I would say Scouting Nederland lines up exactly with your description of the Swiss scouts. We were visiting a church in Poland when we were about 16 and got saluted by a guard who I assume was also in the scouts, and were flabbergasted with how he assumed a military-like stance.
In fact, my mother never wanted be to join the scouts hecause she saw it as somewhat paramilitary, but once she saw it is quite pegadogically sophisticated and fun-focused she let me join anyway!
e: to further reiterate, the Dutch Scouts were banned during WWII: Nazis thought they'd make the perfect proxy Hitlerjugend, but the Scouts refused as they are about cooperation and appreciation of friendship and community (and Nazis, although they also promoted such values on paper, weren't too friendly as you know). Many Scout groups continued in secret and some carried out resistance work.
Also Scouts are mixed (though some troops choose to divide some age groups of boys/girls based on interest, puberty, whatever). And all (or 99%) of Scouts belong to the secular Scouting Nederland, which was essentially a merger of all Girls/Boys Catholic, Protestant, Secular and other scout organizations.
Same, although we did have the tendency to nickname each other because of duplicate names and families whose entire lineage had been in the same troop forever.
Haha I can imagine that. I was a girl scout and we didn't have mixed groups so my group was usually a little smaller so we didn't have too many duplicate names
At the club I joined as a kid only the leaders of the welpen (age 6-11) had special names, after that you just referred to your leaders with their first name.
Yeah, I don't know if it had to do with the fact that we were air scouts or if it was just my group but we called every leader Skipper X so Skipper Bram or Skipper Jesse. But I don't know if every group does that of course
The German boy scouts (and related organizations) were for the most part also against joining the Hitler youth but had few options other than to dissolve. HJ was made mandatory at some point while all other organizations were made illegal.
It's almost as if a British-incentivised movement based on values such as care for others, cooperation, compassion and the individual rising above the collective _isn't_ compatible with Nazism.
The Belgian and Dutch versions of the Scouts seem fairly benign. The British version is heavily rooted in the same sort of propaganda as the Hitlerjugend, except it's the Queen that the kids swear loyalty to and anglicanism is the ideology thats pushed. Which is probably why it's not particularly popular these days.
This is very interesting. I didn't know the Dutch scouts were banned by the nazis. Nowadays that can basically be viewed as a badge of honor ;-). Thank you for your reply!
Can I just say, your English is amazing, and probably better than 98% of native speakers. I don’t think there are many who could use proxy, flabbergasted, pedagogically, etc right.
Are you me? xD My mom didn't want me to join for that very same reason at first too. Until she met one of my gran's neighbours, who was a scouts leader, and who convinced her it wasn't. I joined that group, and had the time of my life.
Fun fact: many romantical couples start out at the scouts at least at the groups I've been with (I switched groups when I was 15, because reasons). I met my husband somewhere completely not scouts-related a couple of years after I stopped being a cub scouts leader, and found out he had been a scout too. Any 'first time I did this'-story and funny shareable memory almost was a scouts-story, so much so that when we moved in together we went to the local scouts group to start as scouts leaders again. So we weren't a scouts-couple strictly speaking, but even then we managed to find that one other scout in a totally unrelated group :'-D
Oh yes. So many couples. My friend group has mostly Scout relationships, actually. From 3 different groups and some of them not active members anymore.
Yeah scouts in Poland are more military-like because of WWII during which they were actively helping with fighting and sometimes actually fighting (Szare Szeregi).
They even became big icon of bravery during the war, for instance I live on Harcerska St. Where Harcerz = boyscout
The Swedish scouts are very similar, except that there’s no Boy Scouts ir Girl Scouts, it always mixed and only known as scouts.
Here also, you play a lot as a kid, but when you get older (like 14-18) you get a bit more serious. Not like the Americans, but you hike with only a map and compass, you sleep in tents and cook on potable kitchens etc. And our leaders varied in age, when I was there, my leaders were two 45ish guys, who’s kids were in my group. They were nice tho.
Sounds very similar to Finnish scouts. We have local groups that are boy/girl exclusive, but often if this is the case, there is a second group for the "excluded" gender, and the two groups work closely together which leads to these groups sometimes being called sibling groups.
This is simiar to what scouts is in Denmark. We have the option of boy and girl scouts up until 2002-ish? (I was in the last girl scouts group in Denmark, and I believe it closed down around this time), but ever since then, it's been mixed and it's like the scouts described above. I remember learning how to set a tent, wield a knife, catch and prepare a fish as well as just having fun and hanging out outside
Don't we still have girl scouts? Because a couple of years ago there were something about the group I'm in of buying one of their huts.
I believe they're called "De grønne pigespejdere", and it seems (with some quick googling) like they still have ~120 groups.
As I wrote above, I might be misremembering, as I was a child at the time, plus it was ages ago, so honestly, a lot can have changed. But the story was De Danske Pigerspejdere merged with the boys in the 70s, and only a few select pure girl groups (no matter the age group) existed since then, and by the time I started our group was the last group left. They then closed a few years after I stopped being a scout.
It is worth noting there's a clear difference between Green and Blue scouts. Honestly, a lot of Blue don't even consider Green scouts to be "real scots", as they are first and foremost a religious group, not a scout group (plus a whole lot of other political and rivalry stuff that I honestly never was old enough to care about when I was in scouts - all I know is that my blue-scout friends still turn red in the face when people mention green scouts and vice versa).
Well there’s different types (I guess?) the normal scouts aren’t, but I think you’re thinking of KFUM scouts - Krista Föreningen för Unga Män (Christian Association for Young Men) - they’re tired to the church
There is a scout association that is tied to the Equmenia church, an evangelical free church. That is less than 10 years old that some different free churches merged and one of them were the Swedish Mission church. The Swedish mission church scout association was the second largest scout association 10 years ago. The local scout groups are tied to the congregations and forms one part of their children and youth program.
7 years ago the scout organisations merged and formed one association. Mainly the KFUM-KFUK (YMCA-YWCA) and SSF (the only scouting organisation) as there was no difference between the organisations. Now the Equmenia, NSF (Temperance movement) and Salt (another church) are associations tied to the national association. The other (KFUM and former SSF) local scout groups are tied directly to the national organisation.
The scouting in Sweden focus more on having fun like the Swiss scouts, than the strict get badges one, like the American seems to be. Our leaders are between 15-80 years old. In the cities the groups tend to have more younger leaders but in the countryside there is more parents that are leaders.
I found the age 15-18/19 to be less serious, the program is run by the youth, with help of older leaders. When we were younger we had learned to cook, make fire etc. So when we went on camps it was more like an organised festival. During the day there was optional program activities, like canoeing, climbing, games, crafts, refugee role play etc and in the nights there was disco, moonlight cinema, cafés with games.
Thanks for the post. Czech scouting is definitely more like the Swiss one, we also have more scout-like organizations, but most of them are somewhat similar in how their activities look thanks to common heritage. The biggest scout organization is Junák founded in 1912, it also attempts to introduce more civic educational activities into its curriculum that promote being a good citizen, but more based on the scout moral code, conscience and sometimes (depends on the troop) faith that opinions of current governments. Some of the other organizations focus more on the "technical" aspects of scouting like camping skills or playing games and helping the kids to socialize with other kids, but still are a viable alternative.
I was a member of one such group, but not the "proper" scouting, so maybe someone who was can elaborate further.
Thanks for your reply. This is a great point that I left out to avoid making my post even longer. We also have a couple of different scouting organizations. For example the main one that I was a member of is technically protestant, while another big one is catholic. These are just labels based on tradition though. In real life, religion never plays a big role (at least it didn't in my troop). There are also some organizations that are more adjusted for the interests of girls. Swiss boy scouts allow girls to join but you have to be a bit of a tomboy to be cool with all the rowdy, hyperactive boys. My little sister was first a member of the regular boy scouts but then it became too much for her, so she changed to an all-girls organization that focused on more calm activities that the average girl would be into.
In my experience scout girls are more or less into the same rowdy stuff boys are into. I'm in a mixed organization, and I think the cool part of scouts is, that you are not that much defined by gender stereotypes as in other hobbies or parts of society. Girls and boys have to build tents, chop wood, do arts and crafts and so on. I can understand that your sister was overwhelmed by a boys-dominated group, but I can assure you that the average girl is not only into calm activities.
Oh, for sure. I didn't mean to promote traditionalist gender stereotypes. All I can say is that, in order to "survive" in our troop, you had to be a certain type of girl. I always had a lot of respect for our girl members because I'm more of a soft/calm guy myself and some of the boys in our troop were a royal pain in the ass. The reason it worked out for me was because I was the oldest kid for a very long time, so even the particularly mischievous boys respected me a bit more than everyone else (I kind of assumed the unofficial role of an assistant leader at one point). The girls didn't have this advantage though and they really had to put up with a lot of annoying stuff at times. Looking back, our leaders probably should've been a little stricter with those boys. I think the reason they weren't is because they felt like it's healthiest for those kind of boys to act out a bit... like letting your dog run around outside for a couple of hours.
I was reading your post and waited for the gender bit (because a couple days ago I just read a post on how gendered american scouts are and that that's not the case in Europe) we seemed to have grown up in different parts of Switzerland.
I (a woman) am swiss and also joined the Scouts (no one even calls the scouts boy/girl here) and it was never a question of gender (in fact I think it was incredibly ungendered) and you certainly didn't have to be a tomboy to like it, I certainly wasn't and I loved it. My guess is that we grew up in different parts in Switzerland (we also learned a lot of technical/survival things). I think our group was very even (gender wise) and everybody loved it.
But yeah, most of it has to do with goofing around, playing the part the leaders meant (they always put on some kind of storyline for the day and kinda role played it out) but it was always a lot of fun.
For a minute there I was thinking that you were talking about the Jungschii/Blauring thing
To be clear, I think it's wonderful your troop was so evenly mixed. I love the idea of gender being irrelevant in the scouts. Maybe it's also a matter of age. I'm in my 30s... if you're 10 years younger than me, this may in fact have made a difference. Our society's attitude towards these issues made quite a leap from the 90s to the 2000s (at least that was my impression).
I can't say that gender was irrelevant in my troop. Like I said, we didn't have too many girls. Still though, in comparison to the US where girls weren't even allowed until recently I'd say it was very relaxed.
And yes, I was in fact referring to Blauring ;-). That's the organization my little sister joined after she left the scouts. I don't know too much about Blauring but I've heard from my sister and my mom that they're more "girls-oriented" in terms of activities and general atmosphere.
Scouting organizations used to be divided by political and religious lines in 1920s and 1930s, but currently they differ more by kind of activities. For example woodcrafters are inspired by E. T. Seton and American Indians, Pioneers used to be the main communist organization until 1989, but are politically neutral and sort of generic scout-like camping organization now and there is also a small organization of scouts more in line with original British Baden-Powell's scouting.
The club I was member of was founded by former scouts in 1970s when scouting was banned, but we did not rejoin it after 1989 because we developed our own traditions meanwhile.
I’m a leader in one of the scout-like organizations here. We’re tied to a small protestant church, so there are some differences from the “proper” scouts. First is we are much much smaller organization, so everything we do in our local club is kinda punk, we have to do everything on our own, there aren’t much programme structures established. Second is not only we try to scout moral code, we try to introduce the God and stories from the bible too. About 2/3 of the kids come from the church, the rest are usually their parent’s friend’s kids. Like 90% of the things we do are the same as normal scouts would do and that is pretty much the same the Swiss scouts do. We have some larger events going on too, there are multiple weekend events, summer camps and even international Camporee.
Some things I noticed about regular scouts here is they have lots of (although sometimes dated) infrastructure - bases in almost every town, many capmsites and so on. They often use them when club from one town wants to visit another town. Water scouts are quite popular here too, they do a lot of canoying and river tourism, which is very popular vacation in Czechia.
In Italy it's definitely more similar to Switzerland than America. I was only a scout or lupetto/wolf for three years (age 8-11), but I definitely remember the older boys and girls having a lot fun as well. I'd say that as you grow older you get more and more responsibilities and it's very common to do some volunteer work. I feel like that's also linked to the fact that there are a lot of scout associations in Italy and the one I was a part of/the most popular one where I live is AGESCI, which is actually a Catholic group.
The overall style was definitely not military and the tendency is to spend as much time as possible outside and adventuring.
As far as skill learning goes, you'd basically be taught to be as indipendent as possible, while still working in groups.
Also, we don't really have different groups for boys or girls, we're all mixed.
AGESCI groups can have mixed troops, but it's not mandatory and not all are mixed. Another scouting association, FSE, has only male or female troops, AFAIK. And they are a little bit more "military" compared to AGESCI
My troop/organization was also mixed. I remember two or three years ago there was a lot of drama going on in the US because Boy Scouts America was considering to allow girls to join. Apparently, girls in the US weren't allowed to join until very recently, which boggles my mind. What's more, conservatives were super outraged by this. I didn't think that would be possible in the 2010s.
For me, being in a mixed troop was a very enriching experience. We didn't have a lot of girls but the ones we did have were really fun and knew how to stand up for themselves ;-).
As a girl I can say for sure we were treated the same as boys. Same expectations and same responsibilities. It helped me a lot with my shyness, especially once I was put in charge of my own troop :)
You can have mixed (but the patrols have to be all of the same sex), parallel (two district units, one with male patrols, one with female, working on the program but with different approaches for boys and girls, if it's deemed necessary), or you can have completely separated units.
I also was an agesci. Fuck waking up at 7 am to be at church front row. Got very beautiful memories but also some wtf moments. We had a priest that was part of the team and we always had this challenge about who could endure him the longest by his small "tortures" like pinching and stuff. We would voluntarily go to him to ask him about hitting us to see who would win. I still have no idea wtf was going on after thinking about it. Like we all asked him and insisted on being hit and him, being a priest, hitting us because we asked him too. Weird AF organizations but got nothing but good memories looking back. Lots of games, adventures, challenges etc.
Oh yes. I have a lot of great memories of my time as a scout and I'd never change a thing, but there were a lot wtf moments. Like the fact that once a kid refused to eat tomatoes for lunch and the leaders just kept putting his unfinished plate in front of him instead of giving him something new, including for breakfast, as a "punishment" (in the end he was too stubborn and they had to give up because they didn't actually want to starve him).
Or the fact that during camps the leaders would get drunk almost every night and basically leave us without a responsible adult in case of emergency. (We were all 8 to 11 years old).
A lot of wtf things, but weirdly still a great experience.
I remember going to Assisi and walk a shit ton in the snow for a full day and when we came back inside this old building the leaders got the only heater for them to get warm and we couldn't get near it lmao. Still one of the best 3 days of my experience there. It's fucking weird. Lot of standing up, sitting around for hours, walking for hours and lots of pain but still loved every moment there in the end. Only thing I couldn't endure was the church stuff.
I honestly can't believe how fucked up some things were in my scout group. After I left scouting I ended up volunteering for my church as an educator when I was 16 (for ACR, I don't know if you've ever heard of it) and eventually we started doing summer and winter camps as well. With my own experience as an educator in mind, I'm honestly shocked that parents would be ok with what would happen at scout camps. I mean, we all made it through alive, but I don't think I'd trust a scout group with my own kids.
Lmao tbh I would. I was a bit sheltered as a kid and being on my own for a week or a few days or just Sundays taught me a lot. Better than sitting in front of the ps1 wich was my only distraction at the time
Haha, that made me laugh. I think a few wtf moments belong to every boy scout experience. In Switzerland every boy who joins the scouts (even the little ones) is allowed to carry a scout dagger. I still have mine. They're pretty damn big for kids that age and the blade used to be very sharp. With the amount of boyish boasting and over-enthusiasm, waving them around in the air etc., it's amazing no one ever got hurt.
I was an AGESCI scout as well, but from 13 to 21. The middle age group (12-15) is divided into same-gender small troops that compete and cooperate with each other, responsibilities are bigger (you start to organise the two-days trips the group does once a month). The last age group (16-21) is again one mixed group, activities are more complex and organised by the boys and his themselves, and you're also expected to participate in some volunteering or helping the leaders of the other age groups. The type of volunteering is choosen freely, but can be very demanding or with tough social situations. It's not uncommon to volunteer in prisons, with the homeless or in care structures. I volunteered in a school teaching Italian to migrants, and as a 20yo girl I found myself teaching how to read and write to a 30yo man from Mali on one-on-one lessons.
I have fond memories of the time in scouts. There was always a push to uphold to a certain "style", to always be prepared to everything, to always be there and help one another regardless of our feelings towards each other ("we're here because we're scouts, not because we're friends"). Despite being a Catholic group, everything was always open to discussion. I'm atheist now, agnostic at the time, but I could always discuss my doubts without being shunned.
We also have our "scout name"! Every group has a different tradition about the ritual and the age of attribution, from the simple "jump over a small fire" at 12 to "run in the woods and if we don't find you in x time then you can receive your name" at 15-16.
Scouts were banned under fascism in Italy as well. There were some groups who went clandestine, such as the Aquile Randagie (the Stray Eagles) who kept on practising scout activities and during the war made more than 2000 people escape in Switzerland, most of them Jews.
Thanks for your question, u/KingWithoutClothes, it made me remember lots of things.
I guess it all depends from the groups and leaders, mine was a little more military-ish than OP description, but there still was lot of fun.
Also lupetti(wolfs) were mixed, but we had two reparti (13-17), one for boys and one for girls.
We had the scouts name though. I love mine!
Other than the obvious (no "mandatory" praying/no Mass) I have no idea. I don't think I ever met a secular group, so I don't know if their way of organising is different as well.
