Scouting is something young people do naturally, it will always remain relevant.
Scouting happens instinctively. Look at any group of young people anywhere in the world, anytime in history, and observe how they organize themselves. They form groups, adopt uniforms, establish standards, develop a credo, and create initiatory challenges.
Classrooms often got to battle with these instincts but we find a way to give them a means of positive expression.
When we are young we all yearn to be independent, to belong, to gain acceptance and approval outside the confines of our family. When we are young our imperfect search for these things is often met with suspicion and misapprehension.
In adolescence we try on lots of attitudes and poses paradoxically seeking approval and validation from the adult world in our very rebellion against it.
It can be a tough time for everybody.
Many of us hammered our way through adolescence the best way we knew how. Some people made things difficult, others helped.
I am a Scoutmaster to be one of the ones who help.
Scouting is not an ideology or an organization.
We are part of a movement with universal ideals and activities to channel the unstable energies and excesses of adolescence.
After beginning in Great Britain in 1907 the movement spread around the world before any official organizations existed.
Our volunteers represent all socioeconomic, religious, and political views but Scouting is inclusive, it brings people together.
Scouting is different and getting it right requires dedication and study.
Scouting is something young people do for themselves, not a program of activities adults present to them. If Scouting isn’t working it’s because adults have made a real mess of things; it’s almost never the fault of young people.
Scouting shares the paradoxical combination of simplicity and complexity found in a round of golf or a game of baseball. The basics take a few minutes to learn, but a lifetime to master.
This blog is an ongoing effort to do just that.