Louise Stevens Bryant

“ If women are to be effective in modern political society, they must have from earliest youth gregarious interests and occupations.
Among the scout activities that tend to develop this larger community sense are games, athletic sports of all kinds, including team work and competition between small, well-knit groups. Folk dancing and other forms of amusement, such as dramatics, pageants, and story-telling, serve a similar purpose because they all mean the possession of a resource not only for the right use of the girl's own leisure time, but for serving this need in the community. ”

“ It keeps constantly before them the fact that they represent a community to whose laws they have voluntarily subscribed, and whose honor they uphold. It is well, too, to have an impersonal costume, if for no other reason than to counteract the tendency of girls to concentrate upon their personal appearance. To have a neat, simple, useful garb is a novel experience to many an overdressed doll who has been taught to measure all worth by extravagance of appearance. ”

“ Scouting in the public schools.—Only that organization for young people can succeed which contributes directly to their chief business, which is getting an education. One reason the girl scout organization is received so cheerfully by school people is that it works into the school's own plans to a remarkable degree. Local councils have a larger representation from the public schools than from any other single agency. Scout leaders are drawn largely from the teaching force because teachers naturally have a better insight into the needs of young people than any other single group. ”

“ A scout whose mind is filled with interesting facts about birds and animals and trees, and who is busy playing games with her companions or in making useful and beautiful things and in rendering active service to her home and community, is apt to have a healthy mind without thinking much about it. ”

“ Community health habits are quite as important as the purely personal, and the older girl scout is expected to become a “health guardian,” which means that she takes an intelligent interest in the things pertaining to public health, such as playgrounds, swimming pools, school lunches, the water and milk supplies, clean streets, the disposition of waste and garbage, the registration of births, and the prevention of infant mortality. ”

“ The girl-scout organization encourages thrifty habits and economy in buying in all of its activities. The scout troops are self-supporting, and are expected to earn most of their equipment by means of rallies, pageants, plays, as well as by individual effort. One of the 10 scout laws is that “A girl scout is thrifty.”
Health.—The girl scout learns that “a cheerful scout, a clean scout, a helpful scout is a well scout. She is the only scout that really is prepared.” ”

“ The spirit of play infused into the simplest and most repetitious of household tasks banishes drudgery. “Give us, oh, give us,” says Carlyle, “the man who sings at his work. He will do more in the same time, he will do it better, he will persevere longer. Wondrous is the strength of cheerfulness ”

“ Proficiency badges.—After a girl scout has attained to first class there are still other worlds to conquer, as the badges she has earned on the way are only a few of the many to be worked toward. There are no less than 47 subjects in which a scout may achieve, and more are being added. Just to mention a few: A girl scout may be an artist, a beekeeper, a business woman, a craftsman, or a dancer; an electrician, a farmer, a flower finder, a horsewoman, an interpreter, a motorist ”

“ Following directions given to a group is quite a different matter from doing something alone, and most of us need special training in this. A group of eight has been found to work the best, because it is the largest number that can be handled by a person just beginning to be a leader, and, moreover, elementary qualities of leadership seem to exist in just about the proportion of one in eight. ”

“ Parents, schools, religious denominations of all sorts, business, producers, women's clubs, and other social and philanthropic organizations. The council acts as the link between the girl scouts and the community. It has the same relation to the separate troops that the school board has to the schools—that is, it guides and decides upon policies and standards, interprets the scouts to the community and the community to the scouts. It does not do the executive or teaching work; that belongs to the directors, captains, lieutenants, and patrol leaders. ”

“ Some observers have criticized the girl-scout organization because of its apparently military character. It is true that the girls wear a uniform of khaki and are grouped in patrols corresponding to the “fours” in the Army; that they salute and learn simple forms of drill and signaling. But the reason they do these is because the military organization happens to be the oldest form of organization in the world, and it works. It is the best way men have found [8] of getting a number of persons to work together. ”

“ Handicrafts of many sorts enter into the program of the girl scouts. In camping, girls must know how to set up tents, build lean-to's, and construct fireplaces. They must also know how to make knots of various sorts to use for bandages, tying parcels, hitching, etc. Among the productive occupations in which Proficiency Badges are awarded are cooking, house planning, beekeeping, dairying and general farming, gardening, millinery, weaving, and needlework.
While production has left the home, consumption is increasingly the business of the home-keeping woman. ”

“ There are few purchases, even for men's own use, which women do not have a hand in selecting. Practically the entire burden of household buying in all departments falls on the woman, who is thus in a position to learn how to spend wisely and make the most of each dollar. ”

“ Through cooperation with the deans of women in all parts of the country, and with the Intercollegiate Community Service Association, the college women are being influenced to take up scouting as an extra academic activity before graduation, and as a form of community service in their home towns later. ”

“ The interest of baseball is not confined to any one age. The rules of the game are the same for all, and the smallest boy's judgment on the skill of the players may [7] be as valid as that of the oldest “fan.” Girls have had in the past no such common interests. Their games have been either solitary or in very small groups, in activities largely of a personal character. ”

“ The method of preparation followed is that found in nature, whereby young animals and birds play at doing all the things they will need to do well when they are grown and must feed and fend for themselves and their babies. ”

“ This growth is due to a spontaneous demand of community after community for scouting for girls, and not to deliberate propaganda on the part of the national headquarters. The reasons for it are therefore to be sought in the activities and methods themselves, which make such widespread appeal. ”

“ From the start the organization has been nonsectarian and open to all races and nationalities. Through the International Council the Girl Scouts are affiliated with the Girl Guides of England and all parts of the British Empire, and similar organizations in other parts of the world. ”

“ These form part of the work of the education department, which has general oversight of all that pertains to training for leaders and the development of standards of work, including the important feature of coordinating the girl scouts with the other educational and social organizations. Camping also forms a part of the work of the education department. ”

“ Under health interests, she must know the main rules of healthful living, her own height and weight, and their relation to the standard; some simple first-aid points such as stopping bleeding, removing speck from eye, and bandaging a sprained ankle. ”