Reformed Pionýr
children’s movement marks 25th anniversary
A After the Velvet
Revolution of 1989, everybody thought that the country’s biggest children’s
organizations, Pionýr, would fall into oblivion,
being replaced by the more respected Scouts. But Pionýr has bounced back and this year celebrates
25 years since it was reinvented. Ruth Fraňková spoke to Pionýr’s Jakub Kořínek
and first asked him if the organisation had any ties to its communist predecessor.
“We don’t have any ties to any ideology,
political or religious. We are just an organisation for children. We do leisure
time activities, summer camps, trips. We have groups and open clubs for
non-members.”
B So
the organisation has nothing to do with the Communist Party or with the former
Pionýr. “Pionýr was not tied that
much to the Communist Party. It wasn’t a part of the Communist Party. I can’t
say that there were no ties, but it was always mainly about activities for
children: summer camps, winter camps and so on. That has not changed. Pionýr
today still works for children. In these aspects it is the same. We just don’t
have any ties to any ideology. That’s the only change.”
C What
about the Scouts? Do you regard them as competition? “I can’t say that we are in any strict competition. The
target group is similar, of course. Some of the activities are also
similar as well. But there are also some significant differences. We have no
ties to any ideology, while boy scouts have ties to Christianity. Also our activities are co-educated
while boys’ scouts, as the title suggests, have their activities separated, in
principle. So that’s also a big difference.”
D How
big is the organisation today? How many people are there currently in Pionýr? “There are currently about 15 thousand members. But as
I sad, we have open clubs, which are open, so anyone can come and join the
activities. Our summer and winter camps are also open and about one-third to
one half of their participants are non-members.”
E What
about the attributes of Pionýr, such as the blue shirts and red scarves? Have
you kept any of these? “We don’t have blue
shirts any more. We have a new logo, but there is no dress code. We do have
some common things, which you can wear but you are not required to. Like many
things in Pionýr today, it is optional.”
Adjusted to (1)
oblivion – zapomnění
bounce back – otřepat se,
sebrat se
1) Read the article and match each of the headings to
a paragraph.
1 Ties to political ideologies
2 Uniforms
3 New Pionýr organization
4 Differences between Scout and Pionýr organizations
5 Members of the organization
2) Read the article and answer the questions.
1 What did the organization look like before the year
1989?
2 What changed after the revolution?
3 What are their activities like?
4 What are differences between Scout and Pionýr
organizations?
5 How can we recognize a Pionýr member?
3) Explain the following words and phrases.
1 predecessor
2 target group
3 co-educated activities
4 non-members
5 optional
4) Answer the following questions.
What is Pionýr striving for? What does an ideal
Pionýr look like? Who is a scout and what is Junák organization? What activities
are done at their summer camps? How do these organizations influence children?
What do you know about Czech Sokol Organization?
Video:
Tips, sources of information:
Source:
(1)
FRAŇKOVÁ,
Ruth. Reformed Pionýr children’s movement marks 25th anniversary. Český
rozhlas [online]. 2015 [cit. 2015-09-20]. Available at:
http://radio.cz/en/section/curraffrs/ reformed-pionyr-childrens-movement-marks-25th-anniversary
No comments:
Post a Comment