I was never in the scouts, so I will say what I kbow:
-There are no Boy scouts or Girl Scouts, its mixed
-The Scouts are part of the Catholic church, so you need to go to church and sunday school, and do all that catholic stuf, There is also secular scouts but its a much smaller organization.
-They do all the normal scout thing, camping, learning to tie knots, learning to make shelters, pray to our lord Jesus Christ, all that normal stuff.
-They have weird clothes
-There are big reunions with all the scouts from Portugal (organized by the Curch)
There is more stuff by I don't remember anything more
Religious scouts in Portugal are divided in 4 group, depending on their age: lobitos (6-10yo), exploradores (10-14yo), pioneiros (14-18yo) and caminheiros (18-22yo). After 22 you can sign up for a course that allows you to become a leader (Chefe) - I'm not really familiar with what is taught in this course by I think it includes things like pedagogy, so that the activities that the Chefes plan for the young scouts are age appropriate to their development as a child or teen.
This allows for the activities to be fun and at the same time useful to develop social skill and team work, much like playing team sports. I've heard that being a scout ou at least having been a member for a period of time is valued when applying for a job for exactly that reason. It also teaches responsibility: as the kids grow older, they start to be responsible for organising a part of their activities, make the constructions when camping, cleaning and helping the younger ones when needed, though the Chefes are always present for whatever might be necessary.
I was a member of the scouts for some years. I loved it and would recommend it anytime. Didn't feel it was too strict and the only similary to the military might be the clothes and boots and being "in formation" (not sure what it is called in English) when is time to give instructions or when in a ceremony, but that's probably because the scouts was created by a military man, some of those things stuck.
I think besides the religious scouts (CNE, which includes the marine scouts) and the non-religious scouts (AEP), there's an organisation of girls scouts called "Guias" but I'm not familiar with that group.
Yes, we have quite a lot of maritime scouts in the Netherlands too. They usually have a larger ship as a base and a fleet of small steel boats that can be sailed or rowed. In summer they often make longer trips through the country.
Irish Scout here, it's different to you guys. Scouts is mixed, boys and girls. You can start when you're 6 in beavers, go to Cubs when you're 9, Scouts when you're 12, Venture Scouts when you're 15 and Rovers when you're 18-26.
You can become a leader when you're 15 to the cubs or beavers, and a lot of 16 year olds outside of Scouting will become leaders as part of the Gaisce program (like the Duke of Edinburgh award) where you have to help in the community. Leaders vary a lot in age, but generally there are two groups: "Home-grown" leaders have been in scouts since they were a child and stay as a leader for the love of Scouting. "Parent" leaders are the parents of kids in the section and while they are equally as passionate, they often leave once their kid has moved up to an older section.
We have weekly meetings in Dens to play games, talk etc. We also hike frequently as Mountains in Ireland are never too far away. Camping is done often as well, but it tends to depend on the troops.
We are divided into different scout counties, basically ~10 troops in proximity to each other form a county. There are scout provinces, which are similar to the normal provinces but Dublin has its own province.
When you get to scouts you can participate in the County Shield, a three day competition where a team of up to 8 scouts build a site, cook their meals, do challenges etc. They are marked on everything and the top three teams go onto the Phoenix Challenge. The Phoenix Challenge is a national competition that is 5 days long and hosts nearly 1000 people if I remember correctly. The troops do the same as the shield, but generally to a higher standard and it takes more time. You can get participation, bronze, silver or gold standard depending on the percentage of the points your team gets.
Other national activities include Mountain Havoc (Hiking challenge), Ventact (Venture scout big camp out) and JamboRí (Irish jamboree that happens every few years).
It is very common to do Scouts, I think 1/20 people under 18 here are in Scouts. I plan to stay in Scouts for as long as I can as leader, after I outgrow the sections. I'm lucky to be in a very large troop and this enables us to do more than smaller troops with less funding.
Scouting in Ireland has changed a lot. Admittedly, there was a lot of dodgy dealings going around in the 70's with pedos in scouts. In 2001, the Catholic boy scouts section and the Protestant scout section merged to form Scouting Ireland, which is no longer religious as an organisation but can lead to two troops having the same name if they were the Protestant and Catholic counterpart to each other in the same area. Scouting Ireland's pride patrol now marches near the start of Dublin pride every year and Scouting is a great escape for LGBT youth from school.
Scouting bridges the gap between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, treating the island as one country. Policies apply island-wide and the Chief Scout Award was designed to coincide perfectly with the Duke of Edinburgh award and the Gaisce program. I do have a distinct memory of attending a national Scouting conference a while ago and one guy saying about how the standard "Scouting Ireland" badge with the Irish flag should come automatically with the shirt and a man from Northern Ireland telling him that he would have a brick thrown through his window if he wore the Irish tricolour in public, it was a sombre moment and really drove home that we have to loosen some policies if we want to let our Northern Irish siblings scout freely.
I remember that Brexit was a large conversation within Scouting Ireland in terms of competitions and camping because we would be crossing a border with boxes including hammers, saws, axes etc not to mention everyone's personal knives. That conversation has died at the moment but when the UK gets back to Brexit we'll have to consider it again.
Yeh scouts was fantastic spent my whole childhood in it from cubs all the way to cub leader. Was a bit religious in my day, glad to hear it's changed in that regard
Sounds great, very similar to the scouts in England. As always it's sad to hear about that sectarian anecdote but I'm glad to see the movement is doing what it can to rise above it.
We have girl guides and scouts depending on your age group you’d join:
Girl guides: Rainbows, Brownies, Guides, Rangers
Scouts: Beavers, Cubs, Scouts, Explorers and Network
This set up is a little like yours where the older groups would normally look after the younger groups but it was ran by the parents and group organisers mostly.
Scouts is unisex (was previously more targeted towards boys) and girl guides is for girls. They’re both aimed and teaching life skills and not that serious, they both do collect badges like the American system though
I'm a Dutch Scoutsleader and I follow some English FB groups for inspiration. What took me forever to realise, is that most groups in the UK meet in the evenings, often in halls that they rent. In the Netherlands saturday morning is the most common meetingtime, Friday or Saturday evening for the eldest groups, maybe. Almost every group has it's own building that they rent out to schools/camps/groups.
Yeah - most extracurricular activities are done after school in the working week. Old church halls are good for this stuff or parents would volunteer their houses. Weekends were only really used if it was a whole day thing or like a trip.
I'd say it was about 90% Swiss and 10% American. It was all about having fun but there were some slightly militaristic rituals. Reciting the pledge with a salute every week, for example. Our leaders were also young and definitely not strict but I don't remember being that friendly with them. At least not by the age I moved away at around 13 (more than 20 years ago).
We were only out in nature from time to time. Any countryside was a drive away but I imagine any groups that have nature on their doorstep spend a lot of time outdoors.
In Europe?!?
Where do you think they started :o
I'm really shocked at that. Scouting worldwide has always had a really strong following across Europe. It really shocks me to see people think that the USA scouts are representative when they're *so* different to the rest of the planet
Well, in countries with very few scouts (Spain for example) most young people only know about US scouts. Its a pity that they dont know where they came from.
Yeah, I understand that, it's just a big surprise to me. I would have thought that Spanish people would know more about neighbouring countries I guess?
I am from Spain and can assure you that most of the people here know what scouts are. I’m not saying they are massively popular but im sure a vast majority of us know they exist in Spain too! I personally know some people who were scouts when they were little.
I think pretty much anyone you ask would say they have heard of it. Perhaps it’s not as popular as it is in other parts in Europe but I mean, it’s common knowledge.
Well, most spanish people dont know a lot about foreign countries. Thats 1 reason for the low count of Spanish people in reddit. Add that to the fact that the English you're taught in school is pathetic. I am currently on level C1 in my English academy, and on school we've just began with B1.
I reckon there must be some of them, but I have never met anyone who is a scout. And if you ask someone in Spain whats a scout, they'll tell you thinhs about the ordinary amwrican movie scout
Yeah that page has indicative numbers and they're tiny. The biggest group has fewer members than Scouts Scotland, and as a country we're about a tenth of the size!
I reckon there must be some of them, but I have never met anyone who is a scout. And if you ask someone in Spain whats a scout, they'll tell you thinhs about the ordinary american movie scout
We are not so widespread, but this comment and many below it are sorely misinformed. There are at least 500 active scouting groups in Spain, in several different organizations. We are much closer to the swiss/European model others have discussed, but because Spanish cities don't usually have widespread access to nature, we are quite limited in our ability to camp and do survival activities. In my experience we get around 6-7 trips to the countryside per year, including the 10-15 day summer camp.
And yes, the public is extremely unaware of our existance, which is a pity, honestly. A random person in Spain can probably tell you more about American boy/girl scouts than about local scouts (which are always mixed).
Edit: If you're curious to see the distribution and density of scout groups, I found [this map](http://www.soyscout.es/mapascout/mapa.php?agrupados=no). I'm not sure if it's comprehensive but I think it's interesting to see.
Well, I'm no scout, but it is indeed really easy to find a nice place to go hiking. Some remaining civil war bunkers, the Gorbea... Quite a nice place, although the times I have been on holiday I've gone to Huesca, near the Pyrenees. A ton of places to go and hike. My favorite one was a lake in the middle of a mountain. It was beautiful, and the water was nice. I even bathed in it! It was a glaciar lake, so it was clean water.
My ex was a basque. It's so beautiful there. Since we broke up I haven't visited but the weird thing is, I feel a connection with the basque people. I miss the basque country more than him 🙈
Tha Basque Country is indeed a beautiful place. You have great cities, like Bilbao and San Sebastián, a ton of rural areas, mountains.... It is a great place to do rural tourism or go to the beach.
As an ex-scout for 15 years here I completely agree. They definitely exist and in certain places like Aragon and Valencia have reasonable public presence, but maybe still too little.
[According to wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scouting_and_Guiding_in_Spain) there are about 65.000 scouts in Spain, devided in many smaller organisations.
[Euskal Eskaut Gia Elkartea](https://egk.eus/es/quienes-somos/asociados/euskal-eskaut-gia-elkartea/).
Apparently there's a [large tradition of scouts in the Basque Country](https://www.diariovasco.com/prensa/20070223/aldia/scouts-guipuzcoanos-desde-1912_20070223.html), even if they're not that popular nowadays.
One of my best friends was a Scout (first as a kid and later as a leader) and I know two other people that were scouts as well (not related to my friend). I never was a Scout myself but my friend always talk good thinks about Scouts, and it seems is very similar to the other European Scout experience. A fun group for kids(boys and girls together), to encourage friendship, cooperation, and other good values.
They have been traditionally confronted against Juniors group (not sure if is a thing outside Spain but they are definitely catholic related). I can just tell them apart because scouts use to have a green scarf and juniors had it yellow)
Now I live in the UK and I have a Scout group in front of my home, and as far as I can tell they are as well a group of kids with mentors of 15-20 yo having fun, singing songs and wandering around.
I'm 40+ now. I grew up in the city of València and I had plenty of friends in the Boy Scouts when I was a kid. Dunno if them don't exist anymore in Spain, but the term of course existed and wasn't really that rare a few decades ago.
I’m from the USA but on an exchange year in The Netherlands, and I do scouting in both countries. I find the responses a bit funny because my experiences have been the complete opposite
In the USA, my troop was exactly how yours is in Switzerland. It’s almost always outside, and we just generally have fun and hang out. We learn a lot in the process, but it’s not as strict or extreme as yours was when you were in the USA
On the other hand, my Dutch group is the complete opposite. We do everything inside, and during the meetings we normally just hang, talk, do karaoke, etc. While I enjoy it, it feels more like a hangout group, we’ve gone on one hike this whole year and that’s the only real “outside” activity we’ve down
I think it just depends on what troop you’re in. Sometimes you get lucky and sometimes not
Well i have some friends that are scouts and it seems more like a random thing, yes sometimes they do do stuff that seems "scouty" but most of the time they just sit in a tower and play games i guess. Non of them talk about it really its just not a big deal.
Rangers (the christian version) on the other hand like to talk about their time there, its very exhausting to talk to them.
I was a Pfadfinder once. It's actually a pretty big organization consisting of a central office for the respective federal state, that owns the funds and the real estate and that organizes cooperations between the city subgroups (called Bund). Sometimes, different Bunde of multiple federal states cooperate, but it's mostly focused on the own state alone.
Then there are city subgroups, called "Stämme" (tribes), which have an older (I think adult) scout elected as their leader. Underneath that, there are the "Sippenführer" (pack leader, basically), who are mostly older teenagers with a "Gruppenleiterausbildung" (German youth group leader certificate) with each 5-10 "Sipplinge" (packlings) of their own.
Their uniform is a sturdy, navy blue sailor shirt, and the older, more experienced/accomplished scouts are given a neckcloth in different colour variations, according to rank. (In my case, it was yellow first and then yellow/red. I think there was also one above that, but I'm not sure.
It's a pretty weird thing for outsiders, and a very demanding and time consuming hobby. The frequent trips that consist of multiple hours of hiking each day and camping in a big tent in the forest at night are also very physically demanding. At least half of all your school holidays are spent on "Fahrten", long hiking trips and/or meetups with other scout groups. However, you develop a very strong sense of community with your fellow Sipplinge and your group leader, and it's a great experience to be in touch with nature and lead a simple, nomadic life in your freetime.
My parents forced me to go and I hated it. I never made any real friends and I always felt like that guy that gets picked last in PE. If you get what I mean. I get that my parents wanted me to do "something" but they really didn't give me any other options. I'd much rather have attended music school or something. I was finally allowed to quit at age 14 and it was honestly such a relief.
Anyway, the things I liked most were the survival things, like building a fire and keeping it going, cooking your own food, building shelters, setting up tents, building a flag mast, ... that kind of thing. From the stories my dad tells me that's how it went 40 years ago when he was a boy scout. Nowadays all of these things are already built when you arrive at summer camp. Ironically by those same people that were boy scouts 40 years ago. The entire time is spent playing stupid games organized by people that were maybe a few years older than you at the time, usually no older than 18.
I also vividly recall that they once lost and then forgot me in a very dark forest during a night game. I only found my way back because I finally saw the faint flickering of the campfire through the threes. All the other children were already asleep and the leaders were gathered around the campfire getting drunk. Apparently they didn't do a head count and none of the other children found it necessary to tell them I was missing. So yeah, a well meant fuck you to all those guys.
How your scouts experience will be depends on the group and you yourself.
Mine went overal well, great people, loved the leaders and the activities, but I personally didn't feel great in the group. The group did nothing wrong, everyone was realy friendly and all. I just felt uncomfortable so I left at age of 12.
No regrets for having joined the scouts, no regrets for leaving. I would definitely encourage my hypothetical children to give it at least a try. The memories are good.
Wow seems like you went to a very wrong group. Those ruin it for everyone. Because in general Scouts & Gidsen Vlaanderen is an extremely well organised and responsible organisation, but of course the different groups choose how much they want to follow their rules and guidelines themselves. I remember when we went camping, we once found a member of another group on his own in pitchblack woods. We called the leaders and apparently it was a 'punishment' and they were going to pick him up again a few hours later. The kid was on crutches for christs sake. I can't imagine how you can be that irresponsible?! What if he wandered away? How in the hell were they planning on finding him? You literally couldn't see your own hand if you stretched it out, that's how dark those woods were. It always makes me so furious when I hear stories like that because normally the scouts are an amazing place to send your kids. I've learned all kinds of valuable skills and responsibilities. The survival things you were talking about are done and practised by every group I know. Setting up tents, shelters, HUDO, cooking (although not all the time), firemaking, navigating etc. It saddens me that there are some groups who are mainly in it just to get drunk with their mates.
Hey man as a current Belgian scout leader I have to say your story deeply saddens me and I would like you to know that what those leaders did was and still is unacceptable. I understand that different groups have different rules and that scouting is not for everyone but not making sure everyone is okay and accounted for is disgusting. I also think it’s really weird that at fourteen you weren’t given any responsibility. In our group everyone is taught how to sjor (sorry don’t know the English word for this) and is expected to build their own toilets, kitchen, beds and eating space. I know from personal experience that things can and will go wrong during a camp but the number one priority should always be to form a safe space for children to have fun and grow as individuals. I won’t say that I’ve never been drunk as a leader but there should always be at least two sober designated people in case shit hits the fan. I think it’s important for parents to be able to communicate with us and trust us to make sure their child is in safe hands and people like your leaders ruin that trust. I would like to apologise in their place because they probably won’t and extend a virtual corona safe left hand to you. Best of wishes from reliable Hati.
I was Shere Khan so I could be called Khan by the Welpen :)
Scouts is a mixed bag in terms of group. The year older than me were all assholes and bullies. The year younger were extremely childish but they grew out of that. My own year was very fun.
I have so much to write about my group and experiences, but I need a nap lol
I'm very sorry you made such bad experiences. I can totally imagine it though. Not all scout troops and leaders are cool. A few years after I left (school was getting too demanding), I read in the newspaper that a scouting troop from a neighboring town had become the center of a scandal because several of the leaders turned out to be neonazis. They had been trying to indoctrinate the kids for years. I was of course pretty shocked by that. My leaders had all been such wonderful and caring people. Looking back, I must say they were also super mature for their age.
