Boy Scouts of America

One of many organizations for children formed at the beginning of the 20th century by members of the PROGRESSIVE EDUCATION movement to provide educational experiences that would supplement the work of schools during the days and weeks when school was not in session. Founded in 1910, adult leaders of the Boy Scouts of America sought to channel and shape the “play” instincts of young boys and the “gang instincts” of adolescent boys into educationally enriching and socially constructive activities that would ultimately produce socially responsible adults. Geared to the needs of rural children, the founding of the Boy Scouts followed by four years the founding of the Boys’ Clubs of America for urban youngsters. In 1912, two similar organizations for girls were founded— the Camp Fire Girls and the Girl Scouts. All four groups were secular models of organizations such as the Young Men’s Christian Association, the Young Women’s Christian Association and the Cadets of Temperance, which religious groups had set up for youngsters in the previous century. Like those predecessor organizations, the Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts and other secular groups provided adult leaders with handbooks on how to operate local chapters, and they published informative, entertaining periodicals such as Boys’ Life and The American Girl for the youngsters. Scouting for boys actually began in England in 1907 as a result of the writings and efforts of Lord Baden-Powell, but the American organization’s rules differed substantially from those of comparable overseas groups, which did not permit racial and religious discrimination.

Many local scout groups in the United States were formed by church groups that limited membership to children of families in that church. Such discrimination caused a sharp decline in Boy Scout membership, as new activities such as Little League baseball and other nondiscriminatory after-school recreational activities attracted children from middle- and upper-middle-income families away from scouting. To halt the decline, the Boy Scouts launched an outreach program in 1991 to attract boys they had previously rejected— sons of sharecroppers in disadvantaged rural areas; disadvantaged children from urban slums; and immigrant children. As part of the “Scoutreach ’91” program, The Boy Scout Handbook was translated into 14 different languages. In addition to ending racial and religious discrimination, Scoutreach also modernized career exploration programs by substituting computing and family life for blacksmithing and beekeeping as activities leading to merit badge rewards. By 2000, Scoutreach had rebuilt enrollment to more than 4 million—still far short of the more than 6.5 million members it boasted in 1972, however.

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