His influence on recreation and leisure through history.
Introduction
Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell was born in London, England on February 22 of the year 1857. He was the eighth of ten children in his family. His father, a professor at Oxford University, died when Robert Baden-Powell was only three years old. Just a couple of years after his father died, Robert gained a scholarship to attend boarding school and began learning a wide range of skills. He studied everything from music and mathematics to bricklaying in school. He also began using his time away from class to practice stalking, hunting, and other outdoor skills in the woods surrounding the school. Later in life, he used these skills to teach soldiers the art of survival during the Boer War and to found the scouting program for youth. The scouting program has become a world-wide movement that has had a big impact on recreation and leisure throughout history.
Boer War
Robert Baden-Powell had a phenomenal military career. He began by gaining second place for a cavalry competition, then advanced to serve as a Colonel. He was on active duty as a Colonel for close to 30 years. At age 40, he was assigned to the 5th Dragoon Guards. As he worked with the soldiers in this company, Robert Baden-Powell realized that his men were severely lacking in the areas of wilderness survival and basic first aid. Wilderness survival skills are very important in a time of war. If men get separated from the main body of the army, they need to know how to find food, shelter, and water for themselves. It is also very important that men know how to take care of injuries that are sustained in battle.
To address the issue, Baden-Powell created the pamphlet, Aids to Scouting. Chapter titles include: Finding the Way in Strange Country, Quickness of Eye, Keeping Yourself Hidden, Tracking (to find food), and Care of Man. The success and popularity of the pamphlet within his own company caused it to get recognition with his superior officers, who shared it with others. In the end many copies of Aids to Scouting were printed and then distributed through the entire army and it even appeared in some stores back in Britain for the price of one shilling.
Young Men in England
After the war had ended, Robert went home to England. Shortly after he arrived, he became aware of the fact that Aids to Scouting had become a best seller. It was being used by some schools and organizations. Also, boys had started reading Aids to Scouting on their own and were practicing the skills in their home towns and the woods surrounding them. Many considered it a new hobby.
The interest boys were showing in outdoor skills, paired with the fact that many young men spent time on the streets causing trouble, inspired Baden-Powell to create a program for youth where he could teach them new hobbies and skills while keeping them out of trouble. He started out by re-writing Aids to Scouting to fit the needs and attention span of youth. Next, he decided to set up a week-long camp for about 20 boys as a trial run for the scouting program.
Brownsea Island
Brownsea Island is located near the south end of the United Kingdom. Robert Baden-Powell was familiar with the Island because he had visited it with his brothers as a young boy. He chose this location for his camp because it was somewhat remote, but required only a short ferry ride to get there. He invited boys from different social and economic backgrounds. Most of the young men who attended the camp were the sons of men who were friends with Robert. One of them was his own nephew.
Each day, campers learned skills related to campaigning, observation, woodcraft, chivalry, saving a life, and patriotism. Near the end of the day, they had supper, played games, and had campfires where they sang songs, told stories, and prayed. The program was a huge success. Because of this, Baden-Powell decided to take his program even further. He began going on speaking tours and writing his book, Scouting for Boys.
Scouting for Boys
The Scouting for Boys handbook outlined the scouting program. It included the scout oath, law, salute, secret sign, uniform, songs, games, patrol emblems, and notes for instructors. Besides the basics, the handbook also covered many hobbies and skill sets including: pioneering (rope work), hut building, bridge building, camping, campfires, cooking, bread making, cattle driving, exploration, boat cruising, path finding, signaling, endurance, physical fitness, keep yourself clean, prevention of disease, chivalry of the knights, self-discipline, self-improvement, be prepared, first aid, history, citizenship, and many others.
Young men began creating their own scout troops and meeting together to teach each other and learn new skills. In the year 1909, the first rally for all scouts was held in London, England, hosted by Robert Baden-Powell. This was the first time that all scouts gathered together in the same location. It was at this meeting that he found out that young women did not want to be left out and were also creating troops and following his handbook. After making this discovery, he talked to his sister, Agnes Baden-Powell who started the Girl Guide Movement in 1910. Shortly afterwards, they shared the program with a friend, Juliette Gordon Low, who brought the movement to the United States where she founded the Girl Scouts of the USA in 1912.
In 1910, the Scouting program was brought to the United States of America by William D. Boyce.
