?Fe GIRL 5COUJ LEADER - VOL UME NUMBER VII 12 DECEMBER 1930 The White House Conference a Challenge to Youth Katherine Glover Staff Associate, Tl/ltite House Conference s the Girl Scout LEADER goes to press this month ing a planning committee which has grown with the an event of very great significance to the youth of bigness of the job until the conference personnel now A this country is happening in Washington. Prepara· numbers twelve hundred, divided up into a hundred tions for the \Vhite House Conference on Child Health and forty committees. And these are but a nucleus, and Protection which l\Ir. Hoover has called for ~ovem­ for innumerable other committees and literally hundred~ ber 19-22 are drawing to a close. Tv,·o or three thousand of thousands of volunteer \\'orkers have in ~ome way con­ men and women, ranging from Cabinet officers to simple tributed their share to this national census-taking of field workers among children and youth, will gather in youth. the nation's capital to pool their interests and knowledge. ~~~- Hoover, being an engineer, believes in surveying The conference will attempt to study the child and the ground well before he builds his bridges. He was those factors which enter into his environment; to unwilling to assemble the conference without this thor· find out what the rapid changes in our present-day life ough groundwork of fact-finding. lt has taken a year are doing to the oncoming generation; to counsel a~ to of intensive, high-pressure surveying on the part of the wiser methods of protection, of workers in their various fields. In education, of character training, reality research and inquiry reach and to devise means of returning much further back than this one to youth those things of which a year's efforts, many of the experts Keep you Christ's birthnight highly mechanized and urbanized have been at work in their differ· life is robbing them. It "·ill, in Every year's day. ent fields for manr years, steadily short, make a sounding of modern Give the gifts He gave, assembling facts which no\v are youth and of those forces which Along your way. brought together. Light Christmas candles are shaping it. Where there is gloom. The conference is not to be one Such a gathering of experts in Lay boughs for Christmas of open sessions, since it is pri­ all the phases of ·work among chil­ I n the poor room. marily a working conference. The dren and youth at the seat of the Hang on Life's gift-tree, delegates, invited by the President, government, saying humbly "Let As we are told­ will come from e''erv state and us find out what is happening to Kindness like silver, many communities, ea~h an official our children," is unique in this Service like gold. representative to gather material country, and perhaps in any coun­ His perfect courage, and take it back to his or her lo­ try. The finding out has been go­ His charity, cal groups. ing on for more than a year. It Each day for His day, The result of the White House was in July of 1929 that i\Ir. Hang on His tree. Conference, when its facts are all Hoover called the preliminary brought together, will be to pre­ conference of experts to work to­ sent a fairly complete picture and ward the final conference. That pattern of American youth. ::\lany was a small initial group form- organizations have been working L THE GIRL SCOUT LEADER too intensively in their own fields to see the relation of their activities to what others are doing. Gleams from the Council Fire What the pattern will he it i~ not possible to foreca~t "Education for world-citizenship is education which as yet. Preliminary repun ' \\ hich have come in indicate promotes among all people, a ,ympathetic, peaceful co­ a few .. ignificant thing~. They indicate that .\merican operation based on democracy." . and that j, what youth on the whole is healthier and better protected against Guiding and Scouting are doing. communicable disease5 than ever before; the city child In the \\'orld Council number sur October, 1930, The slightly better protected than the rural; that the city Courwl Fire gives the Guiding and Scoutin~ news from child is ~uffering from the la~:k oi many natural advan­ manY countries of the world. \\·e all know what our tages which the country child enjoys, but that the city :.