miss_elise
Practically Family
- Messages
- 768
- Location
- Melbourne, Australia
Girl Guides and Girl Scouts are 100 years old this year!
Corky said:When I was a kid, I was lucky enough to own an old original edition of what must have been the original Scout Handbook, The American Boy's Handy Book: What to Do and How to Do It by Dan Beard, the founder of American Scouting. First published in 1882, this is a wealth of projects and games, with practical directions on how to make them, filled with topics which are now totally neglected by the decision makers who direct today's Scouting: Winter Fishing, Trawl Fishing, Kite Making, Home-Made Boats, How To Rear And Train Wild Birds, Magic Lantern Tricks, Snowball Warfare, Home-Made Hunting, Camp Out Tips, Home-made Masquerade Costumes, How To Make Various Whirligigs, Novel Modes of Fishing, How To Make A Flat-Boat, Home-Made Fishing Tackle, Crusoe Raft, How To Tie All Sorts Of Knots, etc.
I looked into today's version of Scouting for my kids, but found that it has changed, almost beyond recognition.
The topics the kids learn about and what they do is far less interesting.
And the Scouting magazine Boy's Life has gone significantly downhill. It used to have plenty of great articles on neat things to make and to do, but now it only seems like a guide to the consumption of high end camping gear and the acquisition of passive video games.
Corky said:When I was a kid, I was lucky enough to own an old original edition of what must have been the original Scout Handbook, The American Boy's Handy Book: What to Do and How to Do It by Dan Beard, the founder of American Scouting. First published in 1882, this is a wealth of projects and games, with practical directions on how to make them, filled with topics which are now totally neglected by the decision makers who direct today's Scouting: Winter Fishing, Trawl Fishing, Kite Making, Home-Made Boats, How To Rear And Train Wild Birds, Magic Lantern Tricks, Snowball Warfare, Home-Made Hunting, Camp Out Tips, Home-made Masquerade Costumes, How To Make Various Whirligigs, Novel Modes of Fishing, How To Make A Flat-Boat, Home-Made Fishing Tackle, Crusoe Raft, How To Tie All Sorts Of Knots, etc.
I looked into today's version of Scouting for my kids, but found that it has changed, almost beyond recognition.
The topics the kids learn about and what they do is far less interesting.