
In August 1907, Baden-Powell led a week-long experimental Scout camp on Brownsea Island in Poole Harbour, Dorset England to test his ideas. Twenty-one boys from various social backgrounds, from boy's schools in the London area and a section of boys from the Poole, Parkstone, Hamworthy, Bournemouth and Winton Boys' Brigade units attended the camp. Following Seton's scheme, the boys organized themselves in small groups with an elected leader. The camp was accompanied by advertising and followed by an extensive promotional speaking tour arranged by C. Arthur Pearson Ltd. to promote the forthcoming book.
In 1908, Baden-Powell's book, Scouting for Boys, was published in six fortnightly parts, followed in April by The Scout magazine. These omitted many military aspects of Aids to Scouting and transferred the techniques (mainly survival skills) to non-military heroes: backwoodsmen, explorers. He also added innovative educational principles (the Scout method) by which he extended the attractive game to a personal mental education and provided descriptions of the Scout method of outdoor activities aiming at developing character, citizenship training and Physical fitness among youth. Later in 1908, Scouting for Boys was published in book form and a revised edition was published in 1909 and was the basis for the 1910 Boy Scout Handbook of the Boy Scouts of America by Seton. The various editions of the book are now the fourth-bestselling title of all time. The original edition and magazine described a scheme which could be used by established organizations, particular the various Brigade Movement organizations. However, because of the popular image of scouts and desire for adventurous outdoor activities, boys and even some girls formed their own Scout patrols and troops, independent of any organization.
In 1909, a Scout Rally was held at Crystal Palace in London, which 11,000 Boy Scouts and even some Girl Scouts in uniform attended.
Local and national Scout organizations were formed. In 1910, Baden-Powell formed The Boy Scouts Association. The Boy Scouts Association's first census in 1910 claimed 100,000 registered Scouts.
Special interests and programs developed such as Scout bands, cyclist scouts, Sea Scouts, Air Scouts, mounted Scouts and high adventure.
Girl Guides
Many girls took up being Girl Scouts and were part of the Scout Movement as soon as it began. Common Edwardian values of the time would not accept young boys and girls to "rough and tumble" together. Baden-Powell with the help of his sister, Agnes Baden-Powell, formed a separate organization for girls in 1910, the Girl Guides Association, which was followed in other countries forming the Girl Guides. However, by the 1990s, two-thirds of the Scout organizations belonging to WOSM had become co-educational.
Original Scout Law
The scouts law is for boys, as follows;
A Scout's honour is to be trusted – This means the scout will try as best as he can to do what he promised, or what is asked of him A Scout is loyal – to his king or queen, his leaders and his country. A Scout's duty is to be useful, and to help others A Scout is a friend to all, and a brother to every other Scout – Scouts help one another, regardless of the differences in status or social class. A Scout is courteous – He is polite and helpful to all, especially women, children and the elderly. He does not take anything for being helpful. A Scout is a friend to animals – He does not make them suffer or kill them without need to do so. A Scout obeys orders – Even the ones he does not like. A Scout smiles and whistles A Scout is thrifty – he avoids unnecessary spending of money. A Scout is clean in thought, word and deed (added later)
Promise of 1908
Scouting for boys, introduced the Scout promise, as follows:
Worldwide spread The Boy Scout Movement swiftly established itself throughout the British Empire. By 1908, Scouts were established in Gibraltar, Malta, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Malaya (YMCA Experimental Troop in Penang) and South Africa. In 1909 Chile was possibly the first country outside the British dominions to have a national Scout organization. By 1910, Argentina, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, India, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, Russia, Sweden, and the United States had Boy Scouts.
Associated programs for younger children Younger children, particularly younger siblings, too young to be Scouts and take the Scout Promise attended some Scout meetings and so programs for younger children were developed by some troops and organizations. Baden-Powell's Boy Scouts Association launched its Wolf Cubs in 1916, which Baden-Powell wanted to be distinct from Scouts in name, uniform and identity to ensure they did not give Scouts a juvenile image. In the United States, attempts at Cub programs began as early as 1911 but formal recognition by the Boy Scouts of America was not made until 1930. Some Scout organizations have associated programs for even younger children and infants.
Associated programs for older adolescents Some Scout organizations developed programs for those who had grown too old to be Scouts but wanted to remain associated with and support Scout Troops. Baden-Powell's Boy Scouts Association formed its Rovers in 1918 for young men and its Guild of Old Scouts.
Leader training Baden-Powell's Boy Scouts Association held Scoutmaster training camps in London and Yorkshire in 1910 and 1911. Leader training was delayed by World War I. The Boy Scouts Association acquired Gilwell Park near London in 1919 as an adult training site and Scout campsite and held its first Wood Badge training there in 1919. The Wood Badge was copied in many other national scout organizations. Baden-Powell also wrote Aids to Scoutmastership to help Scout leaders.
Influences
Important elements of Scout training have their origins in Baden-Powell's experiences in education and military training. He was a 50-year-old retired army general when he wrote Scouting for boys and his writing inspired thousands of young people from all parts of society to get involved in activities that most had never contemplated. Comparable organizations in the English-speaking world are the Boys' Brigade and the non-militaristic Woodcraft Folk; however, they never matched the development and growth of the Scout Movement.
At Charterhouse, one of England's most famous public schools, Baden-Powell had an interest in the outdoors. Later, as a military officer, Baden-Powell was stationed in British India in the 1880s where he took an interest in military scouting and in 1896, Baden-Powell was assigned to the Matabeleland region in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) as Chief of Staff to Gen.
Frederick Carrington during the Second Matabele War. In June 1896 he met here and began a lifelong friendship with Frederick Russell Burnham, the American-born Chief of Scouts for the British Army in Africa. This was a formative experience for Baden-Powell not only because he had the time of his life commanding reconnaissance missions into enemy territory, but because many of his later Boy Scout ideas originated here. During their joint scouting patrols into the Matobo Hills, Burnham augmented Baden-Powell's woodcraft skills, inspiring him and sowing seeds for both the program and for the code of honor later published in Scouting for Boys. Practiced by frontiersmen of the American Old West and indigenous peoples of the Americas, woodcraft was generally little known to the British Army but well known to the American scout Burnham. These skills eventually formed the basis of what is now called scoutcraft, the fundamentals of Scout training. Both men recognized that wars in Africa were changing markedly and the British Army needed to adapt; so during their joint scouting missions, Baden-Powell and Burnham discussed the concept of a broad training program in woodcraft for young men, rich in exploration, tracking, fieldcraft, and self-reliance. During this time in the Matobo Hills Baden-Powell first started to wear his signature campaign hatBy a happy co-incidence, these hats were already called "Boss of the Plains" hats—or "B-P hats" for short like the one worn by Burnham, and acquired his kudu horn, the Ndebele war instrument he later used every morning at Brownsea Island to wake the first Boy Scouts and to call them together in training courses.