Scouting for adults?

Why can’t we have something like Scouts for adults?

We have Scouting for kids because we think it’ll do children and teens good to learn things, to find out about the world and nature and technology and stuff, but we don’t think adults need to know or be reminded of this?

As things are, the only way an adult can be involved in these activities is to become a leader – and that’s not the same thing at all.

For a start, a leader would have to undergo police checks etc – necessary to protect the young people with whom the adult would be interacting.

And even with that, it’s not the same thing. As it is, adults teach, they don’t learn – oh, sure, there are training courses to qualify Assistant Leaders and Leaders for each section of Scouting

Oh, I did the course that you need to take Cubs camping (Scout leaders don’t need such; apparently it’s assumed that they already know it all!) and I did the first aid courses to keep my certificate “live”.

But most of what I learned in my 18+ years as a qualified Cub Scout and then Scout Leader I learned informally, from other leaders in passing, as it were.

I learned to map-read from watching other leaders training kids, I was never taught it myself. That’s how I learned most of what I got from Scouting.

And I never got the chance to put that teaching to the test: no hikes, camps, pioneering, canoeing, sailing, or anything, for adults.

Why not?

Isn’t it important for adults to learn how to cope with emergencies, even small ones? It’d put paid to the common male boast that they don’t even know how to sew on a button or boil an egg!

Isn’t it important for adults to learn tolerance for other cultures/religions/ways of life/ways of thought/ways of being?


Of course, Scouting as it stands now [or as it stood in my neck of the woods when I was in it, from 70s-90s] would have to be severely overhauled. It’s still seen as mainly militaristic, middle-class, white Christian [not necessarily in that order!]

But here’s a chance for adults of all races, classes cultures and creeds to get together on a level playing field and lean to coöperate and to accept and value each other’s differences – the activities would really be a mask for this lesson, which, let’s face it, a lot of adults could do with learning today.