Scouts & legends

At the begging of the 2000's I discovered a great educational system, with a highly powerful and global impact on children and youths, and I immediately joined. It’s called The Scouts, the biggest international organization for children and youth, aiming, as they promote, to create a better world. You can only imagine how quickly I was lured into this. I have discovered their highly efficient pedagogical system, called “the scout method”, a progressive system of self-education, based on non-formal outdoor activities and I started to work on it with a bunch of kids and youngsters. 

It was then when I understood the role of a good legend backing up the educational endeavor, as a symbolic framework, and even more, the importance of a properly-chosen and properly-told legend. And it was also then when I started to develop a new educational tool, based on the scout method, but a bit simpler, more flexible and adjustable to specific educational contexts, such as the alternative care. It took me a few years, lot of work and some sacrifices, but in 2008 it was ready. I named it ALE – Attractive Living Education.

It was summer and, as scouts do, we went on a camp somewhere in the woods. The scout patrols I was leading had to search the area and to map it, as accurate as possible. The legend was that they were modern explorers of an uncharted territory, each with a role inside the team – geographer, photographer, journalist, botanist, zoologist, constructor, tracker and designer - and the success of a future expedition lied on the accuracy of their map of the forest. 

Everybody entered their role brilliantly except one, who wanted to be a knight. Obviously, a knight was a character from some other legend, but this young man was so deeply caught into his own fantasy that no logical argument could make him change his mind. He even brought with him a wooden sword, and because of his extravagance he was pretty much rejected by the group. Luckily, I had the inspiration to change a part of the story, and so he became a time-traveler knight, the former owner of the forest, meeting the modern explorers and helping them with the map. Why not?! It was just a legend. For him, the story made sense and so he could integrate and work together with the team without being further treated as a bizarre and odd fellow. 

And they actually drew a great map!  

_{photo credits: Laura V., Illa M.}