Abstract
The beginnings of the scout movement can be found in 1907, when Robert Baden-Powell, a renowned lieutenant general in the British Army who had just turned 50, started writing a book that would transform the lives of millions of people around the world: Scouting for Boys. The journey that scouting has taken since that time as a worldwide educational movement is long, and deserves thoughtful, piece-by-piece explanation.
I pray that every home in India may have children like Scouts and Guides
Mahātmā Gandhi, promoter of Indian independence and advocate of nonviolence
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Notes
The Boy’s Brigade is a paramilitary Christian youth organization (Warren, 1986a: 381–382) founded in Glasgow in 1833 with the purpose of “the advancement of Christ’s kingdom among Boys and the promotion of habits of Obedience, Reverence, Discipline, Self-respect and all that tends towards a true Christian manliness” (Austin E. Birch: The Story of the Boy’s Brigade. London: F. Muller, 1965: 101–103). The YMCA is an ecumenical Christian organization founded in London in 1844. It is now present in 117 countries and provides programs based on Christian values for young men. It is a very decentralized organization, whereby each local group controls its own operations and financing
(John D. Gustav-Wrathall: Take the Young Stranger By The Hand: Same-Sex Relations and the YMCA. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998).
Robert Baden-Powell: Yarns for Boy Scouts. London: C. Arthur Pearson Ltd, 1909.
Robert Baden-Powell: The Wolf Cub’s Handbook. London: C. Arthur Pearson Ltd, 1916.
Agnes Baden-Powell and Robert Baden-Powell: How Girls can Help to Build Up the Empire: The Handbook for Girl Guides. London: Thomas Nelson, 1912.
Robert Baden-Powell: Girl Guiding. The Official Handbook. London: C. Arthur Pearson Ltd, 1918.
Robert Baden-Powell: Boy Scouts Beyond the Seas. London: C. Arthur Pearson Ltd, 1913.
Baden-Powell, Robert (1919): Aids to Scoutmastership. London: Herbert Jenkins.
Charques, R.D.: “Education in the Soviet Union.” International Affairs (Royal Institute of International Affairs 1931–1939), Vol. 11, N. 4 (July, 1932), 493–511: 506.
Jeal, 2001: 543–553; Nagy, 1985: 101–103. For a comparison of the aims of USA Scouting and the Hitler Youth in the 1940s, see Lewin, 1947a; and Herbert S. Lewin: “Problems of Re-Educating Fascist Youth.” Journal of Educational Sociology, Vol. 19, N. 7 (March, 1946), 452–458; on the differences between the British and German youth movements in the first quarter of the century,
see Gillis, John R.: “Conformity and Rebellion: Contrasting Styles of English and German Youth, 1900–33.” History of Education Quarterly, Vol. 13, N. 3 (Autumn, 1973), 249–260; for opinions on youth movements in the 1920s in the Soviet Union,
see Charques, R.D.: “Education in the Soviet Union.” International Affairs (Royal Institute of International Affairs 1931–1939), Vol. 11, N. 4 (July, 1932), 493–511: 506.
Nagy, 1985: 117, 119, 142–143. On research, for example, as early as December 1936, the National Director of Research of BSA described diverse research projects in the Journal of Educational on adolescents, adolescent leaders, juvenile delinquency, and the interests of the boys involved in BSA (Partridge, E.D.: “Research Projects Being Carried on By the Boy Scouts of America.” Journal of Educational Sociology, Vol. 10, N. 4 (December, 1936), 220–226; see also Abt et al., 1940).
See Goodrich, Leland M.: “From League of Nations to United Nations.” International Organization, Vol. 1, N. 1 (February, 1947): 3–21. The Preamble to the United Nations Charter, signed on June 26, 1945 in San Francisco (United States), asserts: “We the Peoples of the United Nations determined — to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind, and — to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small, and — to establish conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained, and — to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom, and for these ends, — to practice tolerance and live together in peace with one another as good neighbours, and — to unite our strength to maintain international peace and security, and — to ensure, by the acceptance of principles and the institution of methods, that armed force shall not be used, save in the common interest, and — to employ international machinery for the promotion of the economic and social advancement of all peoples, have resolved to combine our efforts to accomplish these aims. Accordingly, our respective Governments, through representatives assembled in the city of San Francisco, who have exhibited their full powers found to be in good and due form, have agreed to the present Charter of the United Nations and do hereby establish an international organization to be known as the United Nations.” Charter of the United Nations and its Preamble, Department of Public Information, United Nations: http://www.un.org/aboutun/charter/.
Preamble, Universal Declaration of Human Rights: United Nations General Assembly resolution 217 A (III) of December 10, 1948 (http://www.un.org/Overview/rights.html).
Parsons’ thesis is that the colonial officials thought that point 2 of the Scout Law (A Scout is loyal to the King …) could be used to educate the young Africans. In practice, however, for the Africans, point 4 (A Scout is … a brother to every other Scout, no matter to what country, class or creed the other may belong) became the key to their resistance against social discrimination (Parsons, 2004: 5–7); this last point is what Baden-Powell alluded to his 1936 article in the Journal of the Royal African Society, quoted earlier (Baden-Powell, 1936). See also Walton, G.: “The Scout Movement in Africa.” Journal of the Royal African Society, Vol. 36, N. 145 (October, 1937), 477–481.
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© 2012 Eduard Vallory
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Vallory, E. (2012). One Hundred Years of Transforming the Future. In: World Scouting. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137012067_2
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