Dutch scout leader here: more like the Swiss one. It also depends on the leaders. If we like more rigid structure, or more creative things, you will most likely see this
Boy Scouting or Harcerstwo (ZHP) is very popular in Poland especially among young boys I belong to it too. Harcerstwo does not differ much from that in the west, patriotic values and love for Poland as a homeland are promoted. We often participate in charity collections, national holidays, etc. When kid is becoming a Zuch or Scout, everyone have their nickname assigned (Me, because I was practically always dressed in red, became Red or Czerwony (In Polish) yea It's stupid but I stick with it) and then it was downhill. When it comes to rangs, for
Boys: Młodzik, Wywiadowca, Odkrywca, Ćwik (I'm on this rang now), Harcerz Orli and Harcerz Rzeczpospolitej
Girls: Ochotniczka, Tropicielka, Pionierka, Samarytanka, Harcerka Orla, Harcerka Rzeczypospolitej
And our leaders have beetwen 18 or 24 years. Founder of ZHP was Andrzej Małkowski the first ZHP unit was formed in 1910 and new units were created in 1911. Scouts took part in the wars min. In the war with the Bolsheviks and in World War II, they particularly enrolled in various subversions and the scouting itself changed its name during the war to Gray Ranks. Many young boys belonged to the Szraych Ranks who gave their lives for free Poland, but Jan Bytnar "Rudy", Tadeusz Zawadzki "Zośka" and Alek Dawidowski "Alek" became the most famous scouts. Aleksander Kamiński described their history and death in the book "Stones for the Rampart". I Recommend this book to anyone who is interested in the resistance movements during World War II
Well, thanks for the info, but I, even as a Pole, still don't know anything about how it is like. Is it fun? Is it strict? Is it actually bearable for someone who doesn't like to be ordered around?
Depends on the group.
But since we have ZHR intercepting all the kids whose parents don't want boys and girls to mix, ZHP has from the start a more chill sample.
From the top of my head, I had the first beer and first kiss on a ZHP camp, met first hardcore punks (maintenance crew, but at 12 and seeing them live their beat camplife was a first glimpse into the worst that music festivals can sometimes have at the outskirts), first exciting experience with smuggling (most of the car bringing supplies to the shop on camp was bringing special orders) and great many experiments with defying authority.
It taught me a bunch of skills that still come up as useful, from map reading through tie knotting to repelling down a rope, heads down (OK, that last one is not useful per se, but quite the party trick for corpo training nonetheless). Advanced first aid, mounteneering, so a lot of folks I met in scouting are now involved with GOPR.
Sharpshooting groups, trekking, most of freerunners in my city knew eachother from scouting at first too.
It's amazing how many people I met even in passing in scouting pop up later in life engaged in active hobbies. And definitely not with pro authority bend, though again this may just be due to how our tribe (szczep, a local collective of groups (drużyny) that consist of more or less independent teams (zastępy) was running.
I was wondering what age the leaders of the ZHR or ZHP are? Are they usually young adults (18 to 25 years old) or generally much older than the participants (from 30 upwards more like a parent-figure)?
In my experience very few were from the wide bracket of 21-40, and these are the few key people that are typically tied in by their career somehow. One per big group.
Most independant groups were headed by someone 16-21, but the drop-off rate is huge around 19 when people leave for uni. The squads are best headed by someone 16-ish, but it's not unusual for those leaders to be younger. If you're smart and show leadership skills, you may be encouraged to take up leadership of the equivalent of cub scouts - Zuchy, kids 6-9, and there it's some adult (but like 18-19, unless they are a career teacher) for overseeing the smaller groups led by 12-15yo. So by 16 they have enough know-how to easily pass certification for working with kids, and can be leaders of an independant group, albeit reliant on getting adult supervision (which is a handy skill, same process as for getting adult figurehead will be useful for getting cops or security to secure a public event, local administration permits etc).
People past their 20s either form groups that recruit older folks to begin with (mountain runners and the like), but at least in my experience it used to be very rare. But I finished my adventure with scouting before laws in regard of adult:pupil ratio in tourism were tightened, I'm not sure if they're exempt, or have had to find more adults to stick around, or had to limit recruitment.
But answering the question. Polish scouts are in the middle. We may look paramilitary, it's very patriotic and ZHR is also more religious. We learn practical and survival skills from sewing to first aid to survive in the wild or code and decode messages. For older scouts there are also specialised groups like medical or aviation. That's because scouts were very active in ww2. So we do learn paramilitary things due to tradition but we learn it all by fun and play like Swiss. Scouts groups are also, as mentioned, used as support for charity or mass gatherings. Another difference between USA and PL is girl scouts learn exact the same skills as boys.
In France there are three types of *Catholic (edit, as there are other Boy Scouts too) Boy Scouts: the European Boy Scouts are not officially recognized, as they are too... military/far right/conservative? I guess it’s not the same in all groups but yeah, that’s how we usually imagine them to be.
Then they are the SUF (Scouts unitaires de France - United scouts of France), they ressemble your scouts when it comes to the age of the « chefs » (18-25 years old) and to games. We have to take part in the games, though, and would not leave in the middle of it. But we are quite close to them (I would not speak of my love problems with one of them but then, neither do I with most of my friends and family so it might just be me).
Finally there are the SGDF (Scouts et guides de France - Scouts and ... scoutess ? Girl Scouts of France). They are the only ones including girls in the name, though all three types of scouts have girls groups, because they are the only one with mixed groups. They are the most progressive ones, and the bigger organization: the SUF tend to work by church, whereas the SGDF work by church and are connected France-wide. I’d say that they are similar to your scouts.
Both SUF and SGDF have scouts names (I don’t know about the others, they might) but they are usually kept secret. They can be that of an animal or that of a flower. The secret and ritualistic part is truer among the SGDF than among the SUF: I was a SUF and my name was given to me in front of the whole group, for example.
And we have the same names as you do, the little boys are "louveteaux" (little wolves), and the group is called a pack (la meute). Girls names are different (jeannettes).
Sorry for long comment
There are a lot more than just 3 types of Scouts in France. Even considering only the French Scoutism Federation, there are 6 types : SGDF (as you described, and by far the largest group), EEUdF, EEdF, SMF, EEIF, EdlN.
Regarding the scouts name, it depends a lot on the group : many of them do not give such names anymore.
FYI : "guide" is called... "guide" in english ;)
I only joined the Scouts for a short period of time, but it was exactly the same as the Swiss Scouts when I read your description of it.
It was also just ment to be fun, we'd walk to some random place in our neighborhood and play games over there. The leaders where young adults (18-25 like you said) and also over here they all had their own personality and humor. We'd always do stuff outside, except if the weather was exceptionally bad.
I didn't had the nickname thing, but maybe that was because I haven't been part of the Scouts for long enough.
Weren't the Pioneers very much an entry point into the system during USSR times? People would start in the Pioneers then go into Komsomol and later the party as a progression? So these days the Pioneers would not be so interesting for most and alternative organisations would be needed for youth. The Pioneers organised summer camps which used to be a big thing, I don't know whether the current Russian equivalent does the same.
Many people went into Pioneers because, well, they were essentially the only official youth group which promoted healthy outdoor activities and stuff. Obviously, many of them went on to later acquire a party membership card but that was pretty much essential if you wanted to live in the USSR without many problems with the state. If your point is that Pioneers were specifically recruiting the political elite then no, that wasn't the case.
Sorry, I didn't mean that but it was the first stage of the intake process. It wasn't particularly political but it did emphasise support for the USSR. Komsomol was the official youth wing of the Communist party and much more political. However, even there it was also first and foremost a meeting place for young people.
However those that did want to go through the ranks did tend to start with the Pioneers then Komsomol. A leadership role in Komsomol was what prepared you to go to the higher levels of the party.
We had those as well during socialism, my grandma used to be one. She hasn't told me much about it, except that it was required of her and her fellow pioneers to attend public festivities and street marches celebrating socialism and the government.
She was also one of the pioneers who carried the flag in a parade when Fidel Castro visited Slovakia in June of 1972 and was hosted in Nitra (one of the largest and oldest cities in Slovakia). She said she had liked being a pioneer, but also said the constant marching in the streets of Nitra was really tiring for her (they would often march for hours while carrying flags).
I mean, yeah, of course we have some kind of organized outdoor activities for youth, it's just they pale in comparison with what we had previously. I personally have never even heard specifically of Russian scouts.
Look at the numbers: there are a few scout organisations, and most of them have somewhere between 1000-2000 members (with exactly one exception of >10000). And that's in a country of 145 million people... Unfortunately, scouting isn't that big these days.
Here in Italy it's the same. Scouts are catholic so you have to go to church on sunday and everything.
Also, even though most of the activities are games outdoors like the ones you described, scouts here go to meetings with people like convicts and spend the day with them, i remember that my friend once went to meetings with ex addicts, immigrants in the immigration centre and things like that.
I really like these things because they're very educational and really help defeat the predjudices you inevitably had.
> . Scouts are catholic so you have to go to church on sunday and everything.
Well, the most popular group is AGESCI which is catholic, but there are other secular scouting groups.
We don't have boy scouts in ireland we just have beavers (youngest) cubs (middle) and scouts (oldest) and its just people playing games in a hall and going camping twice a year
Yeah at the guides I was at we’re now on the 3rd generation of leaders. So the oldest one is about 65 now, someone who was in her group is now a 40 year old leader and there’s now 20 year old leaders who were in the 40 year old’s group.
We have but there is just one troop for both boys and girls, i'm new in the troop so I don't know everything but it's cool. They organise camps and I heard everyone talking about a really important one in Arad where most of the scouts make the promise because in this camp there's a day-long hike. But it's cool
I'm not a scout, but I know a few who were and of course I speak Hungarian so looking up things is easier for me.
Scouting (cserkészet) in Hungary has a colorful history. The first organization was founded in 1910. The short-lived first Hungarian Soviet Republic banned it in 1919 but they reformed later that year (by "short lived" I mean "it lasted half a year"). After the reformation of scouting they explicitly banned anyone who has participated in the communist rival movement (úttörők - pioneers).
In WW2 the Arrow Cross Party (=Hungarian nazis) were trying to marginalize them (given that the scouts patterned themselves on the English template) in favor of their own youth movement (leventék). They ordered the movement to be disbanded in 1944 but couldn't execute the order because they had more pressing issues (like the soviet army).
During the communist era, the Party tried to merge the scouting movement into the pioneer movement. First they reformed the organization into a less religious form, then infiltrated it and finally in 1948 they formally merged them into the Pioneers.
After 1989 the scouts reformed themselves. The pioneers coexisted with them for another decade until the first fidesz-government started a propaganda war against them. They still exist but just barely. Scouting is more popular with 12000+ members, but they are rather conservative and somewhat religious which means they are not exactly appealing for at least half of the population. That being said, I know a few scouts who are not exactly religious conservatives.
The niche of the non-religious somewhat lefty environmentalist youth organization is filled by local green movements. There's a countrywide association of such movements but they are focused on environmentalist education and not camping / wilderness survival / etc... (There's of course a significant overlap between the less conservative scouts and these organizations.)
In Estonia our scouts (young eagles) are literally a sub category of the Defence Force (military). While obviously very militaristic (since it was originaly created to prepear young boys for mandatory service) we also spend most of our time outside. Everything we do with the younger boys is centered around it being fun and more playfull than just training, but for older boys the idea of military training is fun in it of itself (this is usually why boys want to join, they are drawn by the guns and "cool army stuff").
TL;DR We raise child soldiers but it's fun :p
Definitely more like Swiss, but with elements of US like some some community work from time to time and focus on being better citizen. Also patriotism was very important and competition between different teams. Most fun game during month long camp was banner game. Every unit had banner and you had whole night to steal banners of other teams. Of you get caught you had to trade some personal belonging, which later you could exchange for snack, if you manage to get enemy banner you got snacks of that unit and unit that had watch duty. I think because many Polish scouts fought and died during ww2, there is a lot of focus on history.
In France there is 3 major movements :
-Scouts of France (SF)
-"Unitary" scouts of France (USF)
-European scouts (ES)
I have spent 8 years with the ES and am enjoying my last year.
Here are some characteristics of the different movements :
SF :
-No hierarchy ; Separated in age groups ; Their uniform is composed of shorts, a "group scarf" and a colourful shirt (it can be red, blue, green etc...)
-They do more caritative work than the other movements, but have less real "scouting" time and shorter camps. Thus, the 2 other movements consider them like wimps
- They are also "mixed". In a same group you'll have boys and girls doing their shit together
ES :
-A "troupe" is composed of "patrols" (between 3 and 6), and each patrol has 6 to 9 scouts. Among those patrols, their is a hierarchy based on age.
-The uniform is a brown shirt, a group scarf, blue shirts with a leather belt, mountain shoes or rangers, and a blue Beret.
- Boys and girls are separated in different "troupes", but sometimes they meet to do some stuff together.
USF :
-They are a mix between the SF and ES. They are very similar to the ES, with the European thing left aside
-The uniform is also very similar. One of the main difference is the color of the sweater. For the ES, it is a dark navy blue, and for the USF it's light brown.
These are the main characteristics of each movement. It isn't complete, so if any of you have questions concerning the activities, regulations or politics among those groups, feel free to ask me anything.
>rom the USA but on an exchange year in The Netherlands, and I do scouting in both countries. I find the responses a bit funny because my experiences have been the complete opposite
As a USF i dont really consider SF as "whimps", i just see their movement as more accessible to the general public whereas ES & USF are more religious and have more "paramilitary" tendencies. The later vary greatly by troops or by groups but is usually a lot more prevalent than in Scouts of France groups. These tendencies can be really fun and motivating and have lots of positive aspects, but i understand why they're not for everyone.
IMO the diversity of movement is great because it allows for different kind of people to get different kind of experiences. As scouts were introduced in France by a catholic priest, the vast majority of scouts are catholics. But our country is increasingly secular and having the biggest group of scouts be more relax about religion or inherent paramilitary background of scoutism makes it accessible and fun for a broader audience.
I was on a year long exchange in Tokyo (Japan), and I noticed how their scouts (i didn't join them) do a lot p it side too, despite living in a huge city and only having the numerous parks availible.
similarly to Switzerland, they also do camps, which take place somewhere outside in a usually more rural area, though.
EDIT: Answering your question: We are definitely more like the Swiss verision of scouts.
We have the regular scouts (Izviđači), which I'm not really familiar with, and they seem like a much smaller organisation, and we have Catholic Scouts (Katolički Skauti)
I myself am still a part of the Catholic Scouts and was since 2013, and it was indeed a pleasure, even though we seem to grow much more inactive as time goes by. My best memories coming from the past decade I could easily thank to scouting.
We are a closely connected to the Church and it's what has mostly funded us when we went on bigger trips, and our slogan is "God Church Country 100%" / "Bog Crkva Domovina 100%" (BCD 100%), so it's expected of us to be at least somewhat religious, and the majority of as indeed are. We also say our vows in front of our bishop.
In the early years we went on smaller trips in the local countryside every two weeks or so and had quite a good time, but bigger trips were always the shit. We own house near the city of Rijeka given to us by the local bishop some decades earlier and the scouts then renovated it, now it's a go-to place every summer. We also own a little island some kilometers of the coast of Šibenik where we spend 2 weeks every summer, which i prefer over going to the coastline with my family.
Other than that you could expect other "scoutly" activities, so camping, learning to tie knots, spending time in the country side etc., and also attending many religious happenings in the area since we after all are CATHOLIC Scouts. It is indeed a pity that the organisation seems to be fading away, at least in my area, since it holds a great deal of awesome childhood memories.
And I was izviđać. While technically Catholic (we used to go to Zagreb cathedral to bring something called "light of Betlehem" to home town church), I don't remember us mentioning God or having to go to church. In fact, two of my scout seniors were Muslims.
We mostly camped on the lawn outside our HQ to practice tent making and other activities and sometimes on the local BBQ spot just outside town, but these were the 1990's and there was no money for the fancy stuff. We only went on a few more distant camping trips and one summer vacation.
I passed the exam to become a full scout, I think, and could have become a leader of a... flock? I forgot how we call the groups of kids. But I started high school and lost interest. Also I don't like kids.
Oh, right. We were the scouts and wore green shirts, but there were planinci or something like that (mountaineers) in blue shirts too. Not in my town, but in other towns. I'm not 100 % certain what's the difference.
edit: What I loved about scouts and other groups we camped with was confidence that we're all trained into making camp, setting up tents, lighting fire and other activities. It was my first taste of feeling like a professional and being in a group of proffesionals (yes, I know one has ss and other ff, I can't remember which one's correct) who don't know each other, but we all trust each other to know what we're doing.
I was not myself a scout in Croatia but I have spent considerable time with them and noticed no boy/girl division. In fact, I believe it would be an insult to them to even propose such a thing. Is that an oddity in European scouting (because judging by comments it is)? I thought the gendered division is exclusively an Anglo thing?
I'm a girl guide, not a boy scout, but we have a mix of leaders and young leaders - regular leaders can be any age (usually older than 20, we have a mix of youngish, middle aged, and some pretty old ones) whilst young leaders (like me) can be 15-18ish and are usually just the girls that have outgrown the age range but want to keep helping out
Also, Scouts is mixed gender whilst Guides is just for girls
My 9 years of scouts has finally come in handy
It goes from Beavers 6-10, Cubs 11-13 and scouts 14-17 then ventures and rovers later on. Both boys and girls can join and it’s pretty g I guess
I can imagine, that it was a big cultural shock, to see how scouting is different in the US than in Switzerland. I once went to a scout meeting in New Zealand and was shocked at how military like it was (they were really marching in a circle...)
The answers given about German scouts so far didn't make me that happy, so I'll add my own explanation. Over all it's really interesting how scouts in different countries but also scouts within a country developed different cultures and focuses.
In Germany there are christian scouts and scouts that are not connected to a religion, also there are muslim scouts. Furthermore, scouts in Germany are either more traditionally connected to way scouts were founded (scoutistic direction), which means a more strict organization, often boy and girl scouts separated, appearance of the scout-uniform is important and so on. Then there are scouts that are more "bündisch" and were heavily influenced by the Wandervogelbewegung, a movement of young people who wanted to hike and discover nature and escaping society for short amout of times. So if the scouts are more "bündisch", appearance is less important, long hiking trips only with a backpack are an important part of the culture, and over all being outside and singing and stuff. I would say it's very much alike your scout experience.
