Girl Guides

I came across a leaders’ handbook the other day and as I flipped through it I wondered, not for the first time, whether Girl Guides (and Scouts) was a thing of the past.  The values espoused back when I was in Guides are certainly not terribly apparent in the youth I encounter on the C-train every day.  Back in the 1960’s God was a part of our daily lives by virtue of the fact that the Lord’s Prayer was read every morning in school.  As well, in my particular school at least, a bible reading was also done by the principal as part of the opening exercises.  Then we sang both “Oh Canada” and “God Save the Queen”.  That was public school, not the Catholic school, heaven only knows how much more God was in their regimen.

Guiding used God and country as cornerstones of the high ethical standards instilled in girls.  Today I am not sure if those things are relevant for many of the girls.  I was reading an article where Girl Guides Canada decided to bring more current concerns into the value chain and it was noted by the commissioner that “an organization that can’t change is an organization that doesn’t have a great future”.  I can certainly agree with that. 

I enjoyed my time in the Girl Guides and have considered become a leader but when I think about the kind of personality issues a leader would face today I simply shudder.  This evening I had to sit beside a 6 year old while the 5 year old sat across from me.  Both of them were kicking me, rubbing themselves up on me and also being quite loud and unruly.  I closed my eyes and tried to keep my lips from being too firm (not to mention snarly) and trying to suppress my irritation by telling myself that the mother had to get the children home somehow.  You may laugh but there are days where I really have to coach myself into feeling compassion for other people on the train; my experiences lead me to believe that when I am on the train “everything is about me”.

But I digress, if those 2 boys were brought to Beavers I can only imagine how they would behave when confronted by a dozen or so other boys.  I am pretty sure I would be accurate in my imaginings.  Today leaders have to be very careful about what they say or do with children; when I recollect how the girls behaved back some 50 years ago – there was no problem.  There were about 20 of us in the troop and in 4 years I never saw or heard any sort of unruly behaviour.  No one would have dreamed of talking back to an adult so there was no need for any kind of discipline.  Quite frankly I would be intimidated by the responsibility of dealing with 20 children with no backup.  Those who do take it on deserve a lot of credit as well as a medal of honour for heroism. 

That’s my look on children today.