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that are the outward visible symbol of some inner excellence, the proof of prowess, the evidence of achievement. So for each of these ranks, degrees and exploits, we have provided a suitable badge. The newcomer is entered as a Wayseeker and receives the badge of the order, but on it are two tassels of green, the proof of verdancy. One of them is cut off at each successive stage, and the Winyan wears the badge unsullied by any such derogatory emblems.
A Council robe is supposed tu be a possesion of every member. It may be of any material dictated by individual taste, but the badges on it are the same for all. Every exploit and degree has a proper place for its display on the council robe as well as on the person of the winner.
Do you not see now, my old friends and my young friends, the power for the building of a richer and truer democracy that lies in the education of the Woodcraft Girls? We do not argue, we who have the progress and the spread of this education so deeply at heart, that it obviates the need of other education, but we do believe that if only one education can be obtained, none could be more practicable and desirable than this, and that as a supplementary course in pure democracy (for nature is the instigation of all great democracy), nothing more genuine, more enlightening has as yet been devised. It does not take young people away from their daily duties, from their home life, from their regular education, but adds to those duties the glorifying touch of romance, the sense of form, and whether in town or country, work or vacation offers to all the sweetest of all joys, the seuse of some little triumph every day.
One of the great faults of our educational systems today is that education which is called "work" and play which is separated from work, have no relation to each other in the lives of our young people; whereas all education should be the enlarging of the faculties which make for apprecation of play, and all play should be associated with a mental and spiritual development which must bring about a better capacity for work. In other woerds, everything that develops the youth is interrelated in life. and a work that is not joy and a play that is not productive are equally deleterious. There is very little idleness in the Woodcraft life of our outdoor girls, but I do not believe that after a few weeks or months of this camp life that any one of the girls who have commenced to work and study with us have ever felt for an instant that they were not having adequate enjoyment, that their vacation was not bringing them all or more than ever before.
Of course, I realize that a numher of theae tests which the Woodcraft Girls pass as they move on from one achievement to another will be regarded as unimportant or as superfluous and pussibly no one is absolutely essential, for what we are seeking is not to teach facts, not to cram more statements into the weary storehouse of youth's brain, but to enrich the imagination, to set a higher standard on pure enjoyment, to bring an understanding of the real humanities into the life of youth; in other words, to form the character of our young people, to do it unconsciously so far as the young people are concerned, and instead of preaching or moralizing or punishing, to so open the minds and hearts of the American youth that the real things of life will be sought after eagerly and become so fundamental in the character that life itself must inevitably be mulded along richer lines, touch higher ideals. I do not believe that you can mold character through words; it must be done through deeds, and constructive development of the youth of America seems to me rather more important than the reformation of the youth because of lack of constructive training. A wise general does not attack Gibraltar in front, but from the side or rear. The indirect attack is usually strongest. So also we say little about our national failings, but offer alluring activities that shall ultimately rout these failings out, for illustration — we are wasteful, we have been shockingly wasteful of nature's bounties. There is the other thought taking possession.
A little girl with her father was feeding nuts to a squirrel in Central Park. The squirrel had stuffed himself inside and now was burying the rest of the nuts, one by one. The father explained to the child that most forest trees that bore nuts were planted in this way by squirrels, because those nuts that merely ..text pokračuje
