This must vary from country to country. The adventures I participated in with scouts were not even remotely as adventurous as some school trips and holidays.
Scouts and guides provide ‘mental health boost for life’
41–50 of 180 posts
Re: Scouts and guides provide ‘mental health boost for life’
#42I recently heard some advice from foreign students in the Netherlands, to not mention ones time in the scouts to Dutch co-students. Apparently it's looked down upon enough that it's best to keep it quiet, especially if you're trying to get a room in a house rented by students. Can a Dutch person comment on this? Is this true, and if so, why?
I'm Dutch and have spent several years as a scout myself, and know several others who have done the same. I've never seen anyone getting looked down upon for that. Perhaps you'll be made fun of if the scouts in your country include merit badges and you keep showing them to everyone, but in that case you kind of deserve it...
Re: Scouts and guides provide ‘mental health boost for life’
#43Earlier quoted context omitted.
> if you fail to pay the bills, you aren't going to die. I don't know where you live, but in certain places failing to pay your bills means you end up in the cold rain with nothing to eat.
> I don't know where you live, but in certain places failing to pay your bills means you end up in the cold rain with nothing to eat. That's still not the same as dying. There are homeless people who still manage to get by for years on, despite having no means whatsoever.
Which brings us to the end of the thought process: different people (are equipped to?) perceive situations differently & react differently. If the scouts prepared me to not be afraid of being thrown out of my home, or the army gave me the means to survive in life threatening situations, I think it's an even greater sign of character, or maybe just discipline and maturity, to recognise serious situations which aren't the same as dying. After all, your training as a soldier or scout will mean nothing, if you haven't accepted that the things it prepares you for are (or will be) actually a problem.
In my mind, that's not a different perspective. It's the same perspective, applied elsewhere.
Re: Scouts and guides provide ‘mental health boost for life’
#44I was in scouts and cadets here in New Zealand when I was a teenager and continue to spend a fair amount of time in the outdoors (I also did Outward Bound when I was 16), and I can definitely relate to the researcher's findings. When you're 2 days walk from civilisation, it's pissing down with rain, and you're cold, wet, hungry, and tired, you get a different perspective on life and the "soft" challenges that you fac…
One thing that I got from my time as a scout is to live and work with people I can't stand, which is something that has helped me a lot since that time.
Definitely, even if you hate them you have to work with the rest of your patrol and make your situation as good as possible, whether that be by stringing up tarps, building tripods to hang your stuff on, making an axe yard, or caring for Mike who is having yet another asthma attack/seizure/hypothermia/etc.
I was lucky enough to be in a large, non-religous troop that happened to have a bus & be very well organized (4 Junior Assistant Scoutmasters!), definitely a great experience, only wish I had gotten further than life.
Re: Scouts and guides provide ‘mental health boost for life’
#45It might be one of the cases where correlation doesn't imply causation. For an objective study, we would need to assign children to groups randomly. Otherwise, we can miss various obscure selection effects. (For example, if children who are more likely to be scouts, are also likely to be from a particular socioeconomic background).
More details on the study from NewScientist [1] They analysed data from a long-running study of almost 10,000 people across the UK who were born in November 1958. They found that 28 per cent of the study’s participants had been involved in the Scouts or Guides, and that these were 15 per cent less likely to suffer from anxiety or mood disorders at the age of 50 than their peers who didn’t join. Scouts or Guides were…
There is a selection bias issue here. E.g. if there were some underling genetic disorder that causes anxiety, then that person is less likely to join a group.
Re: Scouts and guides provide ‘mental health boost for life’
#46I recently went to an army reserve training for 13 days.
It was intense but really great. Days were from 6AM to 21pm. I really appreciated how everything was structured and very organized. Pressure was there and could be felt, the purpose was to learn everything a soldier needs to know, so the purpose was clear and well defined. You could not hang there and pretend that you don't understand why you're learning this or that.
Everything was demonstrated, explained and shown.
What I remember from these two weeks is how 3 guys started threatening me because they thought I reported the showers not being cleaned properly, while I was just talking about using flip flops in showers.
Lack of popularity caught up on me, and a guy threw a fake grenade at me, and I went to emergency care but lost no hearing, but could not complete the training, so I came back disappointed, but still happy of those 2 weeks since most of my scores were okay.
So like usual, those types of programs are great, but unless you prevent people from behaving like predators, people won't take is seriously.
Re: Scouts and guides provide ‘mental health boost for life’
#47Defund all 'social research'. This article is should be proof enough of all the money and opportunity lost, not to mention harmful influence on policies, on make work research.
Re: Scouts and guides provide ‘mental health boost for life’
#48I was a boy scout in the late '70s and early '80s. Loved it, and although I was too young to care at the time, my son will probably not join because religion. Yes, they have a "non-religious promise" now, but you're still subjected to it. I don't care for it, and my son will (like I did) get to choose for himself but (unlike me) without being forcibly subjected to the propaganda. All that said, scouting has changed s…
You want him to choose his own path but are keeping him from interacting with others who share a different world view to yourself? It seems more like you've chosen the philosophical and theological positions for him and want to lock him away from other influences.
That would appear to be "religious [fundamentalist] atheism".
Hiding our kids from other ideologies to me is like hiding them from danger (using knives say) - they need exposure to it in order to learn a good approach and how to handle it.
FWIW I was an atheist cub scout (UK), atheist Scout, agnostic Venture Scout, and ultimately a Christian cub leader... but I'm almost certain the exposure to Christian ideals in Scouting had nothing to do with my conversion. The closest we got to theological influence was as teenagers badgering our leaders as to why we had to make a promise to a God we didn't believe in.
Groups vary of course, in the UK the greatest influence is probably the individual leader. Last I knew leaders had to be monotheist, I expect that's changed now.
The church parades of my youth would convince anyone that Christianity were baloney.
tl;dr don't throw the baby out with the bath water.
Re: Scouts and guides provide ‘mental health boost for life’
#49It might be one of the cases where correlation doesn't imply causation. For an objective study, we would need to assign children to groups randomly. Otherwise, we can miss various obscure selection effects. (For example, if children who are more likely to be scouts, are also likely to be from a particular socioeconomic background).
More details on the study from NewScientist [1] They analysed data from a long-running study of almost 10,000 people across the UK who were born in November 1958. They found that 28 per cent of the study’s participants had been involved in the Scouts or Guides, and that these were 15 per cent less likely to suffer from anxiety or mood disorders at the age of 50 than their peers who didn’t join. Scouts or Guides were…
Part of it is you are forced to work through those kinds of issues in a hostile environment (outdoors, in the cold & wet with raccoons, bears, etc depending where your at) with other kids who are apt to get on your nerves after a while. Either you come out a more rounded person who can deal with shit blowing up in your face & making something amazing out of said explosion, or you stop showing up to go on monthly outings.
Re: Scouts and guides provide ‘mental health boost for life’
#50I was in scouts and cadets here in New Zealand when I was a teenager and continue to spend a fair amount of time in the outdoors (I also did Outward Bound when I was 16), and I can definitely relate to the researcher's findings. When you're 2 days walk from civilisation, it's pissing down with rain, and you're cold, wet, hungry, and tired, you get a different perspective on life and the "soft" challenges that you fac…
This! Its about being responsible for yourself. That teaches worlds of healthy attitude.
One of my Scouts likes long-range bicycling (mountains, centuries etc). He had engraved on the headset of his bike "There's only one way to get home" to remind himself that its all up to him.