No one is fitted to be a counsellor in a Girl Scout camp who does not
like to work with girls and who does not in a measure understand
children. The desire to be with them, to learn from them, and to help
them, is the only reason for accepting such a position. In addition one
should be equipped to teach at least one subject and able to make it of
such interest that it opens the mind to a new world. The ability to
cooperate is another essential quality, for when living with a group, we
may interpret individually, but what we interpret must be of common
understanding. While patience and sympathy are both needed in group
living, sentimentality is to be avoided.
[Illustration: In high and dry Colorado, wall tents without floors, and
put up with ground pegs can suffice.]
Hours of work have nothing to do with the duties of a camp counsellor.
She is on duty in one sense twenty-four hours out of every day, but her
work need not be arduous. If she becomes aware of anything which seems
to be, or is likely to become, a detriment to the camp it is her duty to
report the matter to the Director. There is a great deal of work which
can be done by counsellors which cannot be stipulated, but which rests
with them as individuals.
The right word at the right moment always bears fruit. A suggestion of
tidiness to an untidy girl, a suggestion of kindness to the girl who is
quick and impulsive, a suggestion to use better language, or to lower
her voice or to improve her table manners, or to be more Scout-like, if
made to a child alone, and at an opportune moment, means much and is
appreciated. The best results are obtained when we can realize that each
child holds within herself the perfect Scout ideal and that because of
her limited ideas, lack of understanding, environment, the negative
suggestions constantly being made to her, she fails to express it. One
work of the camp counsellor is to help her by example, and by word, to
give up these erroneous ideas, and to _stress being a Scout_.
Nearly all children have a dramatic instinct and love to act. Help them
to act the part of a Scout. In this way they are forming a habit that
means something.