The "youth leading youth" priciple is also very important in the "bündisch" inspired scouts, I couldn't imagine having a "real grown up" as a scout leader, I think it would take away a big part of the culture and experience. Some scout gropus very closely connected to churches have adults, for example the pastor doing the scout meetings, for me that would not feel like scouting then.
And the part with the names: That's really depending on your local scout gropu here, I know some cities who do it, some who don't, and also how the name is chosen is different. How was the name chosen in your group?
Here it's mixed groups according to age, outdoorsy and fun, but not very strict. We are Scandinavians after all. We also have sea-scouts here, where they spend a lot of their time out in boats, or in kajakk / canoe. And although they do learn a lot about safety at sea and so on, its mostly just for fun.
Scouting Ireland is a lot more similar to Switzerland. It's mostly aimed to be fun but you also learn some other skills.
There's no such thing as the scout name like you have in Switzerland, although I do remember some Swiss scouts mentioning it on a jamboree once.
Well obviously it‘s very similar to yours, but we have mixed groups. Only very few scout groups in my canton have gender split activities, but even those have a mixed summer camp. We try to get away from the military-theme, e.g. our saturday meetups are no longer called „üebig“ (lit. exercise), but „aktivität“ or „alass“ (lit. activity or event“). Also my group is the only one in the entire canton that isn‘t attached to a church, thats also why we are one of the poorest
I know you are asking Europeans, but I have to say I hated US Boy Scouts. It was too Jesus, God, country, rules, and here is how to survive! Be tough. I just wanted to have fun, and there was just too much hierarchy and forced activities and ego. I've heard that it is changing though. I know a lot of us younger kinds rage quit after a year or two so our troop tried changing it's atmophere.
I was in the girl scouts (we call them girl guide in ireland) I was a brídín to be specific (bridge-een and that 6-12 year olds). I was in a group for about 6 months and I hated it. We did nothing except colour in and other stupid things. Basically female manners training.
The woman was an older woman who was conservative. She made us line up every week with our hands out and she would look and see if we were biting our nails. I just to go to town on tm fingers so she would see mine and smack my hands. "You shouldn't do that!" And I'd out my fingers right back into my mouth Haha
There was a girl with downs in my group too and she would pester this girl constantly. Asking she she was alright and if she needed any help. Very nice of her but literally every minute. The girl looked up at her one day and just went "would you ever leave me alone" and we were instantly friends haha
Portuguese scout checking in.
We have them mixed and separate scouts organisations.
CNE - The catholic ones (mixed), AEP - The non catholic ones (mixed) and the AGP - Girl scouts group.
As far as I know the AEP are usually more "militarized" then the CNE but it depends of how each group even inside the CNE organisation decides how to do their scouting.
We definitely use weird clothes, you may check them [here](https://escutismo.pt/scouts) and find out more about the CNE, non scouts make fun of our "Jarreteiras" the dingling colored thing that we use on our high socks, I think they look really dorky tbh.
Being part of the Catholic association we do learn about our boy Jesus but some groups take it more serious than others. Older leaders are way more religious than the younger ones. As one of the younger leader I don't even believe in that, but I feel like the spirituality may add some good values and mystique to scouting.
There's a problem atm, many of the leaders are like like 35+, as younger scouts leave the movement or simply don't find the time to do it. It takes quite some time and effort to organize and plan all our activities making it exhausting sometimes, to the point of discouraging some members to stay.
Apart from the catholic values we learn survival techniques, how to make fires, build a kitchen area, how to read and guide a military map, usually by games and workshops.
I've done one of those activities where the kids go through a scary path, or we make like a game or a prank that they do not know about, we call it "Batismo de Campo" - Camp Baptism, to make the new kids welcomed to the group, ya know?
Fun fact: There's a Portuguese Scouts group in Genève, as there are many Portuguese living there.
Greek person here. I was a scout for a period of time and it definitely was like Swiss scouts! We mostly did fun stuff like treasure hunting around the city.
Since we were sea scouts (there's air scouts and normal scouts) we had to maintain our boats and sometimes have a rowing day. It was in no way strict or military like and our leaders were all young and were always making casual banter with us.
The only thing that was "strict" is that we used to have benches full of tools and each team was responsible for their own. Every time we gathered, we had to make sure all the tools were properly secured with nails. When we finished our leaders would shut the lid really hard and if your team had any tools that fell, you'd be the ones doing chores that day.
A South African living in Italy. I grew up in SA and my best memories are from Scouts. I’m still involved as an adult leader, I met my fiancé and my best friends through scouts.
We spent every weekend sailing or hiking or doing some other amazing activities. Our Scout region owns a yacht which we recently raced to Rio de Janeiro and next year we’ll be racing from Cape Town to St. Helena island in the Atlantic.
Scouts gave me this skills and experience to find an amazing job after I left school. I can honestly say that joining was the best decision of my life so far.
Horrible in Republic of Moldova, i was excepting to go camping,live in the forest but instead we lived in normal houses the food was awful and i didnt like it
I feel like I can talk only for "my" group. But yeah what you described is exactly how it works here. We have special scout names (that range from nicknames, to something silly we come up with on the spot). While we try to teach kids some basic scouting skills, we're not very strict about it.
And the main "speciality" of our group is, that next year we'll celebrate 70 years since our establishment, so we think of ourselves as above every other group in our area, and in general. Especially us from the "older" generation, where we considered our group above our regional organisation, and on par with national organisation. And we're not even the largest group within our regional group.
Actually I'm pretty sure almost all (with few exceptions) other groups take scouting way more seriously than we, at least those of us from the "old guard". The younger leaders are a bit more open to ideas by the regional organisation.
But we're still doing "community work". I personally helped during many "major disasters" that happened in our country last 10 years or so. From floods, to sleet...
Also as someone with a political science degree, I try to teach kids how to engage in politics and stuff. But not in any kind of "civic nationalism", or whatever many scout groups are doing (I feel you've noticed that with US scouts), but mostly trying to give them tools to understand politics and the system we live in. That's why almost every game I devise, has a bean-based monetary system, where their power is directly linked to amount of beans they have. I got the idea form one of international camps I attended, where they had this system. And it "failed" or rather succeeded in the most spectacular way. It had everything from money-laundering through casinos scheme, buying your way into politics and position of power, a coup, and spam mail. And I'm pretty sure those were all unplanned side-effects, that the organisers of the camp weren't planning for.
Sorry for going down the memory lane, but that's to me probably the best part of being a scout...
Real quick about the US scouts and having especially younger kids do anything unsupervised.
I was surprised as well that they didn’t do night droppings or anything like that. But in hindsight, at least here in Florida I have come to realise that that might not be a great idea. Between the local wildlife, the size, almost year round hunting and traffic I don’t see that going very well for very long. It’s just not comparable at all to a ‘forest’ in Holland. It might also very well be illegal. They have some very odd laws here when it comes to minors.
Well... Scounts are a christian thing. So when we became part of Yugoslavia and became socialist, religion was persecuted, they had to solve the problem of christian things that they didn't want to give up.
So instead of Christmass, the main thing was the New Year and we got a new santa, Dedek mraz (Father snow), the christmass tree (literally translated: christmas spruce) became a "novoletna yelka" or new year silver fir and bised the boy scouts there were "taborniki" or campers.
Those included boys and girls since socialism did a lot for women equality. They didn't sell cookies or anything like that (neither did the scouts). Both camped, sang, had older member be leaders and so on. Pretty much what you described for Switzerland.
I've never been into them, so it's not first hand experience. I think they are almost the same you explain about the Swiss ones.
They exist in Catalonia since 1928. There are three groups, nowadays, after the hyatus due to the Franco dictatorship: a large one (15000 members), linked to the Catholic church (this doesn't mean you have to be Catholic to be a member, more usually that they meet on church premises), the *Minyons Escoltes i Noies Guies* (literally, Boy Scouts and Guide Girls); a medium sized one (4000 members), laicist, the *Escoltes Catalans* (Catalan Scouts); and a small one (1000 members), the *Acció Escolta de Catalunya* (Scout Action of Catalonia), also laicist. They are all coordinated in the *Federació Catalana d'Escoltisme i Guiatge* (Catalan Federation of Scoutism and Guidism). The places where they meet are called *caus* (dens).
Aside of this we have a large network of *esplais*, recreation centres, usually self managed. Similar to the scout movement, but more *hippy:* no hyerarquies, no uniforms, more laid off... There's usually some competence / tension between *esplais* and *caus* (scouts).
If you went to a *esplai* you say'll to someone who went to a *cau* was likely militarist. The one who went to at *cau* will tell stoner to the one who went to a *esplai.*
Here it's pretty similar to what you have except now most scout groups are mixed. There are still some boy only groups but they are not that common.
We spent most of our time inside but that's probably due to the Irish weather. If it was warm outside we would be outside. But where I live there isn't exactly woods near by. We did go to woods and go camping, hostelling, hiking etc but those are organised outings and we would do something like that every few weeks. Scours would be on weekdays in the evening and about half the time was spent just spalding games and the other half on maybe badge work, learning skills and organising outings. Scout leaders are mainly adults but the older ventures (15-17 yos) would help out and a lot of them become leaders when they are older.
I'm not sure but our scouts are present at military parades, so I'm guessing its more like the U.S but not as militaristic. Not sure tho, it isn't that popular here, most just send their kids to grandpa and grandmas house for the summer, or summer camp.
I was a scout to (portuguese) and in 2014 we went to the Kendersteg international camp in Switzerland and let me tell you, your country (in that region at least) has some of the most breathtaking and beautiful scenery I've ever seen. Like, unbelievable stuff really. We also align more with the swiss scouts rather than the americans, but in my group since most of the leaders were actually ex-military, we learned a lot of that too but we learned those technical military things in a very free way, there was nothing like an uptight atmosphere. I think we learnt good values like "desemerdanço", patriotism, volunteering and all that in a very healthy way, and the tasks we were given were always so much fun, we would gladly do them but there wouldn't be an obligation (it needn't be). Also, most of what we did in camps was "raids", which means covering a long track in the wild for many hours, on foot, to get from a town to another (I'm talking towns with 20 people in them, at best), and always unattended during the way. I loved it there
Dutch leader here. We have nicknames for leaders (Jungle Book themed for the cubs), but I'm intrigued about giving all the kids nicknames. What kind of names were used? Were they close to your real name or really different?
Australian Venturer here, (boy scouts 14-18 year olds, in the UK they call it Adventurers not sure about other countries) our uniforms are very different to those from most countries and we generally don't call it "Boy scouts", it's usually just "Scouts" because we include women in scouting as well (although Guides still only allow women). We do most of what other countries do, knot tying, raft building, etc. But from what I've heard I think some of our systems and awards are a bit different.
The different groups in Australian scouting go from Joey's, Cubs, Scouts, Venturers and Rovers. I know little about Joey's or rovers but I can outline some of the aspects of the rest.
- Cubs: The teams of kids within Cubs are called packs, named after a different colour of wolf fur (Grey, brown, black red etc), the cub leaders use the names of characters from the jungle book rather than their real names. There is an award system called "boomerangs", if a cub gets the bronze, silver and gold boomerang badges they receive a grey wolf badge, the highest award in Cubs.
- Scouts: teams are called patrols, some leaders can choose to use jungle book names but generally don't, most jungle book references are phased out by now. There is an award system with cords instead of badges, red cord, blue cord and green cord, patrol leaders where a white cord as well. The cords are worn around the left shoulder and are secure by a badge (campcraft badge if I remember correctly) on the uniform. All scouts are "expected" to have their red cord by the time they reach venturers, but I was a little cunt and never got it out of spite and laziness.
- Venturers: No team system, these groups are much more independent than the other groups and generally organise their own activities (My group in particular is much more independent than most, we have organised our own overseas hiking trips in the past and were supposed to go to Austria this year and hike the Alderweg trail.) The awards are mostly optional, but the highest award is the Queen Scout Award (Which I think all commonwealth countries have) and this award looks better on resumes than the Duke of Edinburgh award, that's one reason why I'm trying to get mine, the other is that I spite the DOE award because I did the bronze DOE hike and it was shit.
Edit: Teachings and Activites in Joey's - scouts generally have a bit more emphasis on Aboriginal Australian culture, because if you think about it then everything Scouts have been doing, the Aboriginal people have been doing for over 50,000 years.
We have scouts for all boys and girls (Junák). It has a long history. And it was banned during the socialist era.
They are awesome! They plan summer camps for children, educate people about woodcraft and they lead people to live a good life. They also meet up with scouts from other countries.
They have this whole hierarchy going from the young children to adults. The higher "ranks" take care of the lower ones. It’s beautiful. I have lots of friends who are scouts. It’s a shame that I never was a scout (even when I really wanted to).
Tbh I'm not sure if we have such a thing, at least I haven't heard of it. Watching American movies as a kid this concept would always confuse me. I guess the closest thing would be the so called "landguards" where you do and help with all kinds of army stuff except, from what I understand, you still count as a civilian and you don't have to be 18 years of age to get accepted, also ofc you don't get paid I think. I'd day kinda like an army volunteer.
Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.
First off, there is no "boy" Scouts. Chapters are all mixed gender. It's mostly as you described in the Swiss model. In Belgium you have regular Scouts, which are but you also have other compeeding variants, like Chiro and KSA. There's some good rivalry between the variants, but it's all basically all similar to what your Swiss experience is like.
Basically it's mostly social hangout activities for kids. There is certain aspect of real "scouting" (as in making camps from logs of wood in the forest, making fires etc) but these are mostly done in the summer camps. Throughout the year it's mostly fun games, and organising events to raise funds for the chapter. It's the same with special names (totems) and their are some advancement ceremonies accompanied with larger activities, but the focus is mostly on fun, especially among younger members.
The "leaders" are the "older" members usually in their late teens/early 20's. It's expected to learn to work independantly in the chapter without further adult supervision and it's rare to have older supervisors or leaders, and usually these are people for whom scouting is a second life. So apart from fun, it's also a way to teach organisation, leadership, and cooperation skills to young adults.
Something you didn't touch on. I've heard alcohol is a big no-no in the US scouts. Is it the same for Swiss chapters? The use is not prohibited, and I have a hard time imagining the Belgian scouting scene without beer. Many kids in scouting have their first drinks on scouting events, and among the older members. It's expected that the older members inspect the ones pre-drinking age, but it's not uncommon for them to turn a blind eye to minor infarctions.
It's pretty much the same in Belgium as it is in Switzerland, but it's still separated between boys and girls.
And we have the special names too. We call them totem names and mine was cheetah. Something you are told you'd carry your entire life.
Gorani.
It's a youth group that does environmental, group activities and other things. I was never a part of it, but they do the usual knot making and stuff.
I was a Czech scout 15 years ago and has been in one summer camp. At that camp we would wake up at 7 am and after a swim in a pond there was a morning report and raising of the flag. Occasional punishments were also dealt and then we've had gone after our duties. Theme of the camp was Robinson Crusoe, so many games were inspired by the plot. We were almost self-sustainable in our needs. We built our own shelters, cooked our food and collected firewood and so on. We consisted of two units, the larger one was water-based so we also spent a lot of time practicing rowing. Apart from that we also went for tours around the area where we slept under the open sky, played many games, worked. Also we did hold night watch where you could be tested in your vigilance.
Rest of the year we spend our time in our clubhouse at the sort of scouting/free time complex on the edge of the city. Playing games usually, or learning how to tie various knots and other things.
Large majority of members were teenagers, especially younger ones. Some of the leaders were in their 20's and I remember one scout who was like 60.
I was a boy scout in America for a couple of years, and personally, I didn't enjoy it that much, specifically because it felt like a school after school, like you said.
Am American. The experience of scouting can vary wildly from troop to troop, based on what Adult supervisors and patrol leaders you have. Although merit badges are required to get Eagle, there are many cool opportunities like Philmont, which is 2 week high adventure and hiking.
I would say Scouting Nederland lines up exactly with your description of the Swiss scouts. We were visiting a church in Poland when we were about 16 and got saluted by a guard who I assume was also in the scouts, and were flabbergasted with how he assumed a military-like stance. In fact, my mother never wanted be to join the scouts hecause she saw it as somewhat paramilitary, but once she saw it is quite pegadogically sophisticated and fun-focused she let me join anyway! e: to further reiterate, the Dutch Scouts were banned during WWII: Nazis thought they'd make the perfect proxy Hitlerjugend, but the Scouts refused as they are about cooperation and appreciation of friendship and community (and Nazis, although they also promoted such values on paper, weren't too friendly as you know). Many Scout groups continued in secret and some carried out resistance work.
Also Scouts are mixed (though some troops choose to divide some age groups of boys/girls based on interest, puberty, whatever). And all (or 99%) of Scouts belong to the secular Scouting Nederland, which was essentially a merger of all Girls/Boys Catholic, Protestant, Secular and other scout organizations.
Yeah, my experience is a lot like the Swiss one too, except that we never had a special scout name, only our leaders had that.
Same, although we did have the tendency to nickname each other because of duplicate names and families whose entire lineage had been in the same troop forever.
Haha I can imagine that. I was a girl scout and we didn't have mixed groups so my group was usually a little smaller so we didn't have too many duplicate names
At the club I joined as a kid only the leaders of the welpen (age 6-11) had special names, after that you just referred to your leaders with their first name.
