Scouting Out Action

08 January 2010

One of the key lessons you learn when studying different generations is that the past so often repeats itself. Whether it is the revival 80’s fashion in the next sex in the city movie or Rage Against the Machines classic self titled album going number 1 again in Britain 17 years after its first release with the support of a huge facebook campaign. But most interesting of all is the growing popularity of the scouting movement within Australia  with protective parents wanting their children to take some risks in life but in a safe manner.

As important as technology is, ultimately you need to be well grounded in basic skills to be able to succeed in life. This blog has already spoken of the importance of the 3R’s in our education and it is interesting to note that children and parents are now more than ever interested in discovering the skills taught by the scouting movement.

Working under the principle of ‘be prepared’ it is interesting to see that these life skills still have currency in our modern world. I am confident that no matter what technological breakthroughs we develop into the future some of the fundamentals of life will always remain. Often I think this is something older people don’t realize. For example the media and political class’s obsession with twitter – what is it all about? I mean no one cares what people are up to or thinking at any point in the day yet it is promoted as this fantastic thing. Twitter is already over, with a number of celebs and young people logging off, indeed social network suicide sites such as http://suicidemachine.org/  I believe will only increase in popularity.

And Why? Well in the end we still like to interact with real people and do real things because we are human.