Scouting

We had a plan yesterday (Friday) to visit some of the village schools near Chiang Dao, but the plans went south because of a four day Buddhist holiday - festival of flowers. We did go to one hill tribe school and found that it was 'scouting day.' All the children were in scout uniforms on the dirt playground doing precise military style drills with a drill master - boys in brown uniforms and girls in blue. There were also tents set up all over the yard and camping gear for cooking.

Dee says that all children in Thailand become scouts in middle/high school. It's an expected part of childhood. There are either wilderness scouts, which we were seeing, who learn woodcraft, wilderness survival and camping skills. There are also first aid scouts. I asked Dee about military service, since what we watched definitely had that flavor. She said that all young men are required to do three years of service, unless they have done a significant (longer than average I think) amount of scouting - maybe analagous to Eagle Scouts?

Thailand has lots of national parks; I think more than any other country in terms of % of national land, so these wilderness skills must be useful.

I wonder what our culture would be like if all children participated in scouting? I wonder if the Thai version of scouting has a similar value structure to ours?

M

M