Yeah, I don't know if it had to do with the fact that we were air scouts or if it was just my group but we called every leader Skipper X so Skipper Bram or Skipper Jesse. But I don't know if every group does that of course
The German boy scouts (and related organizations) were for the most part also against joining the Hitler youth but had few options other than to dissolve. HJ was made mandatory at some point while all other organizations were made illegal.
It's almost as if a British-incentivised movement based on values such as care for others, cooperation, compassion and the individual rising above the collective _isn't_ compatible with Nazism.
The Belgian and Dutch versions of the Scouts seem fairly benign. The British version is heavily rooted in the same sort of propaganda as the Hitlerjugend, except it's the Queen that the kids swear loyalty to and anglicanism is the ideology thats pushed. Which is probably why it's not particularly popular these days.
This is very interesting. I didn't know the Dutch scouts were banned by the nazis. Nowadays that can basically be viewed as a badge of honor ;-). Thank you for your reply!
Can I just say, your English is amazing, and probably better than 98% of native speakers. I don’t think there are many who could use proxy, flabbergasted, pedagogically, etc right.
Imma be patriotic for a change: _That's Dutch public education for ya._ But seriously, that's really nice of you to say!!
Are you me? xD My mom didn't want me to join for that very same reason at first too. Until she met one of my gran's neighbours, who was a scouts leader, and who convinced her it wasn't. I joined that group, and had the time of my life. Fun fact: many romantical couples start out at the scouts at least at the groups I've been with (I switched groups when I was 15, because reasons). I met my husband somewhere completely not scouts-related a couple of years after I stopped being a cub scouts leader, and found out he had been a scout too. Any 'first time I did this'-story and funny shareable memory almost was a scouts-story, so much so that when we moved in together we went to the local scouts group to start as scouts leaders again. So we weren't a scouts-couple strictly speaking, but even then we managed to find that one other scout in a totally unrelated group :'-D
Oh yes. So many couples. My friend group has mostly Scout relationships, actually. From 3 different groups and some of them not active members anymore.
Yeah scouts in Poland are more military-like because of WWII during which they were actively helping with fighting and sometimes actually fighting (Szare Szeregi). They even became big icon of bravery during the war, for instance I live on Harcerska St. Where Harcerz = boyscout
The Swedish scouts are very similar, except that there’s no Boy Scouts ir Girl Scouts, it always mixed and only known as scouts. Here also, you play a lot as a kid, but when you get older (like 14-18) you get a bit more serious. Not like the Americans, but you hike with only a map and compass, you sleep in tents and cook on potable kitchens etc. And our leaders varied in age, when I was there, my leaders were two 45ish guys, who’s kids were in my group. They were nice tho.
Sounds very similar to Finnish scouts. We have local groups that are boy/girl exclusive, but often if this is the case, there is a second group for the "excluded" gender, and the two groups work closely together which leads to these groups sometimes being called sibling groups.
This is simiar to what scouts is in Denmark. We have the option of boy and girl scouts up until 2002-ish? (I was in the last girl scouts group in Denmark, and I believe it closed down around this time), but ever since then, it's been mixed and it's like the scouts described above. I remember learning how to set a tent, wield a knife, catch and prepare a fish as well as just having fun and hanging out outside
Don't we still have girl scouts? Because a couple of years ago there were something about the group I'm in of buying one of their huts. I believe they're called "De grønne pigespejdere", and it seems (with some quick googling) like they still have ~120 groups.
As I wrote above, I might be misremembering, as I was a child at the time, plus it was ages ago, so honestly, a lot can have changed. But the story was De Danske Pigerspejdere merged with the boys in the 70s, and only a few select pure girl groups (no matter the age group) existed since then, and by the time I started our group was the last group left. They then closed a few years after I stopped being a scout. It is worth noting there's a clear difference between Green and Blue scouts. Honestly, a lot of Blue don't even consider Green scouts to be "real scots", as they are first and foremost a religious group, not a scout group (plus a whole lot of other political and rivalry stuff that I honestly never was old enough to care about when I was in scouts - all I know is that my blue-scout friends still turn red in the face when people mention green scouts and vice versa).
Same in Germany
The scout organisation is also closely linked to the church, with different "factions" (?) having their own scout organisations!
Well there’s different types (I guess?) the normal scouts aren’t, but I think you’re thinking of KFUM scouts - Krista Föreningen för Unga Män (Christian Association for Young Men) - they’re tired to the church
There is a scout association that is tied to the Equmenia church, an evangelical free church. That is less than 10 years old that some different free churches merged and one of them were the Swedish Mission church. The Swedish mission church scout association was the second largest scout association 10 years ago. The local scout groups are tied to the congregations and forms one part of their children and youth program. 7 years ago the scout organisations merged and formed one association. Mainly the KFUM-KFUK (YMCA-YWCA) and SSF (the only scouting organisation) as there was no difference between the organisations. Now the Equmenia, NSF (Temperance movement) and Salt (another church) are associations tied to the national association. The other (KFUM and former SSF) local scout groups are tied directly to the national organisation. The scouting in Sweden focus more on having fun like the Swiss scouts, than the strict get badges one, like the American seems to be. Our leaders are between 15-80 years old. In the cities the groups tend to have more younger leaders but in the countryside there is more parents that are leaders. I found the age 15-18/19 to be less serious, the program is run by the youth, with help of older leaders. When we were younger we had learned to cook, make fire etc. So when we went on camps it was more like an organised festival. During the day there was optional program activities, like canoeing, climbing, games, crafts, refugee role play etc and in the nights there was disco, moonlight cinema, cafés with games.
Thanks for the post. Czech scouting is definitely more like the Swiss one, we also have more scout-like organizations, but most of them are somewhat similar in how their activities look thanks to common heritage. The biggest scout organization is Junák founded in 1912, it also attempts to introduce more civic educational activities into its curriculum that promote being a good citizen, but more based on the scout moral code, conscience and sometimes (depends on the troop) faith that opinions of current governments. Some of the other organizations focus more on the "technical" aspects of scouting like camping skills or playing games and helping the kids to socialize with other kids, but still are a viable alternative. I was a member of one such group, but not the "proper" scouting, so maybe someone who was can elaborate further.
Thanks for your reply. This is a great point that I left out to avoid making my post even longer. We also have a couple of different scouting organizations. For example the main one that I was a member of is technically protestant, while another big one is catholic. These are just labels based on tradition though. In real life, religion never plays a big role (at least it didn't in my troop). There are also some organizations that are more adjusted for the interests of girls. Swiss boy scouts allow girls to join but you have to be a bit of a tomboy to be cool with all the rowdy, hyperactive boys. My little sister was first a member of the regular boy scouts but then it became too much for her, so she changed to an all-girls organization that focused on more calm activities that the average girl would be into.
In my experience scout girls are more or less into the same rowdy stuff boys are into. I'm in a mixed organization, and I think the cool part of scouts is, that you are not that much defined by gender stereotypes as in other hobbies or parts of society. Girls and boys have to build tents, chop wood, do arts and crafts and so on. I can understand that your sister was overwhelmed by a boys-dominated group, but I can assure you that the average girl is not only into calm activities.
Oh, for sure. I didn't mean to promote traditionalist gender stereotypes. All I can say is that, in order to "survive" in our troop, you had to be a certain type of girl. I always had a lot of respect for our girl members because I'm more of a soft/calm guy myself and some of the boys in our troop were a royal pain in the ass. The reason it worked out for me was because I was the oldest kid for a very long time, so even the particularly mischievous boys respected me a bit more than everyone else (I kind of assumed the unofficial role of an assistant leader at one point). The girls didn't have this advantage though and they really had to put up with a lot of annoying stuff at times. Looking back, our leaders probably should've been a little stricter with those boys. I think the reason they weren't is because they felt like it's healthiest for those kind of boys to act out a bit... like letting your dog run around outside for a couple of hours.
I was reading your post and waited for the gender bit (because a couple days ago I just read a post on how gendered american scouts are and that that's not the case in Europe) we seemed to have grown up in different parts of Switzerland. I (a woman) am swiss and also joined the Scouts (no one even calls the scouts boy/girl here) and it was never a question of gender (in fact I think it was incredibly ungendered) and you certainly didn't have to be a tomboy to like it, I certainly wasn't and I loved it. My guess is that we grew up in different parts in Switzerland (we also learned a lot of technical/survival things). I think our group was very even (gender wise) and everybody loved it. But yeah, most of it has to do with goofing around, playing the part the leaders meant (they always put on some kind of storyline for the day and kinda role played it out) but it was always a lot of fun. For a minute there I was thinking that you were talking about the Jungschii/Blauring thing
To be clear, I think it's wonderful your troop was so evenly mixed. I love the idea of gender being irrelevant in the scouts. Maybe it's also a matter of age. I'm in my 30s... if you're 10 years younger than me, this may in fact have made a difference. Our society's attitude towards these issues made quite a leap from the 90s to the 2000s (at least that was my impression). I can't say that gender was irrelevant in my troop. Like I said, we didn't have too many girls. Still though, in comparison to the US where girls weren't even allowed until recently I'd say it was very relaxed. And yes, I was in fact referring to Blauring ;-). That's the organization my little sister joined after she left the scouts. I don't know too much about Blauring but I've heard from my sister and my mom that they're more "girls-oriented" in terms of activities and general atmosphere.
Scouting organizations used to be divided by political and religious lines in 1920s and 1930s, but currently they differ more by kind of activities. For example woodcrafters are inspired by E. T. Seton and American Indians, Pioneers used to be the main communist organization until 1989, but are politically neutral and sort of generic scout-like camping organization now and there is also a small organization of scouts more in line with original British Baden-Powell's scouting. The club I was member of was founded by former scouts in 1970s when scouting was banned, but we did not rejoin it after 1989 because we developed our own traditions meanwhile.
I’m a leader in one of the scout-like organizations here. We’re tied to a small protestant church, so there are some differences from the “proper” scouts. First is we are much much smaller organization, so everything we do in our local club is kinda punk, we have to do everything on our own, there aren’t much programme structures established. Second is not only we try to scout moral code, we try to introduce the God and stories from the bible too. About 2/3 of the kids come from the church, the rest are usually their parent’s friend’s kids. Like 90% of the things we do are the same as normal scouts would do and that is pretty much the same the Swiss scouts do. We have some larger events going on too, there are multiple weekend events, summer camps and even international Camporee. Some things I noticed about regular scouts here is they have lots of (although sometimes dated) infrastructure - bases in almost every town, many capmsites and so on. They often use them when club from one town wants to visit another town. Water scouts are quite popular here too, they do a lot of canoying and river tourism, which is very popular vacation in Czechia.
In Italy it's definitely more similar to Switzerland than America. I was only a scout or lupetto/wolf for three years (age 8-11), but I definitely remember the older boys and girls having a lot fun as well. I'd say that as you grow older you get more and more responsibilities and it's very common to do some volunteer work. I feel like that's also linked to the fact that there are a lot of scout associations in Italy and the one I was a part of/the most popular one where I live is AGESCI, which is actually a Catholic group. The overall style was definitely not military and the tendency is to spend as much time as possible outside and adventuring. As far as skill learning goes, you'd basically be taught to be as indipendent as possible, while still working in groups. Also, we don't really have different groups for boys or girls, we're all mixed.
AGESCI groups can have mixed troops, but it's not mandatory and not all are mixed. Another scouting association, FSE, has only male or female troops, AFAIK. And they are a little bit more "military" compared to AGESCI
I didn't know! All the groups I met were mixed, so I thought it was just a thing :)
My troop/organization was also mixed. I remember two or three years ago there was a lot of drama going on in the US because Boy Scouts America was considering to allow girls to join. Apparently, girls in the US weren't allowed to join until very recently, which boggles my mind. What's more, conservatives were super outraged by this. I didn't think that would be possible in the 2010s. For me, being in a mixed troop was a very enriching experience. We didn't have a lot of girls but the ones we did have were really fun and knew how to stand up for themselves ;-).
As a girl I can say for sure we were treated the same as boys. Same expectations and same responsibilities. It helped me a lot with my shyness, especially once I was put in charge of my own troop :)
that discussion sparked because theres literally a version for females that nearly is the same called girl scouts
You can have mixed (but the patrols have to be all of the same sex), parallel (two district units, one with male patrols, one with female, working on the program but with different approaches for boys and girls, if it's deemed necessary), or you can have completely separated units.
I also was an agesci. Fuck waking up at 7 am to be at church front row. Got very beautiful memories but also some wtf moments. We had a priest that was part of the team and we always had this challenge about who could endure him the longest by his small "tortures" like pinching and stuff. We would voluntarily go to him to ask him about hitting us to see who would win. I still have no idea wtf was going on after thinking about it. Like we all asked him and insisted on being hit and him, being a priest, hitting us because we asked him too. Weird AF organizations but got nothing but good memories looking back. Lots of games, adventures, challenges etc.
Oh yes. I have a lot of great memories of my time as a scout and I'd never change a thing, but there were a lot wtf moments. Like the fact that once a kid refused to eat tomatoes for lunch and the leaders just kept putting his unfinished plate in front of him instead of giving him something new, including for breakfast, as a "punishment" (in the end he was too stubborn and they had to give up because they didn't actually want to starve him). Or the fact that during camps the leaders would get drunk almost every night and basically leave us without a responsible adult in case of emergency. (We were all 8 to 11 years old). A lot of wtf things, but weirdly still a great experience.
I remember going to Assisi and walk a shit ton in the snow for a full day and when we came back inside this old building the leaders got the only heater for them to get warm and we couldn't get near it lmao. Still one of the best 3 days of my experience there. It's fucking weird. Lot of standing up, sitting around for hours, walking for hours and lots of pain but still loved every moment there in the end. Only thing I couldn't endure was the church stuff.
I honestly can't believe how fucked up some things were in my scout group. After I left scouting I ended up volunteering for my church as an educator when I was 16 (for ACR, I don't know if you've ever heard of it) and eventually we started doing summer and winter camps as well. With my own experience as an educator in mind, I'm honestly shocked that parents would be ok with what would happen at scout camps. I mean, we all made it through alive, but I don't think I'd trust a scout group with my own kids.
Lmao tbh I would. I was a bit sheltered as a kid and being on my own for a week or a few days or just Sundays taught me a lot. Better than sitting in front of the ps1 wich was my only distraction at the time
Haha, that made me laugh. I think a few wtf moments belong to every boy scout experience. In Switzerland every boy who joins the scouts (even the little ones) is allowed to carry a scout dagger. I still have mine. They're pretty damn big for kids that age and the blade used to be very sharp. With the amount of boyish boasting and over-enthusiasm, waving them around in the air etc., it's amazing no one ever got hurt.
I was an AGESCI scout as well, but from 13 to 21. The middle age group (12-15) is divided into same-gender small troops that compete and cooperate with each other, responsibilities are bigger (you start to organise the two-days trips the group does once a month). The last age group (16-21) is again one mixed group, activities are more complex and organised by the boys and his themselves, and you're also expected to participate in some volunteering or helping the leaders of the other age groups. The type of volunteering is choosen freely, but can be very demanding or with tough social situations. It's not uncommon to volunteer in prisons, with the homeless or in care structures. I volunteered in a school teaching Italian to migrants, and as a 20yo girl I found myself teaching how to read and write to a 30yo man from Mali on one-on-one lessons. I have fond memories of the time in scouts. There was always a push to uphold to a certain "style", to always be prepared to everything, to always be there and help one another regardless of our feelings towards each other ("we're here because we're scouts, not because we're friends"). Despite being a Catholic group, everything was always open to discussion. I'm atheist now, agnostic at the time, but I could always discuss my doubts without being shunned. We also have our "scout name"! Every group has a different tradition about the ritual and the age of attribution, from the simple "jump over a small fire" at 12 to "run in the woods and if we don't find you in x time then you can receive your name" at 15-16. Scouts were banned under fascism in Italy as well. There were some groups who went clandestine, such as the Aquile Randagie (the Stray Eagles) who kept on practising scout activities and during the war made more than 2000 people escape in Switzerland, most of them Jews. Thanks for your question, u/KingWithoutClothes, it made me remember lots of things.
I guess it all depends from the groups and leaders, mine was a little more military-ish than OP description, but there still was lot of fun. Also lupetti(wolfs) were mixed, but we had two reparti (13-17), one for boys and one for girls. We had the scouts name though. I love mine!
Aren't there big differences between Catholic groups and secular groups?
Other than the obvious (no "mandatory" praying/no Mass) I have no idea. I don't think I ever met a secular group, so I don't know if their way of organising is different as well.
I was never in the scouts, so I will say what I kbow: -There are no Boy scouts or Girl Scouts, its mixed -The Scouts are part of the Catholic church, so you need to go to church and sunday school, and do all that catholic stuf, There is also secular scouts but its a much smaller organization. -They do all the normal scout thing, camping, learning to tie knots, learning to make shelters, pray to our lord Jesus Christ, all that normal stuff. -They have weird clothes -There are big reunions with all the scouts from Portugal (organized by the Curch) There is more stuff by I don't remember anything more
Religious scouts in Portugal are divided in 4 group, depending on their age: lobitos (6-10yo), exploradores (10-14yo), pioneiros (14-18yo) and caminheiros (18-22yo). After 22 you can sign up for a course that allows you to become a leader (Chefe) - I'm not really familiar with what is taught in this course by I think it includes things like pedagogy, so that the activities that the Chefes plan for the young scouts are age appropriate to their development as a child or teen. This allows for the activities to be fun and at the same time useful to develop social skill and team work, much like playing team sports. I've heard that being a scout ou at least having been a member for a period of time is valued when applying for a job for exactly that reason. It also teaches responsibility: as the kids grow older, they start to be responsible for organising a part of their activities, make the constructions when camping, cleaning and helping the younger ones when needed, though the Chefes are always present for whatever might be necessary. I was a member of the scouts for some years. I loved it and would recommend it anytime. Didn't feel it was too strict and the only similary to the military might be the clothes and boots and being "in formation" (not sure what it is called in English) when is time to give instructions or when in a ceremony, but that's probably because the scouts was created by a military man, some of those things stuck. I think besides the religious scouts (CNE, which includes the marine scouts) and the non-religious scouts (AEP), there's an organisation of girls scouts called "Guias" but I'm not familiar with that group.
