Scouting is “intelligence” translated from English. It is a youth movement that is widespread throughout the world. Scouts conduct both long-distance and international rallies once every 4 years.
This tradition was borrowed from the Olympic Games. At rallies, participants get to know each other, compete, exchange experience, and improve their qualifications. The first such event took place in 1920 at the Olympia Stadium in London.
This article provides detailed information about this, as well as what a model scouting agency is.
About the history of scouting
The founder of the scout movement is Robert Baden-Powell. In 1899, while in South Africa, he, with the rank of colonel, was the commandant of one of the fortresses that the army of Boers besieged. Since there were only about a thousand soldiers in the garrison, Baden-Powell was forced to create an auxiliary military unit, consisting of local guys. Among other tasks, they went to reconnaissance and delivered reports.
At the same time, the boys unexpectedly showed themselves from the very best side, fighting no worse than adults. They distinguished themselves by their diligence, courage and ingenuity. Thanks to them, the garrison lasted 207 days before reinforcements arrived.
Traffic organization
Baden-Powell realized that the training of military intelligence should begin in childhood. Later, when he became a general and returned to England, he founded a scout movement there. Their first camp was held in 1907 on the island of Brownsi, and in 1908 the book Scouting for Boys was published, which received worldwide fame.
The author of the idea of scouting is the artist and writer E. Seton-Thompson, who created the world's first children's squad, calling it "Forest Indians." Baden-Powell was largely based on this experience, but created a fundamentally new youth organization, receiving the title of baron for this.
Initially, this movement was conceived as the preparation of boys for service in the English army and was first adopted among the countries of the Entente as a method of educating the younger generation, and then around the world. The innovation of scouting was that here children and adults were united in one organization, regardless of race or denomination. Although adults led the children, relations between them were built on an equal footing.
Scouting in Russia
In Russia, the beginning of the emergence of scouting was 1909. Its founder was Colonel Pantyukhov Oleg Ivanovich, who in 1919 was awarded the title of Senior Russian Scout. For the first time, a scout bonfire was lit in Pavlovsky Park in April 1909.
In 1910, the book Scouting for Boys was delivered to Nicholas II from England and aroused his keen interest, since it was consonant with his thoughts. She was translated into Russian. The first attempts to educate pre-conscription youth at the official level were unsuccessful. They were reduced only to drill and initial training without any game element.
Soon, the king sent headquarters captain A.G. Zakharchenko to Great Britain to study the experience of the Scouts, who formed the Scout squad in Moscow. The first congress of scouts took place in 1915, he approved the charter, structure and symbolism of the movement. In 1917, there were already 50 thousand scouts living in 143 cities.
After the revolution
After the October Revolution, this movement began to gradually disintegrate. In 1919 he was declared a reactionary, monarchical and bourgeois phenomenon, and persecution began against him. Only the pioneer movement based on scouting remained in the USSR.
Officially, the scout movement was allowed in the country in 1990. And then Russian scouting began its revival. According to 2007, it totaled approximately 30 thousand participants. To date, a single organization of scouts does not exist.
Scout method
Having caught the children’s desire for informal communication, Baden-Powell realized that they want to unite with each other in order to realize their needs and interests. Therefore, the scout movement was created by him as a long game of scouts who seek to benefit nature, people and the whole world as a whole.
In accordance with these goals, children and adolescents are brought up using the scout method, the basis of which is expressed in the following:
- Voluntary commitment to the realization of his civic duty, duty to God and to himself.
- System of patrols and small groups.
- Personal growth through the implementation of special programs.
- Vigorous activity in natural conditions.
- Traditions and their replenishment by participants.
- Putting theory into practice.
- Continuous support from adults.
"Be ready!" - the motto of the movement, which is closely related to its initial patriotic character. He echoes the words of Baden-Powell, who in one of his articles urged participants to be ready to die for their homeland, if necessary.
The laws
The life of scouts is based on a number of laws. Each organization formulates them in its own way. For example, for one of the organizations uniting Russian young scouts, the laws of scouting are:
- Loyalty to God, devotion to the motherland, parents and their leaders.
- Honesty and truthfulness.
- Help for others.
- Friendship with everyone and fraternity with scouts.
- Compliance with the instructions of parents and superiors.
- Courtesy and helpfulness.
- Love for nature and animals.
- Thrift and respect for other people's property.
- The purity of thoughts, words, deeds, soul and body.
- Hard work and perseverance.
- Cheerfulness and courage.
- Modesty.
Symbols and traditions
Scouts have a number of distinctive signs, symbols, and traditions. Here is some of them:
- Emblem. Represents a lily, the three petals of which symbolize the three main scout debts mentioned above. On the lilies of the Russian scouts - St. George, their patron.
- Handshake. It is carried out with the left hand, as it was borrowed by Baden-Powell from the African tribes who held a spear in their right hand, stuck it into the ground and took a shield from the left in this hand. By this they demonstrated their trust.
- Salute. It is offered in especially solemn occasions (raising and lowering the national flag, promise) and in full uniform.
- Link flag. Has every patrol. And the detachment, squad, national organization has its own banner.
- The cry of the link. An appeal that is concise and expresses a common purpose and mood.
- Ties. They can be different in color, fixed with a clip made of leather or wood. They are used, for example, when dressing wounds, removing a hot pot from a fire.
- Marks of Excellence. These are stripes, badges, cords, ribbons that are worn on the uniform. They are used to determine membership in an organization or its subdivision, achievements, rank, and scout specialization.
What is model scouting?
In the fashion industry, there is a constant desire for new faces, which forces them to attract the so-called scouts to work. They visit the places where the greatest concentration of young people takes place - shopping centers, auditions, beaches, pop and rock concerts, restaurants, night clubs. There, having seen a boy or girl with an unusual appearance, they offer them participation in a particular show or photo shoot.
Recently, whole agencies involved in such activities are gaining great popularity. One of these is the Sigma Scouting modeling agency. Today it operates in approximately 50 cities of Russia and Belarus, starting its work in 2015.
Sigma Scouting is a model center operating in three directions: search, training and promotion of new faces in modeling, as well as in advertising. It employs more than 500 people.
Reviews about Sigma Scouting are different - both positive and negative, there are also neutral ones. So, some people collaborating with him believe that tuition is quite normal, and the agency gives some experience necessary for a future career.
Others believe that at first they were lured there, and then they began to systematically download money from them, without providing real help, calling it a "divorce."