A glance through the handbook, Scouting for Girls, will show that the
activities of the girl scouts center about the three interests--Home,
Health, and Citizenship.
_Home._--The program provides incentives for practicing woman's
world-old arts by requiring an elementary proficiency in cooking,
housekeeping, first aid, and the rules of healthful living for any girl
scout passing beyond the Tenderfoot stage. Of the forty-odd subjects for
which Proficiency Badges are given, more than one-fourth are in subjects
directly related to the services of woman in the home, as mother, nurse,
or home-keeper.
_Growth of Girl Scout membership, Jan. 1, 1918, to Jan. 1, 1921--Active
registrations._
January 1. Officers. Increase. Scouts. Increase. Total. Increase.
1918 1,314 ...... 8,455 ...... 9,769 ......
1919 3,823 2,509 36,847 28,392 40,670 30,901
1920 5,357 1,534 61,754 24,907 67,111 26,441
1921 6,839 1,482 83,025 21,271 89,864 22,753
Into this work, so often distasteful because solitary, is brought the
sense of comradeship. This is effected partly by having much of the
actual training done in groups. Another element is the public
recognition and rewarding of skill in this, woman's most elementary
service to the world, usually taken for granted and ignored.
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; altogether past comprehension its power of endurance."
While the place of most production is to-day outside the home, much of
the final preparation of goods, particularly food and clothing, is still
done there. So that, while the homecrafts are far from being the vital
necessities they once were, they are still needed.
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. In France this has long been recognized, and
the women of the middle classes are the buying partners and bookkeepers
in their husbands' business.
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_." So that health, physical and mental, is the keynote to the
scout activities, which are calculated to develop the habit of health,
rather than simply to give information about anatomy or physiology.
Personal health is recognized by the badge of "Health Winner," given to
the girl who for three months follows certain rules of living, such as
eating only wholesome food, drinking plenty of water, going to bed
early, exercising in the open air, and keeping clean, and who shows the
result by improved posture, and by the absence of constipation and
colds. Outdoor sports, swimming, boating, and dancing are other
health-producing activities.
Of all health-promoting activities, camping is the best, and this means
all stages of life in the open, from the day's hike, with one meal out
of doors, to the overnight or week-end hike, and finally the real, big
camp, open all summer. Girl scouts learn how to dress for outdoor
living, how to walk without fatigue, and how to provide themselves with
food, warmth, and shelter, so that "roughing it" does not mean being
uncomfortable.
During 1920, 50 large girl-scout camps were maintained in 16 States.
These are self-supporting, and as they are open for 10 weeks as a rule
and accommodate about 50 girls at a time, they give an opportunity to
several thousand for the best sort of holiday.
The idea is to have enough camps to give every scout the experience. To
promote this work national headquarters maintains a camping section and
has published a book, "Campward Ho!" which gives full directions for
organizing and running large, self-supporting camps for girls.
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. She also learns how to help in times of emergency as
first aid, in sickness as home nurse, and at any time as child nurse.
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. And she has a little rule for the blue times, which is
"to smile and sing under all difficulties."
_Citizenship._--The basic organization of the girl scouts into the
self-governing unit of a patrol is in itself an excellent means of
political training. Patrols and troops conduct their own meetings, and
the scouts learn the elements of parliamentary law. Working together in
groups, they realize the necessity for democratic decisions. They also
come to have community interests of an impersonal sort. This is perhaps
the greatest single contribution of the scouts toward the training of
girls for citizenship. Little boys play not only together but with men
and boys of all ages. 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 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. 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.