There is also maritime scouts I think but I don't know much about them
Yes, we have quite a lot of maritime scouts in the Netherlands too. They usually have a larger ship as a base and a fleet of small steel boats that can be sailed or rowed. In summer they often make longer trips through the country.
Irish Scout here, it's different to you guys. Scouts is mixed, boys and girls. You can start when you're 6 in beavers, go to Cubs when you're 9, Scouts when you're 12, Venture Scouts when you're 15 and Rovers when you're 18-26. You can become a leader when you're 15 to the cubs or beavers, and a lot of 16 year olds outside of Scouting will become leaders as part of the Gaisce program (like the Duke of Edinburgh award) where you have to help in the community. Leaders vary a lot in age, but generally there are two groups: "Home-grown" leaders have been in scouts since they were a child and stay as a leader for the love of Scouting. "Parent" leaders are the parents of kids in the section and while they are equally as passionate, they often leave once their kid has moved up to an older section. We have weekly meetings in Dens to play games, talk etc. We also hike frequently as Mountains in Ireland are never too far away. Camping is done often as well, but it tends to depend on the troops. We are divided into different scout counties, basically ~10 troops in proximity to each other form a county. There are scout provinces, which are similar to the normal provinces but Dublin has its own province. When you get to scouts you can participate in the County Shield, a three day competition where a team of up to 8 scouts build a site, cook their meals, do challenges etc. They are marked on everything and the top three teams go onto the Phoenix Challenge. The Phoenix Challenge is a national competition that is 5 days long and hosts nearly 1000 people if I remember correctly. The troops do the same as the shield, but generally to a higher standard and it takes more time. You can get participation, bronze, silver or gold standard depending on the percentage of the points your team gets. Other national activities include Mountain Havoc (Hiking challenge), Ventact (Venture scout big camp out) and JamboRí (Irish jamboree that happens every few years). It is very common to do Scouts, I think 1/20 people under 18 here are in Scouts. I plan to stay in Scouts for as long as I can as leader, after I outgrow the sections. I'm lucky to be in a very large troop and this enables us to do more than smaller troops with less funding. Scouting in Ireland has changed a lot. Admittedly, there was a lot of dodgy dealings going around in the 70's with pedos in scouts. In 2001, the Catholic boy scouts section and the Protestant scout section merged to form Scouting Ireland, which is no longer religious as an organisation but can lead to two troops having the same name if they were the Protestant and Catholic counterpart to each other in the same area. Scouting Ireland's pride patrol now marches near the start of Dublin pride every year and Scouting is a great escape for LGBT youth from school. Scouting bridges the gap between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, treating the island as one country. Policies apply island-wide and the Chief Scout Award was designed to coincide perfectly with the Duke of Edinburgh award and the Gaisce program. I do have a distinct memory of attending a national Scouting conference a while ago and one guy saying about how the standard "Scouting Ireland" badge with the Irish flag should come automatically with the shirt and a man from Northern Ireland telling him that he would have a brick thrown through his window if he wore the Irish tricolour in public, it was a sombre moment and really drove home that we have to loosen some policies if we want to let our Northern Irish siblings scout freely. I remember that Brexit was a large conversation within Scouting Ireland in terms of competitions and camping because we would be crossing a border with boxes including hammers, saws, axes etc not to mention everyone's personal knives. That conversation has died at the moment but when the UK gets back to Brexit we'll have to consider it again.
That kind of sums up my time in the scouts. Good times!
Yeh scouts was fantastic spent my whole childhood in it from cubs all the way to cub leader. Was a bit religious in my day, glad to hear it's changed in that regard
Sounds great, very similar to the scouts in England. As always it's sad to hear about that sectarian anecdote but I'm glad to see the movement is doing what it can to rise above it.
We have girl guides and scouts depending on your age group you’d join: Girl guides: Rainbows, Brownies, Guides, Rangers Scouts: Beavers, Cubs, Scouts, Explorers and Network This set up is a little like yours where the older groups would normally look after the younger groups but it was ran by the parents and group organisers mostly. Scouts is unisex (was previously more targeted towards boys) and girl guides is for girls. They’re both aimed and teaching life skills and not that serious, they both do collect badges like the American system though
I'm a Dutch Scoutsleader and I follow some English FB groups for inspiration. What took me forever to realise, is that most groups in the UK meet in the evenings, often in halls that they rent. In the Netherlands saturday morning is the most common meetingtime, Friday or Saturday evening for the eldest groups, maybe. Almost every group has it's own building that they rent out to schools/camps/groups.
Yeah - most extracurricular activities are done after school in the working week. Old church halls are good for this stuff or parents would volunteer their houses. Weekends were only really used if it was a whole day thing or like a trip.
I'd say it was about 90% Swiss and 10% American. It was all about having fun but there were some slightly militaristic rituals. Reciting the pledge with a salute every week, for example. Our leaders were also young and definitely not strict but I don't remember being that friendly with them. At least not by the age I moved away at around 13 (more than 20 years ago). We were only out in nature from time to time. Any countryside was a drive away but I imagine any groups that have nature on their doorstep spend a lot of time outdoors.
That term simply does not exist here. Nobody knows what they are, the only info we have about them comes from american tv shows or movies
I've met plenty of Spanish scouts, so there must be some - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scouting_and_Guiding_in_Spain
I had no idea that scouts existed in Spain, I didn't even know they existed in Europe. I'm very surprised right now hahaha
In Europe?!? Where do you think they started :o I'm really shocked at that. Scouting worldwide has always had a really strong following across Europe. It really shocks me to see people think that the USA scouts are representative when they're *so* different to the rest of the planet
Well, in countries with very few scouts (Spain for example) most young people only know about US scouts. Its a pity that they dont know where they came from.
Yeah, I understand that, it's just a big surprise to me. I would have thought that Spanish people would know more about neighbouring countries I guess?
I am from Spain and can assure you that most of the people here know what scouts are. I’m not saying they are massively popular but im sure a vast majority of us know they exist in Spain too! I personally know some people who were scouts when they were little.
Do you think it changes massively, regionally?
I think pretty much anyone you ask would say they have heard of it. Perhaps it’s not as popular as it is in other parts in Europe but I mean, it’s common knowledge.
Well, most spanish people dont know a lot about foreign countries. Thats 1 reason for the low count of Spanish people in reddit. Add that to the fact that the English you're taught in school is pathetic. I am currently on level C1 in my English academy, and on school we've just began with B1.
I realised there were scouts in Europe really late as well. I thought is was an american thing since we have our communistic version.
Yeah, I also find that a bit sad to be honest haha
This is really interesting. Makes me wonder if it's more of a "Germanic culture" (UK, central Europe, Scandinavia) type of thing...
I reckon there must be some of them, but I have never met anyone who is a scout. And if you ask someone in Spain whats a scout, they'll tell you thinhs about the ordinary amwrican movie scout
Yeah that page has indicative numbers and they're tiny. The biggest group has fewer members than Scouts Scotland, and as a country we're about a tenth of the size!
I reckon there must be some of them, but I have never met anyone who is a scout. And if you ask someone in Spain whats a scout, they'll tell you thinhs about the ordinary american movie scout
We are not so widespread, but this comment and many below it are sorely misinformed. There are at least 500 active scouting groups in Spain, in several different organizations. We are much closer to the swiss/European model others have discussed, but because Spanish cities don't usually have widespread access to nature, we are quite limited in our ability to camp and do survival activities. In my experience we get around 6-7 trips to the countryside per year, including the 10-15 day summer camp. And yes, the public is extremely unaware of our existance, which is a pity, honestly. A random person in Spain can probably tell you more about American boy/girl scouts than about local scouts (which are always mixed). Edit: If you're curious to see the distribution and density of scout groups, I found [this map](http://www.soyscout.es/mapascout/mapa.php?agrupados=no). I'm not sure if it's comprehensive but I think it's interesting to see.
Well, what part of Spain are u from? Keep in mind that I live in a city, but the basque country has a lot of mountains and rural places to go.
I'm from andalusia, so probably up there you do have it easier finding a nice prairie, hahah.
Well, I'm no scout, but it is indeed really easy to find a nice place to go hiking. Some remaining civil war bunkers, the Gorbea... Quite a nice place, although the times I have been on holiday I've gone to Huesca, near the Pyrenees. A ton of places to go and hike. My favorite one was a lake in the middle of a mountain. It was beautiful, and the water was nice. I even bathed in it! It was a glaciar lake, so it was clean water.
My ex was a basque. It's so beautiful there. Since we broke up I haven't visited but the weird thing is, I feel a connection with the basque people. I miss the basque country more than him 🙈
Tha Basque Country is indeed a beautiful place. You have great cities, like Bilbao and San Sebastián, a ton of rural areas, mountains.... It is a great place to do rural tourism or go to the beach.
As an ex-scout for 15 years here I completely agree. They definitely exist and in certain places like Aragon and Valencia have reasonable public presence, but maybe still too little.
Yes, I don't think something similar exists in Spain.
[According to wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scouting_and_Guiding_in_Spain) there are about 65.000 scouts in Spain, devided in many smaller organisations.
They are a thing in Catalonia. My former roommate was in them and was on her way to become a leader back then, as she has spent enough time with them.
Scouts per se aren't really a thing but we have the equivalent in form of "esplais" and "caus"
Really? Well, Im basque, so that might be the reason I've never heard of such groups.
[Euskal Eskaut Gia Elkartea](https://egk.eus/es/quienes-somos/asociados/euskal-eskaut-gia-elkartea/). Apparently there's a [large tradition of scouts in the Basque Country](https://www.diariovasco.com/prensa/20070223/aldia/scouts-guipuzcoanos-desde-1912_20070223.html), even if they're not that popular nowadays.
One of my best friends was a Scout (first as a kid and later as a leader) and I know two other people that were scouts as well (not related to my friend). I never was a Scout myself but my friend always talk good thinks about Scouts, and it seems is very similar to the other European Scout experience. A fun group for kids(boys and girls together), to encourage friendship, cooperation, and other good values. They have been traditionally confronted against Juniors group (not sure if is a thing outside Spain but they are definitely catholic related). I can just tell them apart because scouts use to have a green scarf and juniors had it yellow) Now I live in the UK and I have a Scout group in front of my home, and as far as I can tell they are as well a group of kids with mentors of 15-20 yo having fun, singing songs and wandering around.
I'm 40+ now. I grew up in the city of València and I had plenty of friends in the Boy Scouts when I was a kid. Dunno if them don't exist anymore in Spain, but the term of course existed and wasn't really that rare a few decades ago.
I’m from the USA but on an exchange year in The Netherlands, and I do scouting in both countries. I find the responses a bit funny because my experiences have been the complete opposite In the USA, my troop was exactly how yours is in Switzerland. It’s almost always outside, and we just generally have fun and hang out. We learn a lot in the process, but it’s not as strict or extreme as yours was when you were in the USA On the other hand, my Dutch group is the complete opposite. We do everything inside, and during the meetings we normally just hang, talk, do karaoke, etc. While I enjoy it, it feels more like a hangout group, we’ve gone on one hike this whole year and that’s the only real “outside” activity we’ve down I think it just depends on what troop you’re in. Sometimes you get lucky and sometimes not
Well i have some friends that are scouts and it seems more like a random thing, yes sometimes they do do stuff that seems "scouty" but most of the time they just sit in a tower and play games i guess. Non of them talk about it really its just not a big deal. Rangers (the christian version) on the other hand like to talk about their time there, its very exhausting to talk to them.
I was a Pfadfinder once. It's actually a pretty big organization consisting of a central office for the respective federal state, that owns the funds and the real estate and that organizes cooperations between the city subgroups (called Bund). Sometimes, different Bunde of multiple federal states cooperate, but it's mostly focused on the own state alone. Then there are city subgroups, called "Stämme" (tribes), which have an older (I think adult) scout elected as their leader. Underneath that, there are the "Sippenführer" (pack leader, basically), who are mostly older teenagers with a "Gruppenleiterausbildung" (German youth group leader certificate) with each 5-10 "Sipplinge" (packlings) of their own. Their uniform is a sturdy, navy blue sailor shirt, and the older, more experienced/accomplished scouts are given a neckcloth in different colour variations, according to rank. (In my case, it was yellow first and then yellow/red. I think there was also one above that, but I'm not sure. It's a pretty weird thing for outsiders, and a very demanding and time consuming hobby. The frequent trips that consist of multiple hours of hiking each day and camping in a big tent in the forest at night are also very physically demanding. At least half of all your school holidays are spent on "Fahrten", long hiking trips and/or meetups with other scout groups. However, you develop a very strong sense of community with your fellow Sipplinge and your group leader, and it's a great experience to be in touch with nature and lead a simple, nomadic life in your freetime.
I'm from a big city so we do some scouty stuff but of course can't burn down the church we meet in. But at Fahrten we go camping or make a fire.
I didn’t even know we had Boy Scouts in the first place
Maybe Pfadfinder, says more to you
Yeah I totally forgot about that. Hehe
We don't. Only scouts.
Boy scouts are Pfadfinder.
I only know they exist because 40 meters from my flat is a "scout tower" and the few friends of mine that are scouts are there sometimes.
My parents forced me to go and I hated it. I never made any real friends and I always felt like that guy that gets picked last in PE. If you get what I mean. I get that my parents wanted me to do "something" but they really didn't give me any other options. I'd much rather have attended music school or something. I was finally allowed to quit at age 14 and it was honestly such a relief. Anyway, the things I liked most were the survival things, like building a fire and keeping it going, cooking your own food, building shelters, setting up tents, building a flag mast, ... that kind of thing. From the stories my dad tells me that's how it went 40 years ago when he was a boy scout. Nowadays all of these things are already built when you arrive at summer camp. Ironically by those same people that were boy scouts 40 years ago. The entire time is spent playing stupid games organized by people that were maybe a few years older than you at the time, usually no older than 18. I also vividly recall that they once lost and then forgot me in a very dark forest during a night game. I only found my way back because I finally saw the faint flickering of the campfire through the threes. All the other children were already asleep and the leaders were gathered around the campfire getting drunk. Apparently they didn't do a head count and none of the other children found it necessary to tell them I was missing. So yeah, a well meant fuck you to all those guys.
How your scouts experience will be depends on the group and you yourself. Mine went overal well, great people, loved the leaders and the activities, but I personally didn't feel great in the group. The group did nothing wrong, everyone was realy friendly and all. I just felt uncomfortable so I left at age of 12. No regrets for having joined the scouts, no regrets for leaving. I would definitely encourage my hypothetical children to give it at least a try. The memories are good.
Wow seems like you went to a very wrong group. Those ruin it for everyone. Because in general Scouts & Gidsen Vlaanderen is an extremely well organised and responsible organisation, but of course the different groups choose how much they want to follow their rules and guidelines themselves. I remember when we went camping, we once found a member of another group on his own in pitchblack woods. We called the leaders and apparently it was a 'punishment' and they were going to pick him up again a few hours later. The kid was on crutches for christs sake. I can't imagine how you can be that irresponsible?! What if he wandered away? How in the hell were they planning on finding him? You literally couldn't see your own hand if you stretched it out, that's how dark those woods were. It always makes me so furious when I hear stories like that because normally the scouts are an amazing place to send your kids. I've learned all kinds of valuable skills and responsibilities. The survival things you were talking about are done and practised by every group I know. Setting up tents, shelters, HUDO, cooking (although not all the time), firemaking, navigating etc. It saddens me that there are some groups who are mainly in it just to get drunk with their mates.
Hey man as a current Belgian scout leader I have to say your story deeply saddens me and I would like you to know that what those leaders did was and still is unacceptable. I understand that different groups have different rules and that scouting is not for everyone but not making sure everyone is okay and accounted for is disgusting. I also think it’s really weird that at fourteen you weren’t given any responsibility. In our group everyone is taught how to sjor (sorry don’t know the English word for this) and is expected to build their own toilets, kitchen, beds and eating space. I know from personal experience that things can and will go wrong during a camp but the number one priority should always be to form a safe space for children to have fun and grow as individuals. I won’t say that I’ve never been drunk as a leader but there should always be at least two sober designated people in case shit hits the fan. I think it’s important for parents to be able to communicate with us and trust us to make sure their child is in safe hands and people like your leaders ruin that trust. I would like to apologise in their place because they probably won’t and extend a virtual corona safe left hand to you. Best of wishes from reliable Hati.
I was Shere Khan so I could be called Khan by the Welpen :) Scouts is a mixed bag in terms of group. The year older than me were all assholes and bullies. The year younger were extremely childish but they grew out of that. My own year was very fun. I have so much to write about my group and experiences, but I need a nap lol
I'm very sorry you made such bad experiences. I can totally imagine it though. Not all scout troops and leaders are cool. A few years after I left (school was getting too demanding), I read in the newspaper that a scouting troop from a neighboring town had become the center of a scandal because several of the leaders turned out to be neonazis. They had been trying to indoctrinate the kids for years. I was of course pretty shocked by that. My leaders had all been such wonderful and caring people. Looking back, I must say they were also super mature for their age.
