Year 12s: what will be the first way you research your future options? >>

Is scouting still relevant today?

Scroll to see replies

~Kirsty~

I used to love the journey badges in Brownies!

I was a young guider in Guides, but i'm thinking of going back to Brownies when i take it up again - much prefer that age group.

international camps were the highlight of my guiding experience - I almost got sent with my dad and his cubs to the Scouting jamboree this weekend, but unfortunately i'm off to aberdeen to a friends party instead! :frown:

The jamboree is insanely expensive though - I considered doing service team but it was still several hundred pounds! Would be an awesome experience though. I did an international camp in Shropshire, World Camp in the New Forest and went on an international trip to Mexico, as well as spending part of my gap year working in Our Chalet in Switzerland. Pretty damn awesome, in my opinion :cool:

Reply 21

Fire Point

I am a scout and the benefits are great. Going abroad and making friends all over the world who I keep in contact with. My girlfriend is a scout leader in Poland! You certainly build relationships and through scouting I have great outdoor skills which revolve around hiking, camping, making fires.

In any matter I am proud to be a Queen's Scout and think if you have a good leader you can go far with Scouts.

Reply 22

bluenoxid

I think certain parts are irrelavent. It continues to have this religous slant to it that I feel puts many people off. I think it alright, but I do not really care much about joining it because I hate adventure trips, outsdoorsy things, which are usually poorly run.

Reply 23

jakemittle

Ive never been a scout,

But its still good today, i mean..Youths are going wayward more now..and being a scout, you sorta mature?..which is good I think!

And you get experience!..

So why not? :smile:

Reply 24

generalebriety

bigred

I hated Scouts but my mum made me go. Most of the stuff we were forced to learn was completely irrelevant, tying knots and putting up tents for example.

Also I was really uneasy about these old men wanting to interact with young boys. My suspicions were correct, as a year or so after I stopped going one of the scout leaders was found to be a pedophile and now he's on the sex offenders register.

I think you'll find they're not all like that. :wink:

Reply 25

8EnglishRoses

In theory yes, in practice no.

The theoretical ideas of Scouting have moved on to make it more relevant to the modern day and age. However, in practice, the leaders of the Scouting and Guiding groups are the same as they were 10 years ago and they have no moved forward with the times. The problem is, it tends to run in families; leaders children become leaders who have children who become leaders - therefore things don't really change. Perhaps with some fresh blood, things could move on and become more relevant to modern times.

However, this is just a generalisation based on my own personal experience but there are a lot of qualities which the Scouting Assocation brings which are timeless and can never be 'irrelavant'; for example, team work, responsibility and a sense of belonging to a group outside of the family which, IMO is very important for youngsters in terms of building up their self esteem.

Reply 26

davireland

I think the stereotypes about the movement in regard to peadophiles is quite unfair, yes, there were a small number of sex offenders in the movement (notice the 'were'). Child protection is taken incredibly seriously at least at my group anyway, 99% of scout leaders are not peadophiles, they just want to help young people.

Also someone mentioned the religious slant, I agree with this impression but I am an atheist leader and in our cub pack we have people from all religions not just Christians and they are treated with respect to their faith. Yes, some parts of the Scout movement are based in Christian beliefs but these are not as enforced as they maybe used to be.

Thirdly, someone else mentioned the lack of 'new blood' into the movement. This I have to tend to agree with despite the fact I am a leader and my parent weren't. It is true that some groups lack the innovation due to traditionalism inside a group.

But is it still relevant, I would say a definite, yes.

Reply 27

~Kirsty~

I don't think outsiders realise that both guiding and scouting have modernised tremendously in the past 5 years or so... The difference is quite remarkable.

Reply 28

SuperhansFavouriteAlsatian

I left after Beavers. That was when the football, tag and sleeping lions stopped, and the actually doing stuff started. **** all that.

Reply 29

Picnico

The Scouts is a fantastic organisation which survives on a shoestring budget with volunteers. I became a a 'sixer'.

Anyone remember this song?

'There were chips, chips, big as battleships in the quarter masters stores.'

Reply 30

Consie

Anyone see the scouts from Finland and some Oriental country (that sounds ignorant, but i didnt catch what country they said they were from, but they were clearly east asian) the BBC interviewed? The Finnish one started well but then stalled as she tried to say sophisticated things with limited English, and the two Asian ones basically couldnt speak a word. God knows why they chose the asian ones, the reporter was basically making up answers for them.

Being in football teams seemed far more fun than scouts. A few distantish mates were in it and seemed very tame.

Reply 31

xxsarahjwxx

I have done absolutely all of it (i was a beaver, then a brownie, then a guide, then a rainbow young leader, then an Explorer and a scout young leader and now im a fully warranted explorer scout leader. Oh and i help out on cub camp every year...) and i have to say i hated guiding. The old version was ok but the new attempts to make it "cool" are just lame and ridiculous. Explorers on the other hand is the best by far. It's no longer about knots and all that crap, but about having fun, socialising and taking time out from exams/school stress. I have seen huge changes to the personalities of people who have joined explorers. They somehow become much nicer, better people. I became so much more confident when i was an explorer. There was a boy that joined us with a really bad stutter and no friends and he was really annoying and bullying when he started but after about 2 months he was a different person. He became fun and stopped being annoying/bullying. He learnt to take a joke and his stutter has almost gone. We also had a total chav join and a couple of months in he's quit smoking and has really settled down. He's even applied for the army because he enjoyed all the outdoor stuff we did.
So personally i think relevance is erm...irrelevant lol as long as it's enjoyable to the kids and the leaders then who cares???

Reply 32

sweet_fluffy_nuke

Have Your Say

What are your scouting memories?

A lot of the adults involved in it were pedos or very shady people.

Reply 33

xxsarahjwxx

acolyte

A lot of the adults involved in it were pedos or very shady people.

wellllllllllllll hardly! Im an adult in scouting and i dont have paedo tendancies....i'd also like to think im fairly normal and not shady....
I think that's a real misconception. For instance how many paedo scout leaders do you hear about in the news and how many paedo teachers are there? I would say loads of teachers and i have never heard anything about scout leaders. After all, arent scout leaders in it for the same reasons as teachers? They enjoy working with kids (and not in that way!).

Reply 34

SoundDevastation

i was an explorer scout for years... our tightlyknit group avoided all things religious and alot of the traditional stuff, and became more just a group of friends that loved being outdoors.. and because of it we became the most active Explorer group in the UK apparently.

We did some pretty cool things.. camping and mountain climbing in Switzerland, climbing the height of mount everest non-stop on the climbing wall we built, kayaking the length of the channel non-stop.. walk the North Norfolk coast in a day... for us it was all about challenging ourselves, which is a great thing to do as a teenager.

Reply 35

xxsarahjwxx

SoundDevastation

i was an explorer scout for years... our tightlyknit group avoided all things religious and alot of the traditional stuff, and became more just a group of friends that loved being outdoors..

Same. I just do it for the giggles really and because they are a nice bunch of people.

Reply 36

Consie

how easy is it to get pussy in the scouts?

Reply 37

xxsarahjwxx

Consie

how easy is it to get pussy in the scouts?

is that sposed to be a joke lol. I know quite a few couples who got together through scouts though. It's a good place for getting friends.

Reply 38

Consie

i cant help but think all these virtuous traits the kids claim to have is just a cover for the orgies they have in the tents. having that many boys a girls 'working togeather' in the prime of puberty is asking for it surely?