GIRL GUIDES

Hawera Star, Volume LIV, 20 April 1935, Page 15

GIRL GUIDES

Notes by “Guider”

OTAKEHO GUIDE COMPANY,

On Wednesday afternoon the Divisional Commissioner, Mrs John Houston, visited Otakeho for the purpose of an enrolment of new Guides and Brownies. A number of the committee, including the president, Mrs Nicholls, and the district secretary, Mrs Bell, were present. The enrolment was taken in the school playground as it was a glorious sunny afternoon. The Guides enrolled were Josephine Bailey and Eileen Bowie, and the Brownies who made their promise were Margaret Mudford, Fay Thatcher and Flossie Aitkeh. Test work in knot tying, signalling and ball-throwing was taken by the Commissioner and Miss Lennon (Hawera), who accompanied her. Afternoon tea was served by Mrs Mackie at her home.

THE GIRL GUIDE AND GIRL SCOUT MOVEMENT IN THE MODERN WORLD.

By Maria Dillner (Sweden)

“Youth is the natural representative of all things new, the bearer of actualities.” These were the words of the Crown Prince of Sweden when he was travelling the other day in my home county, and he continued: “Times are harsh . . . we are driven forward to an accompaniment of racketing motors. The great point is not to lose our balance.” Is not this definition of the modern world as good as any?

(1) The racketing motors speak of a gigantic technical advance in all branches. Our modern world is a technical wonder-world, but also—(2) A political arena, perhaps more than ever. The political situation may be characterised in one word, written m capitals: ANXIETY. What is going to happen? And when? At bottom most of us ‘modern men and women probably suffer not only anxiety, but occasionally an agony of fear of the future. Politically, the world of today is a quicksand. (3) To counteract our fears, we work feverishly for; the . social improvement of mankind. Never before have the sick and old, the unfortunates and the poor, been as well cared for as now, and—

(4) Spiritual culture is characterised by great anxiety, sincere searching after truth, artd parrot talk. But in spite of all its great merits, advances, and faults, mankind is nevertheless, from the point of view of spiritual culture, at the same time in a quicksand. No firm footing is discernible anywhere, nothing is indisputable, nothing can form an immutable basis. (5) What is most characteristic of the modern world,' however, is the struggle for work and for bread, that subject w r hich, though •discussed ad nauseum, is nevertheless always frighteningly close to all concerned, and not least to the young- - .......

In truth, the Swedish Crown Prince was right in saying that wo must not lose our balance. And here, in the centre of it all, is our world-embyaeing movement, counting in its ranks millions of boys and girls. What should, then, be the aim of the Girl Guide and Girl Seout movement, in any country, large or small, with few Guides or many? What is its aim today, in this world of ours where nothing ever seems to endure? I answer: Its aim remains the same, it is enduring! This, lam sure, is necessary to keep in mind. Its aim is the same today as it was 25 years ago: to assist boys and girls to grow into men and women able to stand on their own feet; our aim is to make them individuals, which perhaps means more to-day, in these days of mass-psychosis, when we move in herds, think in herds, and act in herds. To-day the opposite is needed: Individuals, who can and will cooperate. We need citizens who walk uprightly, think independently, and act independently, guided by their own convictions.

Training is essential to acquire the strength for this, training of the body and of the mind and spirit, and this double training is the essence of our Guide programme. You cannot separate the ethical part of that programme from the practical; they are interwoven, and they distinguish our movement from other similarly organised movements. The object of this ethical-practical training is to teach the girls discrimination. Life offers a constant sequence of alternatives, of choice in. trifling matters, but each choice helps to' form our character. To discriminate is more difficult now than it used to be, for the limits of right and wrong, of good and bad are blotted out, and everything is relative. On us, the leaders of the movement, devolves the obligation to help the girls to choose according to our Guide Promise, to listen to and» always to obey the inward monitor, and so make that obedience habitual. The necessity of discriminating meets us many times a day; our day is constant choosing. It is very difficult indeed, to be faithful in small matters; it would be much easier if our character could be formed by a few hard tests. But it cannot bo formed once and for.all, as the small, trifling tests make up the mosaic of every character. In the Girl Guide company every item of the programme is directed to training the . girl to choose, in order that when she is grown up and ready to leave the company to take her place in the modern world, she should be equipped for the struggle! A woman with such equipment can be of great service to her country and to mankind.

Her personality has developed in the company, and she can now fill her place in the community, primarily in earning her living, but she may give her spare time to some object that has attracted her interest, maybe in the realm of politics, creed or rpligion, or she may become a leader in the same movement

where she herself once got her training. An inestimable advantage is that the aim of our movement is restricted. As a movement' if cannot and should not be used for any purpose outside Individual character-training, however good. As a movement, it is outside all currents of modern life. We do not want to make either Conservatives or Socialists of our Guides or Girl Scouts, or to secure them for this or that creed or persuasion. No, the only thing we wish is to accustom them early in life to be willing and! strong to choose the right, whether in small matters or great. Another object of our movement is to include in it all classes and types of people, and that would be impossible if We permitted any particular doctrine to permeate our national organisations. This neutrality is no sign of weakness in the sense that we leaders should not know what we believe in or not. We

do know, but w T e have deliberately

chosen this outward personal neutrality, and keep ourselves outside these big problems In order to reach everybody with the message of the high morals as given in the Guide and Girl Scout law.

As we all know, it is desperately difficult to reach outsifle any . special class or group, but we do want everybody—not this or that kind of young person, but everybody—and if we are careful, imaginative, and purposeful, we can sometimes succeed in reaching them even nowadays. Somebody, once asked a Communist whose daughter was a Guide why he and his fellow Communists let their girls join the- company. His answer was: “We cannot bring up our children—they seem io be able to do it.” That is exactly what we aim at —bringing the children up to fill their place in life, whatever that place may be. • , ; —Given at the World Conference.