The Positive Benefits of Scouting

-

For the most part our school age boys and young men refuse from taking part in extracurricular activities.  Involvement in uniform groups especially for our males has become a rarity in the Jamaican society. It was a rather refreshing sight to have seen a young man dressed in full scout uniform making his way to school last Friday while on my way to work. This occurrence signalled to me that all is not lost in Jamaica despite the harsh economic times and the struggles we face daily as a people.
As a society we need to revitalize the scouting movement in Jamaica and encourage our children especially our young men to get involved in positive extra-curricular activities such as this. Scouting was started in the early 1900,s by Robert Baden-Powell and is still very much relevant today as it was back then. The Scouting organization works towards giving young men the knowledge, skills and life lessons that will help them mature and succeed as they become adults. In an era when many of our boys are facing a crisis of masculinity, a sense of despair and under achievement, the scouting organization offers boys a variety of benefits including friendship, cooperation, leadership skills and character building.   Too many of our boys are only interested in the “G Factor”, that is, guns, girls, gangs, ganja and gaza/gully (counted collectively). We need to work harder to expose and re-socialise our boys into other areas of the culture in order to have them as well rounded and productive members of the society.
With almost fifty per cent of Jamaican households headed by females, scouting can be used and should be used to bridge the gap to provide positive male role models to our boys.  As more and more parents and guardians take on extra working hours in order to earn additional income to make ends meet we are most likely to see an increase in the need for safe and productive avenues for boys to get involved in some structured after school programme. Scouting should be in all our schools. However, too many of our schools do not have this offering; we must know ask ourselves why this is so and put measures in place to address this. Too many of Jamaica’s youths are at risk and are in need of rescuing.
As a worldwide brotherhood, Scouting is unique. It is based on the principles of loving and serving God, human dignity and the rights of individuals, and of recognizing the obligation of members to develop and use their potential.
In order for us to have a better society, a society in which we can live peacefully, as well as, raise families and work, we need to offer the necessary support and incentives to our uniformed groups and organizations to carry out their mandate of equipping the next generations with the necessary skills to help us realize the 2030 vision of become a developed society.
Wayne Campbell is an educator and social commentator with an interest in development policies as they affect culture and or gender issues.
waykam@yahoo.com

www.wayaine.blogspot.com

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Insecticides, Air Travel And Safety

-
Image
We are not insects, we are human beings. To travel by air is a privilege. Air travel is a costly adventure as well.   Those of us who have been fortunate to travel oftentimes experience some amount of excitement leading up to that moment. This heightened sense of emotion happens to almost all of us irrespective of whether we are a frequent flyer or a first timer. This buzz never goes away regardless of whether you travel economy or first class. However, for some folks there is a sense of nervousness during travel. There are numerous lessons we can learn whenever we travel. For example, our outlook on life is often altered due to the interaction with other peoples and cultures. Once the airplane takes off and you begin to ascend into the clouds, sometimes of altitude unbelievable to those without this experience, one can feel like someone who is imprisoned until your flight lands and you disembark. It is usually at those altitudes that the airline crew informs you that they are going to
Read more

Vessels of Honour: Celestial Treasures

-
Image
“Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.”- Psalm 51:10. Many of us have a skewed understanding of God our creator. In many instances we believe or are led to believe that in order to be used by God we must be pure and sinless. This tainted view undoubtedly also impacts our relationships we have with God. Having such a distorted view of God and what God demands from us oftentimes lead us into disobedience. The same is true concerning the weight of condemnation. It is for this reason why it is critical for us to spend time in the Word of God which is the Bible. We all need to know God for ourselves. We often make excuses to study the Bible, yet, we will spend hours on social media or hours gossiping people’s business. Nowhere is gossiping more pronounced than in the church. The church as we know it is not a place of honesty. Why do I say this? Oftentimes we turn to the church in our moments of weakness and vulnerability yet, the solace and compassion that
Read more

Interrogating Black Fatherhood

-
Image
“What I've realized is that life doesn't count for much unless you're willing to do your small part to leave our children all of our children a better world. Any fool can have a child. That doesn't make you a father. It's the courage to raise a child that makes you a father.”- Barack Obama. Fatherhood, especially black fatherhood oftentimes is not as celebrated as it should. As a result we continue to hear of the arguments surrounding my mother who fathered me. There are specific roles concerning the sexes and frankly speaking mothers cannot father children, likewise fathers cannot mother children. Indeed as a society we need to move the discussion away from these examples of oxymoron. This flawed premise has been around so long and unfortunately has become normalized in many societies. However, the time has come for us to have a serious and honest discussion as this argument must be interrogated and replaced with a sense of responsibility. In fact, there is one m
Read more