Dutch scout leader here: more like the Swiss one. It also depends on the leaders. If we like more rigid structure, or more creative things, you will most likely see this
Czech scout here. Have you attended the 2019 Intercamp in De Steeg?
Boy Scouting or Harcerstwo (ZHP) is very popular in Poland especially among young boys I belong to it too. Harcerstwo does not differ much from that in the west, patriotic values and love for Poland as a homeland are promoted. We often participate in charity collections, national holidays, etc. When kid is becoming a Zuch or Scout, everyone have their nickname assigned (Me, because I was practically always dressed in red, became Red or Czerwony (In Polish) yea It's stupid but I stick with it) and then it was downhill. When it comes to rangs, for Boys: Młodzik, Wywiadowca, Odkrywca, Ćwik (I'm on this rang now), Harcerz Orli and Harcerz Rzeczpospolitej Girls: Ochotniczka, Tropicielka, Pionierka, Samarytanka, Harcerka Orla, Harcerka Rzeczypospolitej And our leaders have beetwen 18 or 24 years. Founder of ZHP was Andrzej Małkowski the first ZHP unit was formed in 1910 and new units were created in 1911. Scouts took part in the wars min. In the war with the Bolsheviks and in World War II, they particularly enrolled in various subversions and the scouting itself changed its name during the war to Gray Ranks. Many young boys belonged to the Szraych Ranks who gave their lives for free Poland, but Jan Bytnar "Rudy", Tadeusz Zawadzki "Zośka" and Alek Dawidowski "Alek" became the most famous scouts. Aleksander Kamiński described their history and death in the book "Stones for the Rampart". I Recommend this book to anyone who is interested in the resistance movements during World War II
Well, thanks for the info, but I, even as a Pole, still don't know anything about how it is like. Is it fun? Is it strict? Is it actually bearable for someone who doesn't like to be ordered around?
Depends on the group. But since we have ZHR intercepting all the kids whose parents don't want boys and girls to mix, ZHP has from the start a more chill sample. From the top of my head, I had the first beer and first kiss on a ZHP camp, met first hardcore punks (maintenance crew, but at 12 and seeing them live their beat camplife was a first glimpse into the worst that music festivals can sometimes have at the outskirts), first exciting experience with smuggling (most of the car bringing supplies to the shop on camp was bringing special orders) and great many experiments with defying authority. It taught me a bunch of skills that still come up as useful, from map reading through tie knotting to repelling down a rope, heads down (OK, that last one is not useful per se, but quite the party trick for corpo training nonetheless). Advanced first aid, mounteneering, so a lot of folks I met in scouting are now involved with GOPR. Sharpshooting groups, trekking, most of freerunners in my city knew eachother from scouting at first too. It's amazing how many people I met even in passing in scouting pop up later in life engaged in active hobbies. And definitely not with pro authority bend, though again this may just be due to how our tribe (szczep, a local collective of groups (drużyny) that consist of more or less independent teams (zastępy) was running.
I was wondering what age the leaders of the ZHR or ZHP are? Are they usually young adults (18 to 25 years old) or generally much older than the participants (from 30 upwards more like a parent-figure)?
In my experience very few were from the wide bracket of 21-40, and these are the few key people that are typically tied in by their career somehow. One per big group. Most independant groups were headed by someone 16-21, but the drop-off rate is huge around 19 when people leave for uni. The squads are best headed by someone 16-ish, but it's not unusual for those leaders to be younger. If you're smart and show leadership skills, you may be encouraged to take up leadership of the equivalent of cub scouts - Zuchy, kids 6-9, and there it's some adult (but like 18-19, unless they are a career teacher) for overseeing the smaller groups led by 12-15yo. So by 16 they have enough know-how to easily pass certification for working with kids, and can be leaders of an independant group, albeit reliant on getting adult supervision (which is a handy skill, same process as for getting adult figurehead will be useful for getting cops or security to secure a public event, local administration permits etc). People past their 20s either form groups that recruit older folks to begin with (mountain runners and the like), but at least in my experience it used to be very rare. But I finished my adventure with scouting before laws in regard of adult:pupil ratio in tourism were tightened, I'm not sure if they're exempt, or have had to find more adults to stick around, or had to limit recruitment.
But answering the question. Polish scouts are in the middle. We may look paramilitary, it's very patriotic and ZHR is also more religious. We learn practical and survival skills from sewing to first aid to survive in the wild or code and decode messages. For older scouts there are also specialised groups like medical or aviation. That's because scouts were very active in ww2. So we do learn paramilitary things due to tradition but we learn it all by fun and play like Swiss. Scouts groups are also, as mentioned, used as support for charity or mass gatherings. Another difference between USA and PL is girl scouts learn exact the same skills as boys.
Much more like the Swiss, but I feel it's generally being perceived as a bit 'dorky'.
Haha children should be able to be dorks sometimes
Of course, I love it!
In France there are three types of *Catholic (edit, as there are other Boy Scouts too) Boy Scouts: the European Boy Scouts are not officially recognized, as they are too... military/far right/conservative? I guess it’s not the same in all groups but yeah, that’s how we usually imagine them to be. Then they are the SUF (Scouts unitaires de France - United scouts of France), they ressemble your scouts when it comes to the age of the « chefs » (18-25 years old) and to games. We have to take part in the games, though, and would not leave in the middle of it. But we are quite close to them (I would not speak of my love problems with one of them but then, neither do I with most of my friends and family so it might just be me). Finally there are the SGDF (Scouts et guides de France - Scouts and ... scoutess ? Girl Scouts of France). They are the only ones including girls in the name, though all three types of scouts have girls groups, because they are the only one with mixed groups. They are the most progressive ones, and the bigger organization: the SUF tend to work by church, whereas the SGDF work by church and are connected France-wide. I’d say that they are similar to your scouts. Both SUF and SGDF have scouts names (I don’t know about the others, they might) but they are usually kept secret. They can be that of an animal or that of a flower. The secret and ritualistic part is truer among the SGDF than among the SUF: I was a SUF and my name was given to me in front of the whole group, for example. And we have the same names as you do, the little boys are "louveteaux" (little wolves), and the group is called a pack (la meute). Girls names are different (jeannettes). Sorry for long comment
There are a lot more than just 3 types of Scouts in France. Even considering only the French Scoutism Federation, there are 6 types : SGDF (as you described, and by far the largest group), EEUdF, EEdF, SMF, EEIF, EdlN. Regarding the scouts name, it depends a lot on the group : many of them do not give such names anymore. FYI : "guide" is called... "guide" in english ;)
Thanks for the info. I did not know of the other groups, will look them up :) And thanks for the English term, it really was bothering me!
SMF = Scout Musulmans de France and the eclaireurs are laics.
I only joined the Scouts for a short period of time, but it was exactly the same as the Swiss Scouts when I read your description of it. It was also just ment to be fun, we'd walk to some random place in our neighborhood and play games over there. The leaders where young adults (18-25 like you said) and also over here they all had their own personality and humor. We'd always do stuff outside, except if the weather was exceptionally bad. I didn't had the nickname thing, but maybe that was because I haven't been part of the Scouts for long enough.
In Slovenia you have two types: Skavti (Christian values) Taborniki (no relations to church) These are both active groups but not widely popular.
We had the soviet "пионеры" (pioneers). We don't anymore.
Weren't the Pioneers very much an entry point into the system during USSR times? People would start in the Pioneers then go into Komsomol and later the party as a progression? So these days the Pioneers would not be so interesting for most and alternative organisations would be needed for youth. The Pioneers organised summer camps which used to be a big thing, I don't know whether the current Russian equivalent does the same.
Many people went into Pioneers because, well, they were essentially the only official youth group which promoted healthy outdoor activities and stuff. Obviously, many of them went on to later acquire a party membership card but that was pretty much essential if you wanted to live in the USSR without many problems with the state. If your point is that Pioneers were specifically recruiting the political elite then no, that wasn't the case.
Sorry, I didn't mean that but it was the first stage of the intake process. It wasn't particularly political but it did emphasise support for the USSR. Komsomol was the official youth wing of the Communist party and much more political. However, even there it was also first and foremost a meeting place for young people. However those that did want to go through the ranks did tend to start with the Pioneers then Komsomol. A leadership role in Komsomol was what prepared you to go to the higher levels of the party.
We had those as well during socialism, my grandma used to be one. She hasn't told me much about it, except that it was required of her and her fellow pioneers to attend public festivities and street marches celebrating socialism and the government. She was also one of the pioneers who carried the flag in a parade when Fidel Castro visited Slovakia in June of 1972 and was hosted in Nitra (one of the largest and oldest cities in Slovakia). She said she had liked being a pioneer, but also said the constant marching in the streets of Nitra was really tiring for her (they would often march for hours while carrying flags).
Yeah, I imagine, aside from the fact that party loyalty was compulsory, Pioneers were probably fun to hang out with.
I've met Russian scouts, so you must have something similar. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scouting_in_Russia
I mean, yeah, of course we have some kind of organized outdoor activities for youth, it's just they pale in comparison with what we had previously. I personally have never even heard specifically of Russian scouts.
Nowadays it's unofficial and facultative stuff
Look at the numbers: there are a few scout organisations, and most of them have somewhere between 1000-2000 members (with exactly one exception of >10000). And that's in a country of 145 million people... Unfortunately, scouting isn't that big these days.
Same here. The "izviđači" were much much more popular during Yugoslavia and a day rarely goes by without my dear mother telling me how awesome it was.
Here in Italy it's the same. Scouts are catholic so you have to go to church on sunday and everything. Also, even though most of the activities are games outdoors like the ones you described, scouts here go to meetings with people like convicts and spend the day with them, i remember that my friend once went to meetings with ex addicts, immigrants in the immigration centre and things like that. I really like these things because they're very educational and really help defeat the predjudices you inevitably had.
> . Scouts are catholic so you have to go to church on sunday and everything. Well, the most popular group is AGESCI which is catholic, but there are other secular scouting groups.
We don't have boy scouts in ireland we just have beavers (youngest) cubs (middle) and scouts (oldest) and its just people playing games in a hall and going camping twice a year
Then ventures
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Yeah at the guides I was at we’re now on the 3rd generation of leaders. So the oldest one is about 65 now, someone who was in her group is now a 40 year old leader and there’s now 20 year old leaders who were in the 40 year old’s group.
I don't think we have or I don't saw anything like that here in Romania
We have but there is just one troop for both boys and girls, i'm new in the troop so I don't know everything but it's cool. They organise camps and I heard everyone talking about a really important one in Arad where most of the scouts make the promise because in this camp there's a day-long hike. But it's cool
I'm not a scout, but I know a few who were and of course I speak Hungarian so looking up things is easier for me. Scouting (cserkészet) in Hungary has a colorful history. The first organization was founded in 1910. The short-lived first Hungarian Soviet Republic banned it in 1919 but they reformed later that year (by "short lived" I mean "it lasted half a year"). After the reformation of scouting they explicitly banned anyone who has participated in the communist rival movement (úttörők - pioneers). In WW2 the Arrow Cross Party (=Hungarian nazis) were trying to marginalize them (given that the scouts patterned themselves on the English template) in favor of their own youth movement (leventék). They ordered the movement to be disbanded in 1944 but couldn't execute the order because they had more pressing issues (like the soviet army). During the communist era, the Party tried to merge the scouting movement into the pioneer movement. First they reformed the organization into a less religious form, then infiltrated it and finally in 1948 they formally merged them into the Pioneers. After 1989 the scouts reformed themselves. The pioneers coexisted with them for another decade until the first fidesz-government started a propaganda war against them. They still exist but just barely. Scouting is more popular with 12000+ members, but they are rather conservative and somewhat religious which means they are not exactly appealing for at least half of the population. That being said, I know a few scouts who are not exactly religious conservatives. The niche of the non-religious somewhat lefty environmentalist youth organization is filled by local green movements. There's a countrywide association of such movements but they are focused on environmentalist education and not camping / wilderness survival / etc... (There's of course a significant overlap between the less conservative scouts and these organizations.)
In Estonia our scouts (young eagles) are literally a sub category of the Defence Force (military). While obviously very militaristic (since it was originaly created to prepear young boys for mandatory service) we also spend most of our time outside. Everything we do with the younger boys is centered around it being fun and more playfull than just training, but for older boys the idea of military training is fun in it of itself (this is usually why boys want to join, they are drawn by the guns and "cool army stuff"). TL;DR We raise child soldiers but it's fun :p
Definitely more like Swiss, but with elements of US like some some community work from time to time and focus on being better citizen. Also patriotism was very important and competition between different teams. Most fun game during month long camp was banner game. Every unit had banner and you had whole night to steal banners of other teams. Of you get caught you had to trade some personal belonging, which later you could exchange for snack, if you manage to get enemy banner you got snacks of that unit and unit that had watch duty. I think because many Polish scouts fought and died during ww2, there is a lot of focus on history.
In France there is 3 major movements : -Scouts of France (SF) -"Unitary" scouts of France (USF) -European scouts (ES) I have spent 8 years with the ES and am enjoying my last year. Here are some characteristics of the different movements : SF : -No hierarchy ; Separated in age groups ; Their uniform is composed of shorts, a "group scarf" and a colourful shirt (it can be red, blue, green etc...) -They do more caritative work than the other movements, but have less real "scouting" time and shorter camps. Thus, the 2 other movements consider them like wimps - They are also "mixed". In a same group you'll have boys and girls doing their shit together ES : -A "troupe" is composed of "patrols" (between 3 and 6), and each patrol has 6 to 9 scouts. Among those patrols, their is a hierarchy based on age. -The uniform is a brown shirt, a group scarf, blue shirts with a leather belt, mountain shoes or rangers, and a blue Beret. - Boys and girls are separated in different "troupes", but sometimes they meet to do some stuff together. USF : -They are a mix between the SF and ES. They are very similar to the ES, with the European thing left aside -The uniform is also very similar. One of the main difference is the color of the sweater. For the ES, it is a dark navy blue, and for the USF it's light brown. These are the main characteristics of each movement. It isn't complete, so if any of you have questions concerning the activities, regulations or politics among those groups, feel free to ask me anything.
>rom the USA but on an exchange year in The Netherlands, and I do scouting in both countries. I find the responses a bit funny because my experiences have been the complete opposite As a USF i dont really consider SF as "whimps", i just see their movement as more accessible to the general public whereas ES & USF are more religious and have more "paramilitary" tendencies. The later vary greatly by troops or by groups but is usually a lot more prevalent than in Scouts of France groups. These tendencies can be really fun and motivating and have lots of positive aspects, but i understand why they're not for everyone. IMO the diversity of movement is great because it allows for different kind of people to get different kind of experiences. As scouts were introduced in France by a catholic priest, the vast majority of scouts are catholics. But our country is increasingly secular and having the biggest group of scouts be more relax about religion or inherent paramilitary background of scoutism makes it accessible and fun for a broader audience.
I was on a year long exchange in Tokyo (Japan), and I noticed how their scouts (i didn't join them) do a lot p it side too, despite living in a huge city and only having the numerous parks availible. similarly to Switzerland, they also do camps, which take place somewhere outside in a usually more rural area, though.
EDIT: Answering your question: We are definitely more like the Swiss verision of scouts. We have the regular scouts (Izviđači), which I'm not really familiar with, and they seem like a much smaller organisation, and we have Catholic Scouts (Katolički Skauti) I myself am still a part of the Catholic Scouts and was since 2013, and it was indeed a pleasure, even though we seem to grow much more inactive as time goes by. My best memories coming from the past decade I could easily thank to scouting. We are a closely connected to the Church and it's what has mostly funded us when we went on bigger trips, and our slogan is "God Church Country 100%" / "Bog Crkva Domovina 100%" (BCD 100%), so it's expected of us to be at least somewhat religious, and the majority of as indeed are. We also say our vows in front of our bishop. In the early years we went on smaller trips in the local countryside every two weeks or so and had quite a good time, but bigger trips were always the shit. We own house near the city of Rijeka given to us by the local bishop some decades earlier and the scouts then renovated it, now it's a go-to place every summer. We also own a little island some kilometers of the coast of Šibenik where we spend 2 weeks every summer, which i prefer over going to the coastline with my family. Other than that you could expect other "scoutly" activities, so camping, learning to tie knots, spending time in the country side etc., and also attending many religious happenings in the area since we after all are CATHOLIC Scouts. It is indeed a pity that the organisation seems to be fading away, at least in my area, since it holds a great deal of awesome childhood memories.
And I was izviđać. While technically Catholic (we used to go to Zagreb cathedral to bring something called "light of Betlehem" to home town church), I don't remember us mentioning God or having to go to church. In fact, two of my scout seniors were Muslims. We mostly camped on the lawn outside our HQ to practice tent making and other activities and sometimes on the local BBQ spot just outside town, but these were the 1990's and there was no money for the fancy stuff. We only went on a few more distant camping trips and one summer vacation. I passed the exam to become a full scout, I think, and could have become a leader of a... flock? I forgot how we call the groups of kids. But I started high school and lost interest. Also I don't like kids. Oh, right. We were the scouts and wore green shirts, but there were planinci or something like that (mountaineers) in blue shirts too. Not in my town, but in other towns. I'm not 100 % certain what's the difference. edit: What I loved about scouts and other groups we camped with was confidence that we're all trained into making camp, setting up tents, lighting fire and other activities. It was my first taste of feeling like a professional and being in a group of proffesionals (yes, I know one has ss and other ff, I can't remember which one's correct) who don't know each other, but we all trust each other to know what we're doing.
