Scout method
The Scout method is the informal educational system used by Scouts in the Boy Scouts of America. The aim of Scouting is character training with the goal of helping participants become independent and helpful, and thereby become "healthy, happy, helpful citizens".
The Scout method uses appealing games in the primitive outdoors to generate challenges which a Scout learns to solve by themselves. Through the training and the example of the leader, Scouts are taught independence, leadership, the ambition to learn by themselves, and a moral code with positive goals. According to founder Robert Baden-Powell, the Scout method works naturally and unconsciously: naturally in the way that it follows the natural impulses of the Scout, and unconsciously because the Scout is not aware of the education.
Hands-on orientation provides a practical method of learning and helps the Scout build confidence. Activities and games provide a fun way to develop skills and provide contact with nature and the environment when pursued in an outdoor setting. Scouts learn in small groups to build unity and a family atmosphere. Developing the characteristics of responsibility, self-reliance, self-confidence, and readiness, the Scouts eventually learn collaboration and leadership skills. An attractive program of varying activities expands a Scout's horizons and bonds the Scout even more to the group.
The eight elements
The World Organization of the Scout Movement's definition of the Scout method has changed over the years. Through the 1980s it was composed of four elements: Scout Law and Scout Promise, learning by doing, development of small groups, and a progressive and attractive programs of different activities. This changed in the 1990s when WOSM restated the method in seven elements. At the 41st World Scout Conference in 2017, an eighth element was added, "community involvement". These eight elements are summarized here.The World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts uses a very similar, eight-part method.
Law and promise
The Scout law is a personal code of living to guide the way each Scout lives his or her life. It is not a repression of faults, so was not framed as a list of prohibitions. It states what is good form and what is expected of a Scout. The Scout Law is at the heart of the Scout method. With the Scout promise a Scout is engaged to do his best to obey the Scout law. The main principles are:- Duty to God
- Duty to others
- Duty to self
Prohibition
Scouting does not prohibit bad habits, but instead gives better alternatives that will absorb the Scout's attention and gradually lead him to forget the old habit. The reasoning is that "prohibition generally invites evasion, since it challenges the spirit inherent in every red-blooded boy. The boy is not governed by DON'T, but is led on by DO."Spirituality
A Scout should be spiritual but Scouting is open to all religions. Scouting deals with religions in the practical way: by nature study and helping others. According to Baden-Powell this is part of all religions. Scouting develops the spiritual side through teaching life-saving techniques and by promoting the daily good deed.Good deeds
The good deed is a key component of the law and promise. Baden-Powell felt this is the main duty God asks for, and fulfilling our duty to others makes us happy, which fulfills the duty to ourselves. The point is not so much the deed itself, which could be minor, but to teach the Scout to always pay attention and recognise if he could help someone.Scouts believe that education is a process of seeking and finding, this should be accomplished by planning and revisiting matters again in different contexts, presenting them to ourselves and working to keep operational 'activities' helping the boy scout find the idea and "experience the thrill of the real Good Turn.".
Learning by doing
Scouts games are full of practical action. This holds the participant's attention and gives the Scout hands-on experience in how the theory works. Although Baden-Powell put emphasis on practical work and independent learning, he did not rule out the need for instruction by leaders or in books. The phrase "Learning by doing" is nowadays much used in Scouting.Team system
Patrol system
Sometimes called the 'patrol method.' Scouts are organised in small groups because this is the natural way boys work together. These patrols are therefore more important than the Scout troop. Patrols must be kept intact under all circumstances, including working, tenting, learning, cooking, and surviving together. In a Patrol the Scouts learn to work with others, while the Patrol leader learns responsibility for others. Both have to give up part of their personal interest for this. However, Scouting deals with the individual, not with the Company. A Scout has his own identity within the group and learns as an individual. The Patrol serves as the character school for the individual. Younger sections, such as Cub Scouts and Beaver Scouts, are divided into sixes or lodges. While Beaver lodges have no leader structure, Cub sixes have a sixer and seconder.Court of Honour
Called the "Patrol Leaders' Council" in some places. The Scout patrols are subject to a Court of Honour formed by the Patrol Leaders, with the Scout Leader as advisor. This is a peer system in which Scouts discuss each other's behaviour and is part of the self-governing aspect of Scouting.Symbolic framework
Imagination
Scouting plays on the imagination of the Scout, who loves to "make-believe" and live in the imaginative world of adventurers, such as backwoodsmen, pioneers, sailors, and airmen. The Scout identifies with the personal qualities of his heroes. Drawing on his experience as an amateur actor, Baden-Powell built into Scouting a theatrical and non-serious environment, using words with strange meanings, yells, songs, and unique customs. The common uniform is also part of this theatre.Rituals
Scouting has a number of rituals. They are designed to be short, simple, and attractive for Scouts, but with underlying symbolism.Personal progression
Self-reliance
Baden-Powell wanted a Scout to learn to make his own decisions, as he felt this would help the children grow and mature. Baden-Powell wrote that a Scout should paddle his own canoe, metaphorically speaking. He should travel not in a rowing boat, with his back to where he goes, rowed by others and someone else at the rudder, but alone in a canoe: facing the future, paddling and steering by himself. Scouting teaches self-reliance by bringing the Scouts into a challenging, somewhat risky environment, without help in the direct neighbourhood. Therefore the program is based on an adult, adventurous, and appealing outdoor life. "A man's job cut down to boy's size."Self-governing
Giving responsibility to the Scouts is a keystone of the Scout method: "Expect him to carry out his charge faithfully. Don't keep prying to see how he does. Let him do it his own way. Let him come a howler over it if need be, but in any case leave him alone." The Patrol is almost independent, while the Troop is run by the Patrol Leaders in the Patrols' Leaders Council and Court of Honour.Self-learning
Education in Scouting should give a Scout the ambition and desire to learn by himself, which is more valuable than receiving instruction from leaders. This is done by having the Scout undertake activities that attract him individually from the selection offered in Scouting for Boys.Badge system
The "Personal Progressive Scheme" is based on two complementary elements:- Proficiency badges are intended to encourage the Scout to learn a subject which could be his work or hobby, and cover many different types of activities not always related to Scouting.
- Class badges or Progress system:
- * Class badges are successive stages in which the Scout learns the techniques needed for the Scout game. An important final test for the Scout or Guide section is making a journey on their own, proving their independence.
- * The personal progress system was introduced by the World Organization of the Scout Movement as an alternative to the Class badges. The programme uses successive stages which young people go through in order to reach the educational objectives for each age group. The system puts more emphasis on personal objectives of physical, intellectual, affective, social, spiritual, and character development.
Non-competitive