GUIDE NOTES

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21708, 15 February 1936, Page 8

GUIDE NOTES

(By the Provincial Secretary) Miss ,C. Holmes, Methven, and Miss M. Trezise, Waimate, have passed their captain's warrant papers., .Gardeners’ Badge—The following guides have gained this badge:—-W. Burgess, H. Butler, ,N. Castle (New Brighton Company); J. Harris (St. Chad's Company), N. Biggins (St. Saviour’s Company); L. Moore (Fendalton Company); J. Kersley (Merivale Company). Tramping Club—The club’s first outing this season will be on February 23. It will be in the direction, of Taylor’s Mistake. The meeting place will be the ■ Square,- at 11:30 • a,m. sharp. Camp uniform will be worn, or ordinary ranger’s or guider’s uniform. Teaching -the Guide, Laws—(“English Guider”): The burning question is sometimes brought up at guiders’ conferences: “Who should teach the:guide laws?” ’ Some' say that only guiders should teach the laws; others are all fcr the leaders .doing it: But we can neither shift such -a- big responsibility entirely on.to someone else, nor can we. keep, the laws as the privilege of the guiders to expound. The laws are the foundation of guiding, so nobody, surely, can have a monopoly of teaching them. The tenderfoot should learn about them from the whole company. The guider and the leader should explain the laws to a tenderfoot, but in the. long run it is probably the guide company which will teach her most, by force of example. When it comes to putting down in black and white,-a few hints on how to teach the guide laws, it is so much easier to say what not to do. The-way not to teach the laws is to sit the guides down in rows and harangue them on the meaning of honour and loyalty. If guides are conscious of being taught morals, it is enough to blight the effects of the most eloquent speaker. There are four or five ways of getting the guide laws over to the guides, and talks are rather low down on the list. Personal example comes very high up, and is at once the most effective and the most difficult way of all. The guide laws can be explained by means of;— Personal example, acting, games, yarns, talks, discussions, etc. The guider starts with -a big advantage in that the guides usually think that because she is a guider, she keeps the laws. Fifteen to 18 years is the time 6f idealism During these years, boys and girls seem to be searching for something which will lift them out of everyday life—an unexpressed ideal which they are quite sure exists somewhere—if only they could find it. We can best help the guides, not as a preacher, but as an interpreter of the laws, showing them how to bring the high things they dream of down to the realms of everyday life: Take courtesy for instance, which has such endless possibilities for all. It is so difficult to have good manners when you would so much rather sit unnoticed in your corner, looking on. From sheer bashfulness, many guides deliberately look the other way. when they see some-

body coming-along they do not know very well, instead of giving a friendly smile. “Leave nothing behind but your thanks,” says the Chief Scout, and we usually follow his advice when we are camping, but sometimes we are stingy with our thanks in other directions. Guides should not be allowed to take kindness shown them as a matter of course. One of the best ways of bringing home the laws to the guides is thorough acting. It seems to please the guides enormously to ■ see their guiders act a realistic incident ih which the laws obviously are not being carried out by one of the actors. Then there are games. Guides are riot always quite clear about what constitutes being sporting, though they usually are most anxious to play the game. Here the guider has countless opportunities before her. To be able to win without swanking, rind to lose without being disheartened, to scorn cheating: to accept without question the umpire’s decision, to congratulate the winners and sympathise with the losers, to play for the love of the game, and not to win only. These are some of the big things a guide learns through playing games. Now, talks; It is a help to guides to have their ideas expressed simply and clearly by a grown-up person now and then. If you never mention the laws, it does not seem natural somehow, and the guides may wonder if they matter very much, after all. But it is infinitely better to say tod little than too much. Guides can bo. so easily bored by the type of guider who puts on a special voice when she talks about the laws, and who, by her deadly seriousness, defeats her own ends. The guider’s personal example is one of the strongest forces in teaching the laws; the guides will follow where she leads, without being aware that, through her, they are learning the meaning of the guide laws .