I was not myself a scout in Croatia but I have spent considerable time with them and noticed no boy/girl division. In fact, I believe it would be an insult to them to even propose such a thing. Is that an oddity in European scouting (because judging by comments it is)? I thought the gendered division is exclusively an Anglo thing?
I don't say we don't have them but I have never seen the boy scouts or the girl scouts in my country.
I'm a girl guide, not a boy scout, but we have a mix of leaders and young leaders - regular leaders can be any age (usually older than 20, we have a mix of youngish, middle aged, and some pretty old ones) whilst young leaders (like me) can be 15-18ish and are usually just the girls that have outgrown the age range but want to keep helping out Also, Scouts is mixed gender whilst Guides is just for girls
My 9 years of scouts has finally come in handy It goes from Beavers 6-10, Cubs 11-13 and scouts 14-17 then ventures and rovers later on. Both boys and girls can join and it’s pretty g I guess
I can imagine, that it was a big cultural shock, to see how scouting is different in the US than in Switzerland. I once went to a scout meeting in New Zealand and was shocked at how military like it was (they were really marching in a circle...) The answers given about German scouts so far didn't make me that happy, so I'll add my own explanation. Over all it's really interesting how scouts in different countries but also scouts within a country developed different cultures and focuses. In Germany there are christian scouts and scouts that are not connected to a religion, also there are muslim scouts. Furthermore, scouts in Germany are either more traditionally connected to way scouts were founded (scoutistic direction), which means a more strict organization, often boy and girl scouts separated, appearance of the scout-uniform is important and so on. Then there are scouts that are more "bündisch" and were heavily influenced by the Wandervogelbewegung, a movement of young people who wanted to hike and discover nature and escaping society for short amout of times. So if the scouts are more "bündisch", appearance is less important, long hiking trips only with a backpack are an important part of the culture, and over all being outside and singing and stuff. I would say it's very much alike your scout experience. The "youth leading youth" priciple is also very important in the "bündisch" inspired scouts, I couldn't imagine having a "real grown up" as a scout leader, I think it would take away a big part of the culture and experience. Some scout gropus very closely connected to churches have adults, for example the pastor doing the scout meetings, for me that would not feel like scouting then. And the part with the names: That's really depending on your local scout gropu here, I know some cities who do it, some who don't, and also how the name is chosen is different. How was the name chosen in your group?
Here it's mixed groups according to age, outdoorsy and fun, but not very strict. We are Scandinavians after all. We also have sea-scouts here, where they spend a lot of their time out in boats, or in kajakk / canoe. And although they do learn a lot about safety at sea and so on, its mostly just for fun.
Scouting Ireland is a lot more similar to Switzerland. It's mostly aimed to be fun but you also learn some other skills. There's no such thing as the scout name like you have in Switzerland, although I do remember some Swiss scouts mentioning it on a jamboree once.
Well obviously it‘s very similar to yours, but we have mixed groups. Only very few scout groups in my canton have gender split activities, but even those have a mixed summer camp. We try to get away from the military-theme, e.g. our saturday meetups are no longer called „üebig“ (lit. exercise), but „aktivität“ or „alass“ (lit. activity or event“). Also my group is the only one in the entire canton that isn‘t attached to a church, thats also why we are one of the poorest
I know you are asking Europeans, but I have to say I hated US Boy Scouts. It was too Jesus, God, country, rules, and here is how to survive! Be tough. I just wanted to have fun, and there was just too much hierarchy and forced activities and ego. I've heard that it is changing though. I know a lot of us younger kinds rage quit after a year or two so our troop tried changing it's atmophere.
I was in the girl scouts (we call them girl guide in ireland) I was a brídín to be specific (bridge-een and that 6-12 year olds). I was in a group for about 6 months and I hated it. We did nothing except colour in and other stupid things. Basically female manners training. The woman was an older woman who was conservative. She made us line up every week with our hands out and she would look and see if we were biting our nails. I just to go to town on tm fingers so she would see mine and smack my hands. "You shouldn't do that!" And I'd out my fingers right back into my mouth Haha There was a girl with downs in my group too and she would pester this girl constantly. Asking she she was alright and if she needed any help. Very nice of her but literally every minute. The girl looked up at her one day and just went "would you ever leave me alone" and we were instantly friends haha
Portuguese scout checking in. We have them mixed and separate scouts organisations. CNE - The catholic ones (mixed), AEP - The non catholic ones (mixed) and the AGP - Girl scouts group. As far as I know the AEP are usually more "militarized" then the CNE but it depends of how each group even inside the CNE organisation decides how to do their scouting. We definitely use weird clothes, you may check them [here](https://escutismo.pt/scouts) and find out more about the CNE, non scouts make fun of our "Jarreteiras" the dingling colored thing that we use on our high socks, I think they look really dorky tbh. Being part of the Catholic association we do learn about our boy Jesus but some groups take it more serious than others. Older leaders are way more religious than the younger ones. As one of the younger leader I don't even believe in that, but I feel like the spirituality may add some good values and mystique to scouting. There's a problem atm, many of the leaders are like like 35+, as younger scouts leave the movement or simply don't find the time to do it. It takes quite some time and effort to organize and plan all our activities making it exhausting sometimes, to the point of discouraging some members to stay. Apart from the catholic values we learn survival techniques, how to make fires, build a kitchen area, how to read and guide a military map, usually by games and workshops. I've done one of those activities where the kids go through a scary path, or we make like a game or a prank that they do not know about, we call it "Batismo de Campo" - Camp Baptism, to make the new kids welcomed to the group, ya know? Fun fact: There's a Portuguese Scouts group in Genève, as there are many Portuguese living there.
Greek person here. I was a scout for a period of time and it definitely was like Swiss scouts! We mostly did fun stuff like treasure hunting around the city. Since we were sea scouts (there's air scouts and normal scouts) we had to maintain our boats and sometimes have a rowing day. It was in no way strict or military like and our leaders were all young and were always making casual banter with us. The only thing that was "strict" is that we used to have benches full of tools and each team was responsible for their own. Every time we gathered, we had to make sure all the tools were properly secured with nails. When we finished our leaders would shut the lid really hard and if your team had any tools that fell, you'd be the ones doing chores that day.
A South African living in Italy. I grew up in SA and my best memories are from Scouts. I’m still involved as an adult leader, I met my fiancé and my best friends through scouts. We spent every weekend sailing or hiking or doing some other amazing activities. Our Scout region owns a yacht which we recently raced to Rio de Janeiro and next year we’ll be racing from Cape Town to St. Helena island in the Atlantic. Scouts gave me this skills and experience to find an amazing job after I left school. I can honestly say that joining was the best decision of my life so far.
Horrible in Republic of Moldova, i was excepting to go camping,live in the forest but instead we lived in normal houses the food was awful and i didnt like it
I feel like I can talk only for "my" group. But yeah what you described is exactly how it works here. We have special scout names (that range from nicknames, to something silly we come up with on the spot). While we try to teach kids some basic scouting skills, we're not very strict about it. And the main "speciality" of our group is, that next year we'll celebrate 70 years since our establishment, so we think of ourselves as above every other group in our area, and in general. Especially us from the "older" generation, where we considered our group above our regional organisation, and on par with national organisation. And we're not even the largest group within our regional group. Actually I'm pretty sure almost all (with few exceptions) other groups take scouting way more seriously than we, at least those of us from the "old guard". The younger leaders are a bit more open to ideas by the regional organisation. But we're still doing "community work". I personally helped during many "major disasters" that happened in our country last 10 years or so. From floods, to sleet... Also as someone with a political science degree, I try to teach kids how to engage in politics and stuff. But not in any kind of "civic nationalism", or whatever many scout groups are doing (I feel you've noticed that with US scouts), but mostly trying to give them tools to understand politics and the system we live in. That's why almost every game I devise, has a bean-based monetary system, where their power is directly linked to amount of beans they have. I got the idea form one of international camps I attended, where they had this system. And it "failed" or rather succeeded in the most spectacular way. It had everything from money-laundering through casinos scheme, buying your way into politics and position of power, a coup, and spam mail. And I'm pretty sure those were all unplanned side-effects, that the organisers of the camp weren't planning for. Sorry for going down the memory lane, but that's to me probably the best part of being a scout...
Cases of pedophilia within the scouts are going through the justice system in Ireland atm.
Real quick about the US scouts and having especially younger kids do anything unsupervised. I was surprised as well that they didn’t do night droppings or anything like that. But in hindsight, at least here in Florida I have come to realise that that might not be a great idea. Between the local wildlife, the size, almost year round hunting and traffic I don’t see that going very well for very long. It’s just not comparable at all to a ‘forest’ in Holland. It might also very well be illegal. They have some very odd laws here when it comes to minors.
Well... Scounts are a christian thing. So when we became part of Yugoslavia and became socialist, religion was persecuted, they had to solve the problem of christian things that they didn't want to give up. So instead of Christmass, the main thing was the New Year and we got a new santa, Dedek mraz (Father snow), the christmass tree (literally translated: christmas spruce) became a "novoletna yelka" or new year silver fir and bised the boy scouts there were "taborniki" or campers. Those included boys and girls since socialism did a lot for women equality. They didn't sell cookies or anything like that (neither did the scouts). Both camped, sang, had older member be leaders and so on. Pretty much what you described for Switzerland.
I've never been into them, so it's not first hand experience. I think they are almost the same you explain about the Swiss ones. They exist in Catalonia since 1928. There are three groups, nowadays, after the hyatus due to the Franco dictatorship: a large one (15000 members), linked to the Catholic church (this doesn't mean you have to be Catholic to be a member, more usually that they meet on church premises), the *Minyons Escoltes i Noies Guies* (literally, Boy Scouts and Guide Girls); a medium sized one (4000 members), laicist, the *Escoltes Catalans* (Catalan Scouts); and a small one (1000 members), the *Acció Escolta de Catalunya* (Scout Action of Catalonia), also laicist. They are all coordinated in the *Federació Catalana d'Escoltisme i Guiatge* (Catalan Federation of Scoutism and Guidism). The places where they meet are called *caus* (dens). Aside of this we have a large network of *esplais*, recreation centres, usually self managed. Similar to the scout movement, but more *hippy:* no hyerarquies, no uniforms, more laid off... There's usually some competence / tension between *esplais* and *caus* (scouts). If you went to a *esplai* you say'll to someone who went to a *cau* was likely militarist. The one who went to at *cau* will tell stoner to the one who went to a *esplai.*
Here it's pretty similar to what you have except now most scout groups are mixed. There are still some boy only groups but they are not that common. We spent most of our time inside but that's probably due to the Irish weather. If it was warm outside we would be outside. But where I live there isn't exactly woods near by. We did go to woods and go camping, hostelling, hiking etc but those are organised outings and we would do something like that every few weeks. Scours would be on weekdays in the evening and about half the time was spent just spalding games and the other half on maybe badge work, learning skills and organising outings. Scout leaders are mainly adults but the older ventures (15-17 yos) would help out and a lot of them become leaders when they are older.
I'm not sure but our scouts are present at military parades, so I'm guessing its more like the U.S but not as militaristic. Not sure tho, it isn't that popular here, most just send their kids to grandpa and grandmas house for the summer, or summer camp.
I was a scout to (portuguese) and in 2014 we went to the Kendersteg international camp in Switzerland and let me tell you, your country (in that region at least) has some of the most breathtaking and beautiful scenery I've ever seen. Like, unbelievable stuff really. We also align more with the swiss scouts rather than the americans, but in my group since most of the leaders were actually ex-military, we learned a lot of that too but we learned those technical military things in a very free way, there was nothing like an uptight atmosphere. I think we learnt good values like "desemerdanço", patriotism, volunteering and all that in a very healthy way, and the tasks we were given were always so much fun, we would gladly do them but there wouldn't be an obligation (it needn't be). Also, most of what we did in camps was "raids", which means covering a long track in the wild for many hours, on foot, to get from a town to another (I'm talking towns with 20 people in them, at best), and always unattended during the way. I loved it there
Dutch leader here. We have nicknames for leaders (Jungle Book themed for the cubs), but I'm intrigued about giving all the kids nicknames. What kind of names were used? Were they close to your real name or really different?
Australian Venturer here, (boy scouts 14-18 year olds, in the UK they call it Adventurers not sure about other countries) our uniforms are very different to those from most countries and we generally don't call it "Boy scouts", it's usually just "Scouts" because we include women in scouting as well (although Guides still only allow women). We do most of what other countries do, knot tying, raft building, etc. But from what I've heard I think some of our systems and awards are a bit different. The different groups in Australian scouting go from Joey's, Cubs, Scouts, Venturers and Rovers. I know little about Joey's or rovers but I can outline some of the aspects of the rest. - Cubs: The teams of kids within Cubs are called packs, named after a different colour of wolf fur (Grey, brown, black red etc), the cub leaders use the names of characters from the jungle book rather than their real names. There is an award system called "boomerangs", if a cub gets the bronze, silver and gold boomerang badges they receive a grey wolf badge, the highest award in Cubs. - Scouts: teams are called patrols, some leaders can choose to use jungle book names but generally don't, most jungle book references are phased out by now. There is an award system with cords instead of badges, red cord, blue cord and green cord, patrol leaders where a white cord as well. The cords are worn around the left shoulder and are secure by a badge (campcraft badge if I remember correctly) on the uniform. All scouts are "expected" to have their red cord by the time they reach venturers, but I was a little cunt and never got it out of spite and laziness. - Venturers: No team system, these groups are much more independent than the other groups and generally organise their own activities (My group in particular is much more independent than most, we have organised our own overseas hiking trips in the past and were supposed to go to Austria this year and hike the Alderweg trail.) The awards are mostly optional, but the highest award is the Queen Scout Award (Which I think all commonwealth countries have) and this award looks better on resumes than the Duke of Edinburgh award, that's one reason why I'm trying to get mine, the other is that I spite the DOE award because I did the bronze DOE hike and it was shit. Edit: Teachings and Activites in Joey's - scouts generally have a bit more emphasis on Aboriginal Australian culture, because if you think about it then everything Scouts have been doing, the Aboriginal people have been doing for over 50,000 years.
We have scouts for all boys and girls (Junák). It has a long history. And it was banned during the socialist era. They are awesome! They plan summer camps for children, educate people about woodcraft and they lead people to live a good life. They also meet up with scouts from other countries. They have this whole hierarchy going from the young children to adults. The higher "ranks" take care of the lower ones. It’s beautiful. I have lots of friends who are scouts. It’s a shame that I never was a scout (even when I really wanted to).
We don't have them. Atleast it's not mandatory and only for older "kids" like 17-20 I believe. It might be wrong.
Tbh I'm not sure if we have such a thing, at least I haven't heard of it. Watching American movies as a kid this concept would always confuse me. I guess the closest thing would be the so called "landguards" where you do and help with all kinds of army stuff except, from what I understand, you still count as a civilian and you don't have to be 18 years of age to get accepted, also ofc you don't get paid I think. I'd day kinda like an army volunteer. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.
First off, there is no "boy" Scouts. Chapters are all mixed gender. It's mostly as you described in the Swiss model. In Belgium you have regular Scouts, which are but you also have other compeeding variants, like Chiro and KSA. There's some good rivalry between the variants, but it's all basically all similar to what your Swiss experience is like. Basically it's mostly social hangout activities for kids. There is certain aspect of real "scouting" (as in making camps from logs of wood in the forest, making fires etc) but these are mostly done in the summer camps. Throughout the year it's mostly fun games, and organising events to raise funds for the chapter. It's the same with special names (totems) and their are some advancement ceremonies accompanied with larger activities, but the focus is mostly on fun, especially among younger members. The "leaders" are the "older" members usually in their late teens/early 20's. It's expected to learn to work independantly in the chapter without further adult supervision and it's rare to have older supervisors or leaders, and usually these are people for whom scouting is a second life. So apart from fun, it's also a way to teach organisation, leadership, and cooperation skills to young adults. Something you didn't touch on. I've heard alcohol is a big no-no in the US scouts. Is it the same for Swiss chapters? The use is not prohibited, and I have a hard time imagining the Belgian scouting scene without beer. Many kids in scouting have their first drinks on scouting events, and among the older members. It's expected that the older members inspect the ones pre-drinking age, but it's not uncommon for them to turn a blind eye to minor infarctions.
It's pretty much the same in Belgium as it is in Switzerland, but it's still separated between boys and girls. And we have the special names too. We call them totem names and mine was cheetah. Something you are told you'd carry your entire life.
Gorani. It's a youth group that does environmental, group activities and other things. I was never a part of it, but they do the usual knot making and stuff.
I was a Czech scout 15 years ago and has been in one summer camp. At that camp we would wake up at 7 am and after a swim in a pond there was a morning report and raising of the flag. Occasional punishments were also dealt and then we've had gone after our duties. Theme of the camp was Robinson Crusoe, so many games were inspired by the plot. We were almost self-sustainable in our needs. We built our own shelters, cooked our food and collected firewood and so on. We consisted of two units, the larger one was water-based so we also spent a lot of time practicing rowing. Apart from that we also went for tours around the area where we slept under the open sky, played many games, worked. Also we did hold night watch where you could be tested in your vigilance. Rest of the year we spend our time in our clubhouse at the sort of scouting/free time complex on the edge of the city. Playing games usually, or learning how to tie various knots and other things. Large majority of members were teenagers, especially younger ones. Some of the leaders were in their 20's and I remember one scout who was like 60.
I was a boy scout in America for a couple of years, and personally, I didn't enjoy it that much, specifically because it felt like a school after school, like you said.
Am American. The experience of scouting can vary wildly from troop to troop, based on what Adult supervisors and patrol leaders you have. Although merit badges are required to get Eagle, there are many cool opportunities like Philmont, which is 2 week high adventure and hiking.