The Girl Scouts: Their History and PracticeGirl Scouts of the United States of America
History
The Girl Scouts: Their History and Practice
Girl Scouts of the United States of America
Girl Scouts of the United States of America
_The Court of Honor._ The Patrol Leaders and their "seconds" form the
"Court of Honor," which manages the internal affairs of the troop. Its
institution is the best guarantee for permanent vitality and success for
the troop. It takes a great deal of minor routine work off the shoulders
of the Scout captain, and at the same time gives to the girls a real
responsibility and a serious outlook on the affairs of their troop. It
was mainly due to the Patrol Leaders and to the Courts of Honor that the
British Boy Scouts were able to carry on useful work during the war. The
Court of Honor decides rewards and punishments, and interprets rules in
individual instances.
_Methods._ Not only should the activities be those which they are not
getting through other channels, but they should be presented in ways
which attract the girls. It should never be forgotten that Scouting is
chosen by the girls because it _interests them_. Use as bait the food
the fish likes. If you bait your hook with the kind of food that you
yourself like, unless you happen to have a natural affinity for young
people, it is probable that you will not catch many. If the Scouting
program fails to interest girls, they will find something that does.
The program should be varied, and never iron-clad, but adapted to fill
the needs of the special girl. Examples: Few city girls have much chance
to be in the country. An effort should be made to get them out on hikes,
and week-end camping trips. Some homes and schools do not teach the
girls such practical things as cooking, bedmaking, while some groups of
girls have no conception of obligation to other people or any sense of
citizenship. In each case, the wise captain attempts to discover the
novel activity, which besides being helpful, will attract the girls. The
wise captain does not expect girls to pay great attention to any one
subject for very long, and does not teach or lecture. They get enough of
that in school. The captain is rather a sort of older playfellow who
lets the girl choose activities which interest her and she will learn
for herself.
Most of the activities will be of the nature of play. Play is always a
means to mental and physical development. The best play leads towards
adult forms of leadership, co-operation, entertaining, artistic
execution and community service.
Any captain who finds herself judging her troop's efficiency by the old
fashioned system of examination marks based on a hundred per cent scale,
shows herself out of touch not only with the Scouting spirit, but with
the whole trend of modern education today. When the tendency of great
universities is distinctly toward substituting psychological tests for
examinations, when the United States Army picks its officers by such
tests, it would be absurd for a young people's recreational movement to
wear its members out by piling such work on captain and scout!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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