{"id":2183,"date":"2010-01-25T20:20:06","date_gmt":"2010-01-26T00:20:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/norwichhumanities\/?p=2183"},"modified":"2010-01-25T20:31:50","modified_gmt":"2010-01-26T00:31:50","slug":"scouting-in-the-united-kingdom-an-introduction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/norwichhumanities\/2010\/01\/scouting-in-the-united-kingdom-an-introduction\/","title":{"rendered":"Scouting in the United Kingdom: An Introduction"},"content":{"rendered":"

For my Humanities 310 research project I am observing the influence that scouting has had on youth in Norfolk both now and throughout its history here. \u00a0My experiential \u00a0component will involve scouting as well. \u00a0In late November I linked up with a group of Explorer Scouts<\/a> in Norwich. \u00a0I have attended one meeting already (more details below) and will be attending weekly two hour meetings every Friday for the remainder of my time at UEA. \u00a0In addition to my volunteer work I have added another experiential component. \u00a0Since one can be a scout until age 25 in the U.K. (versus 18 in the U.S.) I have joined a local scout Network for 18-25 year olds. \u00a0I have already gone on one kayaking trip with this group prior to winter break (more details below) and plan on attending additional group functions with them this semester as well.<\/p>\n

Basic Background of Scouting<\/p>\n

The concept of scouting was created in 1907 by Robert Baden Powell, a retired Lieutenant in the British Army. Powell believed that British nationalism was dwindling so he pioneered the idea of creating camps for young men to hone their physical, moral and mental abilities in hopes that training the youth in these values would lead Britain towards a brighter future . \u00a0In 1908 Powell published Scouting For Boys, <\/em>the original text that sparked the scouting movement. \u00a0Powell’s book continues to be one of the most widely read texts of all time. \u00a0The idea of scouting spread like wildfire and over the next few years many countries began to develop scouting programs of their own. \u00a0The Boy Scouts of America<\/a> got their start in 1910. \u00a0This Summer’s National Scout Jamboree<\/a>, held in Fort A.P. Hill, VA marks the 100th anniversary of scouting in the U.S. \u00a0Today there are over 200 countries that have scouting organizations. \u00a0It remains the largest youth organization in the world.<\/p>\n

Volunteer Experience<\/p>\n

I had a pretty good idea from the moment I arrived in Norwich that I wanted to get involved with a local scouting group in some way. \u00a0I began to search for groups back in October. \u00a0Finally through an organization called “Vinvolved” that was present at the Job and Volunteer fair in the LCR in the fall, I was given the contact information of the Norfolk Chapter Scout Executive, Mike Clemo. \u00a0After corresponding with Mike I discovered that the Norfolk scout headquarters was located in Norwich, not that far away from Sainsbury’s. \u00a0I asked Mike if I could stop in one morning to meet with him and take a look at the scouting headquarters and he agreed. \u00a0During our meeting I asked him about possible volunteer opportunities with local scout troops. \u00a0After telling him that I would prefer to work with the 14-18 age group he assigned me to a group of Explorer Scouts that meet weekly off of Bowthorpe Road. \u00a0I got a ride to a meeting in the fall with David, another scout executive that I met with, and really enjoyed the first meeting I attended.<\/p>\n

The biggest difference between scouting in the U.S. and scouting in the U.K. is that it is co-educational here. \u00a0Although this was not something I was used to I actually thought the meeting ran fairly smoothly with both sexes present. \u00a0During the meeting the scouts were working on their Cooking Badge and had to bake two cakes. \u00a0They had chosen the week before to make a pineapple upside down cake and a chocolate and orange cake. \u00a0Both cakes sounded rather exotic to me but I was pleasantly surprised with the results. \u00a0My first immediate observation as I began helping out was that I could distinguish a similar accent among most of the scouts present. \u00a0Just like in London when we didn’t get an accurate sense of “Englishness” because we were in a major international city, I felt as though I had not fully grasped what a Norfolk\/Norwich accent sounded like since most of the time I find myself interacting with students from all over the country and the world. \u00a0It was pretty cool to finally discover that a bunch of people actually spoke with a similar accent in one location. \u00a0Overall I noticed more similarities than differences between U.S. scouts and U.K. scouts during my first meeting. \u00a0Like with any group natural leaders emerged and some people put in more work then others. \u00a0Overall the uniforms were pretty comparable but I didn’t get a chance to observe that too closely. \u00a0I look forward to attending more meetings in the coming weeks, getting to know the scouts better and continuing to learn about the similarities and differences between scouting here and back in the U.S.<\/p>\n

2 hours complete<\/p>\n

Norfolk Network Kayaking Experience<\/p>\n

I mentioned above that I had a chance to go kayaking with the Norfolk Network group in the fall. \u00a0We went to Swanton Morley <\/a>,\u00a0a small village about 15 minutes northwest of Norwich. \u00a0Here there are a few small streams that eventually turn into the Norwich Broads if you follow them long enough. \u00a0It was a cold, rainy, early December day and we were encouraged to bundle up as much as possible. \u00a0Eight of us kayaked for about two hours before the rain started to pick up and things became a little less enjoyable. \u00a0After carrying our boats back to shore and changing out of our wet clothes we headed off to a local pub where we grabbed some lunch. \u00a0Out of the eight of us present five of us were new to the Norfolk Network. \u00a0There was a scout on the trip from Finland and another from Romania. \u00a0It was fascinating to discuss our varying international scouting experiences. \u00a0All in all this was a wonderful trip. I met some great people and I hope that there will be more events coming up in the near future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For my Humanities 310 research project I am observing the influence that scouting has had on youth in Norfolk both now and throughout its history here. \u00a0My experiential \u00a0component will involve scouting as well. \u00a0In late November I linked up with a group of Explorer Scouts in Norwich. \u00a0I have attended one meeting already (more […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[742],"tags":[2025,804,2028,2027,2030,2026,2024,2029,2021],"class_list":["post-2183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-henry","tag-explorer-scouts","tag-international","tag-kayaking","tag-norfolk-network","tag-regional-accents","tag-robert-baden-powell","tag-scouting","tag-swanton-morley","tag-volunteering"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/norwichhumanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/norwichhumanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/norwichhumanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/norwichhumanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/norwichhumanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2183"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/norwichhumanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2183\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/norwichhumanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/norwichhumanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/norwichhumanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}