Scouting For Girls, Official Handbook of the Girl Scouts Part 1

Scouting For Girls, Official Handbook of the Girl Scouts.

by Girl Scouts.

FOREWORD

_How Scouting Began_

_"How did Scouting come to be used by girls?" That is what I have been asked. Well, it was this way. In the beginning I had used Scouting--that is, wood craft, handiness, and cheery helpfulness--as a means for training young soldiers when they first joined the army, to help them become handy, capable men and able to hold their own with anyone instead of being mere drilled machines._

_You have read about the Wars in your country against the Red Indians, of the gallantry of your soldiers against the cunning of the Red Man, and what is more, of the pluck of your women on those dangerous frontiers._

_Well, we have had much the same sort of thing in South Africa. Over and over again I have seen there the wonderful bravery and resourcefulness of the women when the tribes of Zulu or Matabeles have been out on the war path against the white settlers._

_In the Boer war a number of women volunteered to help my forces as nurses or otherwise; they were full of pluck and energy, but unfortunately they had never been trained to do anything, and so with all the good-will in the world they were of no use. I could not help feeling how splendid it would be if one could only train them in peace time in the same way one trained the young soldiers--that is, through Scoutcraft._

_I afterwards took to training boys in that way, but I had not been long at it before the girls came along, and offered to do the very thing I had hoped for, they wanted to take up Scouting also._

_They did not merely want to be imitators of the boys; they wanted a line of their own._

_So I gave them a smart blue uniform and the names of "Guides" and my sister wrote an outline of the scheme. The name Guide appealed to the British girls because the pick of our frontier forces in India is the Corps of Guides. The term cavalry or infantry hardly describes it since it is composed of all-round handy men ready to take on any job in the campaigning line and do it well._

_Then too, a woman who can be a good and helpful comrade to her brother or husband or son along the path of life is really a guide to him._

_The name Guide therefore just describes the members of our sisterhood who besides being handy and ready for any kind of duty are also a jolly happy family and likely to be good, cheery comrades to their mankind._

_The coming of the Great War gave the Girl Guides their opportunity, and they quickly showed the value of their training by undertaking a variety of duties which made them valuable to their country in her time of need._

_My wife, Lady Baden-Powell, was elected by the members to be the Chief Guide, and under her the movement has gone ahead at an amazing pace, spreading to most foreign countries._

_It is thanks to Mrs. Juliette Low, of Savannah, that the movement was successfully started in America, and though the name Girl Scouts has there been used it is all part of the same sisterhood, working to the same ends and living up to the same Laws and Promise._

_If all the branches continue to work together and become better acquainted with each other as they continue to become bigger it will mean not only a grand step for the sisterhood, but what is more important it will be a real help toward making the new League of Nations a living force._

_How can that be? In this way:_

_If the women of the different nations are to a large extent members of the same society and therefore in close touch and sympathy with each other, although belonging to different countries, they will make the League a real bond not merely between the Governments, but between the Peoples themselves and they will see to it that it means Peace and that we have no more of War._

_Robert Baden Powell._ _May, 1919_

PREFACE

The present edition of "Scouting for Girls" is the result of collaboration on the part of practical workers in the organization from every part of the country. The endeavor on the part of its compilers has been to combine the minimum of standardization necessary for dignified and efficient procedure, with the maximum of freedom for every local branch in its interpretation and practice of the Girl Scout aims and principles.

Grateful acknowledgments are due to the following:

Miss Sarah Louise Arnold, Dean, and Miss Ula M. Dow, A.M., and Dr. Alice Blood, of Simmons College for the Part of Section XI ent.i.tled "Home Economics"; Sir Robert Baden-Powell for frequent references and excerpts from "Girl Guiding"; Dr. Samuel Lambert for the Part on First Aid, Section XI, and Dr. W. H. Rockwell for reading and criticizing this; Miss Marie Johnson with the a.s.sistance of Miss Isabel Stewart of Teachers College, for the Part ent.i.tled "Home Nursing" in Section XI; Dr. Herman M. Biggs for reading and criticizing the Parts dealing with Public Health and Child Care; Mr. Ernest Thompson Seton and The Woodcraft League, and Doubleday, Page & Co. for Section XIII and plates on "Woodcraft"; Mr. Joseph Parsons, Mr. James Wilder, Mrs. Eloise Roorbach, and Mr. Horace Kephart and the Macmillan Company for the material in Section XIV "Camping for Girl Scouts"; Mr. George H.

