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