"In 1909, Chicago publisher William D. Boyce lost his way in a dense London fog. A boy came to his aid and, after guiding him, refused a tip, explaining that as a Scout he would not take a tip for doing a Good Turn. This gesture by an unknown Scout inspired a meeting with Robert Baden-Powell, the British founder of the Boy Scouts. William Boyce incorporated the Boy Scouts of America in Washington, D.C. on February 8, 1910.”
Growth in Membership
Membership has grown exponentially over time. The original Boy Scout Movement consisted of the 20 members that gathered on Brownsea Island in 1907. By the year 1909, the scouting movement had over 10,000 members that attended the first scout rally in England. Just one year later, in 1910 many countries had gotten involved including, Australia, Argentina, Chile, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, India, Malaya, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Russia, South Africa, Sweden, and the United States of America. Today, the Boy Scout Movement has moved into almost every country and has grown to include over 41 million youth worldwide. Over the past 102 years, the over 110 million individuals have passed through the Boy Scout program in the United States alone.
Today, the largest national scouting program is located in Indonesia where membership records soared above 17 million scouts in the year 2010. The United States comes in second with almost 4 million membership records. Third place goes to India where there are over 2.5 million members. The list goes down to Monaco where they had 61 registered scouts in the year 2010.
| Top 10 Countries with Scouting and Guiding | |
| Country | Membership |
| Indonesia | 17,103,793 |
| United States | 3,968,206 |
| India | 2,885,460 |
| Philippines | 1,464,765 |
| Thailand | 1,257,645 |
| Bangladesh | 1,015,116 |
| Pakistan | 526,626 |
| United Kingdom | 446,557 |
| Kenya | 323,929 |
| Korea | 201,455 |
Program Expansion
As membership and participation expanded, the list of programs and skill sets available through scouting programs also expanded. Another influence on the development of more programs is technology. As new technologies have developed and youth have become interested in learning more about it, the scouting movement has created programs for things such as robotics, computer sciences, automobile care, and fingerprinting.
These programs give opportunity to youth to sample skills from many different fields of study, which may lead them on the path to a future career. It also introduces activities and skills that can become hobbies.
Scouting in the Outdoors
Much of what is done in the scouting program takes place in the great outdoors. Scouts promote a very healthy, active, outdoor lifestyle. In the United States, there are at least 30 merit badges that deal directly with recreation in the outdoors, and many more merit badges that include some requirements that need to be fulfilled in the outdoors.
The idea behind earning merit badges is that an expert, usually a volunteer expert, agrees to share their abilities with the boys and teaches them how to participate in the skill. Scouts are then required to show proficiency in several areas of that skill set in order to earn the merit badge. Ideally, this means that the scouts will gain enough experience through earning the merit badge that they will be able to practice or participate in the new activity on their own or with a group at home. It also means that they should come away with enough knowledge on the subject that they have the ability to teach their skill to other scouts, family, and friends on a beginner or intermediate level. As scouts share their new found skills and abilities with the people around them at home, non-scouts are also given the opportunity to participate.
The Difference Between Scouts and Others
A study was completed through Baylor University to analyze how the scouting program affected an individual’s behavior in different aspects of their lives. From the Health and Recreation section of the study, they found:
· Regularly participate in boating (sailing, canoeing, kayaking): Scouts are 59 percent more likely than non-Scouts.
· Regularly participate in fishing: Scouts are 36 percent more likely than non-Scouts.
· Participate in camping: Eagle Scouts are approximately 40 percent more likely than other Scouts and 95 percent more likely than non-Scouts to report camping.
· Satisfied with the amount of leisure and free time they have: Eagle Scouts are 51 percent more likely.
· Visit a local, state, or national park: Scouts are 42 percent more likely than non-Scouts.
· Be active in a group that works to protect the environment: Eagle Scouts are 89 percent more likely than other Scouts and 92 percent more likely than non-Scouts.
· Feel it is extremely important to learn something every day: Eagle Scouts are 40 percent more likely to believe it is extremely important to learn something every day, compared to those men who never participated in Boy Scouts.
· Eagle Scouts are also 64 percent more likely than non-Scouts to report they achieved a personal goal in the last year.
· Eagle Scouts exhibit an increased tendency to participate in a variety of health and recreational activities.
Conclusion
Robert Baden-Powell and the scouting movement that he started has had a major influence on leisure and recreation today. Through the scouting program, millions of youth have been introduced to many different recreation and leisure activities they can participate in. Scouts also share these leisure activities with non-scout family and friends, which contributes to the growth of outdoor recreation and leisure activity participation.
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