\Ia~·s and Elizabeths of ::\Iaine and l\linne~ota are doing, child on the whole show, himself more adaptable to con­ but are we familiar with the doing,. of the Marie:. and ditions than the child of the farm. The finding, make it Yvonne,; of splendid Pari, and flo"·ery ~ormandy? Do evident that modern \·outh ha .. been cheated in mam '' av,., "e know the problems and achieHments or Hanako and That they have been -robbed of the training for horne-m~lc­ Kiku of Tokyo near the sacred mountain Fujiyama? ing and the home-making activities and tor rhe responsi­ Let us read the Council Firt and learn. bilities of parenthood and family life ''hich the home of Even we, ,~~.-ho from the beginning ha,·e had great faith an earlier day, more srahle and producing much that it used, naturally provided. in the ultimate possibilitie3 of our Scouting movement, are The preliminar) linding .. ::.how also that roun!! peo- delightedly amazed at its rapid deYelopment through the • ple cannot ,afdy grow up without idealism and without world ... ince the beginning of organized effort.. twenty years a:::o. reverence, nor can they be ~a:i:>fied with education or with occupation which rob· them of creati>ene5s and initia­ Is it the common smu as well as the fine human ideals, tive; which is, in a word, tandardized and machne-made. that ha, made the tiny seed grow so suddenh· into a strong The ,.cnse of the findings i, that old conditions cannot young rree? The leaders can help to answer that. be revived nor older war, returned to, but that substi­ Here is some interesting news for us all: at the "•orld tutes must be found which /ill the :.arne needs in the de­ Conferen~:c held in England la~t July, the de-i!!n ... for The velopment of youth as the old methods of training. It i" CcJUncil Fire cover conte,t were voted upon. Forty-five in working toward the development of tho>e substitute~ desi{!ns were submitted to our national office, twenty-five that such organization~ a the Girl Scouts ha'e a great of which were sent abroad to take their place with CO\'ers opportunitr. made by Guides and Girl Scouts from all part... of the There is going to be a ~reat call to the leader.;hip of world. The first prize oi $50.00 was won by ~!j,.~ Rosa­ youth. lie ~I. Brown; the second prize of $25.00 wa:. won br One of the :.trong and insi~tent notes in the preliminary ~Ii~:. ;\L Peterson-both En;;lish Guides. The third prize reports i~ the need to train youth for parenthood and of $2=i.OO was won br an American Girl Scout, :\!iss home life and recommendation' that such training be in­ Helene Sherman of l\1as achu5ett~. And the design sub­ corporated into our educational ~ystem. Such an organi­ mitted b) :.\1iss :.\lar!!aret Hall, of )las~achu~eu,-, wa:. zation a, the Girl Scour,, b~ strengthening its effort:. al­ praisl"d and commended. readr beF!un, has the opportunity to lead in this direction, l\Iis~ Brown's design on the October number of the not waiting for formal education to change it:. curricu­ Council Fire, interpret~ simply and graphically the uni­ lum. Ancl after it has changed, still carrying on where versal fellowship of Scouting. the school lea\'es off. The Girl Scouts of America echo The Guide:- Own The 'Vhite House Conference will ha'>e just begun Prayer, which bids us "go forth with stren~thened faith when the e.xperts ha,·e tinLhed their session:. in 'Va,h­ to carrr on our mission of heightening the ideal, and ington. They will sketch out plans and method,, The power, of womanhood, and of helping through closer un­ real building will lie in the hands of tho~e who bridge der,tanding to bring about a happier Ru~e of Peace and deal with youth, such a' Girl Scout captain,. The privi­ Good 'Vill upon earth." Could there be a better 'rill at lege of tho,e who build toward:. a reinforced American this Chri~tmas season? youth will be very great, for the task that awaits this new youth is not merely national, it is a world task. One can but hope that those who build will build soundly and Theatre Workshop well. There has recently been organized a Theatre \\·ork Shop Association. It is a central theatre ... en·ice and in­ Girl Scout Staff at Washington formation bureau for teachers and director:. and all tho-e Girl Scout leaders "dl he int• c,ted to know that mem­ interested in amateur productions. The :L~ociation is bers of the National Offi~e .. raff have given much time educational. and e.xists primarily for the ad,•ancement to and effort in the last six month~ to gathering and organiz­ creati,·e productions. ing material for different reports for the 'Vhite House Information regarding stage furni .. hin:!', properties, Conference. lightin;! and costumes j, included in the service offered.