Modern day scouts

 

Scouting in respect always changes from conception, through our own childhood to that of today's children who live in world rather different to ours was.

Today scouts is still for 10 1/2 to 14 year olds but is co-ed following a similar program to the immediate past although obviously working though modern day health and safety and safeguarding issues and all the planning in advance that brings.

The modern uniform is well different than the pre 1967 although the mushroom trousers have gone  but I do feel a greater attempt at smartness and well uniformity in the uniform wouldn't go amiss although we have to be grateful in an age of instant gratification on the end of a smartphone it is good actually the want to be scouts and are prepared to do things face to face.

Meet the Tigers

 

What do 7 year olds do in the states?

Join cub scouts as a Tiger, starting their first adventures and gaining theit initial awards and here is their uniform complete with notes on how is to be worn.

What is so striking is this does look really smart compared to the more leisure British beavers uniform.

Clunk-click

 

From around 1929 to 1933, this Kodak camera was made specifically for Scouts in the States as well as the UK where this particular model was aimed  in paft to popularize photography and tying in with awards you could earn.

It's hard to see if today a modern version using silcon chips rather than roll film would be made just for scouts to use.

The difference it all can make

 Bit of a cool start to the day here.

Reading a few blogs, some news review pieces can be inspirational from the vantage point of how inspiring their accounts and stories can be looking at the things and especially the values they found useful.

It reminded me a bit of some things I wernt through not unlike a number of them in relatively less enlightened times.

Going through a series of house moves did affect my abilities to form friends given so much back then was face to face involving play around your street as did being unable to do some of the things other boys did and featured in their social world.

I did find some who kept an eye out and were prepared to invest time finding out what you could do and get others to consider being friends and they were cub scouts (as was).

High school magnified some of those difficulties being away for long period and being a good distance away but those people stood by you.

Like many a person "as a young person" I made mistakes, went on courses that after a while I realized I had little heart in, looked into things that proved to be dead ends but the biggest support and encourage to stand alone and follow what was best for me came from those Scout and Guide leaders I knew.

They encouraged me to take a more values centred approach to living finding thing I felt were right for me anf therein lies one of the biggest benefits of Scouting as a way of life.

Improving understanding

 

You today can learn about different disabilities and what you can do to help working with them for your Disabilty Awareness badge in cubs and here cubs in Shropshire are learning about blindness and raising funds for blind exservice people.

As things are further afield

 It's funny how some conceptions of Scouting survive in other countries that here, where we tend to reviewing things all the time we've moved on.

Today over here the section for 8 to 10 1/2 years olds is called "Cubs" having gone through Cub Scout branding from the late 60's and before that teh Wolf Cubs which was B-P's idea but rejected by the modernizers.

In Sri Lanki in South East Asia, famed for it's tea plantations though Cub Scout is still the term they use.

Their age range is 7 though to 11.

These are the Proficiency Badges they use similar to ourt older ones but with a different core background colour

It's interesting the Panda is used for the Champion for Nation badge.

The Silver Arrow Badge

 

A new progressive training scheme of Bronze, Silver and Gold Arrow awards was devised (one for each year in the pack) from 1967 and badges and designs were updated with a common theme of red proficiency badges for the section.

This Arrow Badge was brought into the UK Scouting Badge Scheme way back in the mists of time and has been superseded by many different badges, but it was basically an early form of the current challenge badge scheme.

Many of the badges available are activity badges, which allow Cub Scouts to show their progress in existing pursuits, but also to try all kinds of new things and form new interests.

Each young person who participated in the Programme, including badges and awards, faced a similar degree of challenge, and requirements could be adapted according to each young persons abilities.

The Old Arrow badge Scheme offered more opportunities for outdoor and adventurous activities in safe environments, gaining confidence by participating in new or less familiar activities and stepping out of their comfort zones and all young people regardless of their abilities, can enjoy and achieve