What Is Girl Scouting?
Becker, Elsa G.
July 17, 1929 THE COMMONWEAL 293 WHAT IS GIRL SCOUTING? By ELSA G. BECKER IT IS an interesting coincidence that, at a time when preventive social work and recreational method are being...
...He knew that without supernatural aids no human scheme for building moral tone could hope to succeed...
...The problem seems to be one of investing recreation with the more spiritual elements that do re-create...
...The needs of youth are closely identified with the use of leisure time...
...In that association seems to lie the genius of the program, which so weaves together these useful elements by means of playful competition, dramatization and experiment, that the result is a game rather than a task...
...The inner satisfaction of having done dne's best is the goal...
...By ELSA G. BECKER IT IS an interesting coincidence that, at a time when preventive social work and recreational method are being hailed as modern discoveries, the Church has raised to its altars an early nineteenth-century advocate of those very things...
...For the Catholic young woman or growing girl, as for anyone, there is only one good ultimate reason for doing anything, whether it be playing a game or choosing a career...
...and they find constructive interest and fun in household tasks otherwise often looked upon as dull and tiresome...
...In his rule he wrote, "Frequent confession, frequent communion, daily Mass: these are the pillars which should sustain the whole edifice of education...
...But they are bound to emerge with at least a glimpse of the possibilities of fun that is not subject to the possession of material things and is, to a certain extent, dependent on the individual's own approach and spirit...
...And Girl Scout awards, or badges as they are called, July 17, 1929 THE COMMONWEAL 295 have no intrinsic worth...
...they learn the secrets of nature at their source...
...It is only saints that are not onesided, because their centre is in God and their equilibrium is stable there," said a great educator...
...When the late Leo XIII wrote, in another connection from that under discussion, "But we must not despise or undervalue those natural helps which are given to man by the kindness and wisdom of God, Who strongly and sweetly orders all things"—he was far from suggesting that natural helps could rise to uttermost heights on nothing but a pair of earthly legs...
...Probation officers, social workers, educators, clergy, are one in suspecting that the misuse of playtime has a share in moral deterioration among boys and girls...
...Perhaps the secret of the correspondence is in an essential joyousness, as distinct from mere fun, that grows so surely out of thingless play...
...The girl whose idea of a good time is the much-maligned movie must be offered a more attractive substitute...
...Tests permit of wide flexibility in rating, the big point being to ask the maximum effort of each girl...
...Perhaps the strength of the Girl Scout program as an inter-denominational one lies in its claim to be just what it is—a play program with splendid possibilities for character formation...
...It takes strong leadership to put them into action...
...Villefranche says of Blessed Don Bosco that he was the first to adopt the preventive method, and that he placed play among his first recommendations...
...They hail with eagerness such wholesome play programs as the Boy and Girl Scouts, the Camp-fire Girls and the Pioneer Youth of America...
...Entering into these activities with a group of girls all striving together for the honor of their troop makes a fascinating game...
...Such a one might well be expected to put his finger on the human need of a few hundred years hence, and point the way to filling it...
...The Girl Scout program seems to dovetail very subtly with Catholic sentiment...
...Many a young thing has got a taste for better fun through Girl Scouting...
...The Reverend Ernest R. Hull, S.J., whose books on character training are among Christian educational classics, writes thus of natural nobility: On the contrary it should be enlisted as an auxiliary to the weakness of human nature in after life, and not be ignored or despised merely because it is "natural" and does not count in itself for supernatural salvation...
...The Girl Scouts learn the worth and pleasure of work, of physical activity toward an end...
...It is tempting at this point to reflect on the essential balance of God's saints, which has so often given them the uncomfortable knack, of anticipating by a half-century or so some "modern" theory...
...But it would be surprising if it did not, in view of the appeal that familiar ideals make...
...Does this not smack refreshingly of the Gospel teaching which bids the swift abate his speed and the strong his strength if the price is the crushing or leaving too far behind of a slower brother in Christ...
...Community service suitable to their years is undertaken by Girl Scouts as junior citizens, members of a larger group than family or circle of intimates...
...The Scout has that most difficult of 100 percents to attain—her own...
