Youth Involvement Policy
Since its founding in 1908, Scouting has been a non-formal educational movement. The Scout Programme is the procedure through which our Movement implements its educational purpose.
Robert Baden-Powell (B-P) set out the elements of the programme in Scouting for Boys, first published in 1908, and updated as a single volume over the next 15 years. Reading it, we can find an explanation of What, How, and Why we are doing all that we are now doing in Scouting.
B-P’s intuition was exceptional over 110 years ago in that Scouting’s over educational model was conceived with the elements of what cognitive science says today is how humans best learn. Scouting’s educational approach is focused on the development of life skills - the character elements that recent research in Education, Psychology, and Economics have called ‘personality traits’, ‘executive functions’, or ‘non-cognitive skills’, which have been proven to be fundamental for learning and life success.
In the 21st Century, while the educational purpose of our Movement’s essential characteristics live on, the needs of young people and the methods of programme delivery have changed. There is a need for a general framework that unites Scouts around the globe, a framework that transcends different cultures and conditions, which will withstand the test of time. The World Scout Youth Programme Policy sets out the common elements of Scouting education that a National Scout Organisation (NSO) should implement according to its own circumstances, sharing the concept of Scouting as education for life with youth all over the world.
From: World Scout Youth Programme Policy. World Scout Bureau Inc. Feb 2015.
You can read the complete Youth Programme Policy here.
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