Sherwood, Curator, and Dr. G. Clyde Fisher, a.s.sociate Curator, of the Department of Public Education of the American Museum of Natural History for the specially prepared Section XV and ill.u.s.trations on "Nature Study," and for all proficiency tests in this subject; Mr. David Hunter for Section XVI "The Girl Scout's Own Garden," and Mrs. Ellen s.h.i.+pman for the part on a perennial border with the specially prepared drawing, in the Section on the Garden; Mr. Sereno Stetson for material in Section XVII "Measurements, Map Making and Knots"; Mr. Austin Strong for pictures of knots; Mrs. Raymond Brown for the test for Citizen; Miss Edith L. Nichols, Supervisor of Drawing in the New York Public Schools, for the test on Craftsman; Mr. John Grolle of the Settlement Music School, Philadelphia, for a.s.sistance in the Music test; Miss Eckhart for help in the Farmer test; The Camera Club and the Eastman Kodak Company for the test for Photographer; Mrs. Frances Hunter Elwyn of the New York School of Fine and Applied Arts, for devising and drawing certain of the designs for Proficiency Badges and the plates for Signalling; Miss L. S.

Power, Miss Mary Davis and Miss Mabel Williams of the New York Public Library, for a.s.sistance in the preparation of reference reading for Proficiency Tests, and general reading for Girl Scouts.

It is evident that only a profound conviction of the high aims of the Girl Scout movement and the practical capacity of the organization for realizing them could have induced so many distinguished persons to give so generously of their time and talent to this Handbook.

The National Executive Board, under whose auspices it has been compiled, appreciate this and the kindred courtesy of the various organizations of similar interests, most deeply. We feel that such hearty and friendly cooperation on the part of the community at large is the greatest proof of the vitality and real worth of this and allied movements, based on intelligent study of the young people of our country.

JOSEPHINE DASKAM BACON, _Chairman of Publications._

_March 1, 1920._

SECTION I

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN GIRL SCOUTS

When Sir Robert Baden-Powell founded the Boy Scout movement in England, it proved too attractive and too well adapted to youth to make it possible to limit its great opportunities to boys alone. The sister organization, known in England as the Girl Guides, quickly followed and won an equal success.

Mrs. Juliette Low, an American visitor in England, and a personal friend of the Father of Scouting, realized the tremendous future of the movement for her own country, and with the active and friendly co-operation of the Baden-Powells, she founded the Girl Guides in America, enrolling the first patrols in Savannah, Georgia, in March 1912. In 1915 National Headquarters were established in Was.h.i.+ngton, D.

C., and the name was changed to Girl Scouts.

In 1916 National Headquarters were moved to New York and the methods and standards of what was plainly to be a nation-wide organization became established on a broad, practical basis.

The first National Convention was held in 1915, and each succeeding year has shown a larger and more enthusiastic body of delegates and a public more and more interested in this steadily growing army of girls and young women who are learning in the happiest way how to combine patriotism, outdoor activities of every kind, skill in every branch of domestic science and high standards of community service.

Every side of the girl's nature is brought out and developed by enthusiastic Captains, who direct their games and various forms of training, and encourage team-work and fair play. For the instruction of the Captains national camps and training schools are being established all over the country; and schools and churches everywhere are cooperating eagerly with this great recreational movement, which, they realize, adds something to the life of the growing girl that they have not been able to supply.

Colleges are offering training in scouting as a serious course for prospective officers, and prominent citizens in every part of the country are identifying themselves with the Local Councils, in an advisory and helpful capacity.

At the present writing nearly 107,000 girls and more than 8,000 Officers represent the original little troop in Savannah--surely a satisfying sight for our Founder and First President, when she realizes what a healthy sprig she has transplanted from the Mother Country!

SECTION II

PRINCIPLES OF THE GIRL SCOUTS

The Motto:

=Be Prepared=

A Girl Scout learns to swim, not only as an athletic accomplishment, but so that she can save life. She pa.s.ses her simple tests in child care and home nursing and household efficiency in order to be ready for the big duties when they come. She learns the important facts about her body, so as to keep it the fine machine it was meant to be. And she makes a special point of woodcraft and camp lore, not only for the fun and satisfaction they bring, in themselves, but because they are the best emergency course we have today. A Girl Scout who has pa.s.sed her First Cla.s.s test is as ready to help herself, her home and her Country as any girl of her age should be expected to prove.