...And if the ideals of the central organization in respect to those two big elements of play—competition and awards— could more thoroughly carry over, an important Catholic attitude would be receiving welcome reinforcement...
...A Catholic sister, wise from a long experience of educational problems, wrote: The subject of play has to be considered from two points of view, that of the children and ours...
...They learn that home-making is vastly more than housework, that it implies the practice of many arts and graces, and like any game is a chance for skill...
...There is one age-old method of breaking up undesirable habits, and it applies in the realm of play as elsewhere...
...But with more and more leadership-training facilities, and a growing conviction among laywomen that they "owe rather than own their surplus energy," whatever the obstacles they cannot but be overcome...
...These high play ideals are, no doubt, far from general realization among 200,000 American Girl Scouts...
...It is interesting that this program of play which offers an opportunity for social service of a preventive nature is drawing into its leadership ranks a splendid type of Catholic young women...
...The emphasis in awarding them is on the girl's responsibility for proficiency in the subject studied, and on a new plane of effort arrived at...
...The supernatural motivation needed to produce the perfect result is, after all, up to the individual...
...Weekly meetings are filled with all the things, traditional and modern, that girls have always loved to do...
...And the magnitude of the task is increased by reason of the volunteer character of the leadership...
...The Girl Scout idea of competition is based on that darling of present-day education, individual differences...
...How can these be associated with the play of growing girls...
...A fortunate element in the situation is that girl nature has not changed...
...Play as an important factor in the prevention of delinquency has been insisted upon by a whole host of authorities in their various fields...
...Arrived at the solution we may motivate the results in any way that fits the case...
...Subjects to become acquainted with are represented by something like fifty badges from which a girl makes her own selection...
...Theirs is concerned chiefly with the present and ours with the future, for although we do not want every play hour to be haunted with a spectral presence that speaks of improvement and advancement, yet we cannot lose sight of the fact that every hour of play is telling on the future, deepening the mark of the character, strengthening the habits and guiding the lines of after life into this or that channel...
...It is Eve-like in its potentialities, its quivering eagernesses, dreams of heroism, unbounded energies and longing for wide experiences...
...They may join lured by a woodsy green uniform and the promise of adventure along the trail...
...And according to their measure of wisdom they bemoan the results of such studies as that which recently concluded that membership in one of the most prominent of these play programs does not affect one's sense of honor...
...The Blessed Salesian knew this well, for all his insistence on the importance of play...
...He did not confuse the pillars with the plastering...
...The kind of play that depends on imagination and ingenuity may have been easily enough achieved "when we were very young," but the golden age has passed and even much of so-called play is tinseled amusement of an altogether artificial and stimulating kind...
...What the Girl Scouts have proved is that there is such a thing...
...It does not pretend to substitute for a girl's religion, though it hopes to reinforce it, as any good natural foundation reinforces the supernatural...
...The person to beat is her own self, the record to surpass her own former one, and time is wasted that is given to constant comparison with another's record...
...The activities of Girl Scouting revolve around outdoor living, home-making, and community service...
...And after all, what does a mere century or an aeon, for that matter, mean to one who lives in close touch with Eternal Truth...
...Harness these forces to high-level play that calls forth effort and demands originality, and the result will be a more wholesome-minded girl...
...According to the measure of their wisdom is said advisedly— according to their realization that natural aids to character formation can go so far and no farther...
...It is hoped that, by gaining a comprehensive view of several useful subjects, she may develop a hobby—blessed thing to have —or a vocation, or a wider acquaintance with the work of the world, or just a taste for persevering effort and the joy which goes with consciousness of the finished job...
...Active and quiet games, singing, folk-dancing, dramatizations, competitions, handicrafts, story-telling—are provided according to individual needs and inclinations...
...The growing girl with a few hobbies to her credit, with initiative stimulated and inner resources developed, is not inclined to be content again with second-rate pastime of the passive sort...
...All of this fits into a Catholic conception of leisuretime occupation for growing girls...
...294 THE COMMONWEAL July 17, 1929 It is refreshing to find an outstanding play program for girls of today that lends itself to such a combination of the natural and the supernatural...
...In practice as well as theory the Girl Scouts seem to have proved themselves adaptable to Catholic doctrine and tradition...
Vol. 10 • July 1929 • No. 11
