A friend (she can out herself if she wants) has a daughter, Emilie, about Sophia's age. And she's a girl scout, but in a troop that is disbanding for reasons I can't recall. Numbers? Lack of interest from adults? I don't know.
She approached me about having Emilie join my troop. I was hesitant only because Emilie was a year younger than Sophia, and so while she could be a junior with the troop of 5th grade juniors and 6th grade cadettes, I didn't know what would happen the following year. I suggested the other troop at our school, which was also doing a transition year of 4th grade juniors and 3rd grade brownies. Unfortunately, they met directly after school, and Emilie's school wouldn't even be dismissed in time for the closing of the meeting.
They looked into the troop at her school (the original troop was a neighborhood endeavor like mine, I believe). They looked around.
And yesterday she leveled with me. My troop was the one Emilie wanted.
Mom comes with leader training, camping procedures, and willing to work toward her lifeguarding certification, which is the one thing neither I nor my coleader have (or are likely to get, frankly). Not that mom would need these things to join my troop, but it was nice to know I'd be gaining a parent who had a clue, who knew about girl scouts, who didn't have strange expectations or would try to buy 1000 boxes of cookies on spec or something like that.
With Emilie, we will have between 14 and 16 girls (unsure about two of my returning girls right now). This is down from our high of 20, but this is a good number. Emilie's mom says she may be bringing one more, depending on whether another member of the disbanding troop can find a good troop to call home. Again, I think that'll be ok.
I thought about this later, how she hadn't found a troop that fit--either timewise, which is understandable, or interest-wise, which puzzles me. What are those other troops doing?
Mike says that not every adult wants to camp with a group of 15 10-year-olds. Not every adult even wants to go on a hike. Most adults want to avoid paperwork and insipid training as much as possible (myself included) and even though not all training is like that, I have to admit that beginning Girl Scout courses are like that. Leadership and training take time. Girls are members in all sorts of organizations and sports. There's only so much time.
Part of changing things, part of introducing the Journeys, was to ensure similar girl outcomes. Girls left scouting with wildly different experiences. The Journeys, as mostly scripted workbooks, were designed to rein that in. But when I told Emilie and her mother that we wouldn't be doing any Journeys, they clapped.
Is this what the other troops are doing? Am I going to be the last leader in the woods as the girl scout adults of my mother's generation fade away and everyone my age is working in workbooks in community center rooms they've rented for the meetings, having bridging ceremonies with cardboard props and never getting their hands dirty? I took a camping survey a few weeks back that was clearly feeling out the viability of the idea of having troops pay an expert to camp with them--essentially having the leaders come and drink coffee by the fire while trained adults do everything with the girls. Really? How sad is that?
And in other news, the Girl Scout blog I'm a part of? My entries keep getting the lowest ratings, way way lower than the cheerleader mom who loves loves loves the journeys. I laugh, because it's an anonymous 5-star voting system and I don't have any ego wrapped up in this project, but I wonder: am I alone in this? Has everyone else decided to just accept the mediocre, pretend everything is great, and scratch their heads when girls leave? Or are my girls different, too, and other 5th graders out there are actually happy to do workbooks instead of learning to camp and canoe?
Has GSUSA decided to work so hard to be so slick and marketable and have something for everyone that in the process they have become just like everything else? Just another after-school program. A scripted, colorful, $7 after-school curriculum of more of the same.
Well I'm not having any of that. My coleader and I are not going to flake out and cheer up and drink the koolaid. We will be the last troop in the woods. Which is where girl scouts belong.
77. Doberge Cake
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I've never made one before.
It's Mardi Gras, at least for a little while longer, and I lived in
Houston, which is close enough to East Texas and Louisiana ...
4 days ago
9 comments:
Huzzah! YOU have the right attitude and YOUR Girl Scouts are getting the true experience! Congratulations to you. And when you're the last troop in the woods, your girls will be the happiest and most true to what Girl Scouts was intended to be. Kudos!
Not just in the woods, Bridgett. In the world. Hiking and camping and canoeing to be certain, but also doing April Showers and picking up trash and planting flowers. Our girls - our children, male and female - spend too much time indoors staring at workbooks already. They need to experience life.
So we'll be there with you.
Hooray for you! Don't come out of the woods!
That is really scary that leaders would actually hire camping experts. I admit, I am not a great camper, but I see it as a growing experience for myself and the girls. They get to see me try new things and hopefully that encourages them to try too. To me, the Journey's are a pain to fit in. If you all aren't doing them, then are you not going to work towards anymore stars? To me, that is the most frustrating aspect.
Plaid: I'm going to level with my older girls. If they want the silver or gold, they have to do journeys. I know a cadette troop that spent a weekend at a posh vacation cabin belonging to someone they knew, where they completed "all the busywork and journey stuff" for their silver. Either way, we wouldn't be doing Silver for at least 2 years so who knows...
I like your Girl Scout posts - they leave me with a lot to consider. The puzzle I'm working on is how to get our guys transitioned to camping outside as a troop. We've been to camporees for the service unit. We've done indoor "camping" on our own. The girls will be 3rd graders next year. Thinking about a long day outside - doing outdoor cooking, learning to pitch tents, working on some other outdoor badge/try-it and coming home in the evening, sometime in the next school year. I hadn't considered not doing a journey next year with the troop. They really are not my favorite type of meetings, but I like how it leads you to a girl-led service project.
I love Girl Scouts and camping was so fun for me as a young girl! Hooray to you for keeping it up.
I don't know a ton about Journeys but I am glad to hear that GSUSA is making an effort to have all girls get a more consistent experience from scouting.
I don't understand: Is GSUSA telling you that you Can't camp anymore? Or learn knots? Or spend time outside? I understand that the Journeys are maybe not the best, but can't each troop tweak how they apply the workbook work? I probably don't know enough about it, but I think you are really good at this and - my opinion only - you don't need to completely abandon the Journeys. You could certainly complete some of the activities in a way that would still fit with the feel of your troop.
if you want to earn the 3 highest awards, you must do the journeys. If not for that, I probably wouldn't talk about them at all. But they have linked their weakest scheme with their highest achievement and girl after girl is unimpresed and frustrated by this. They keeep tellin us how good they are but they're not good. The girls don't like them. And they are consumables = $$$ my girls don't have!
I am so glad to have stumbled upon this blog! Our Junior Troop will not be doing the Journeys. I did one with my daughter last year and though she was glad to finally complete it, she has no interest in ever completing one again. We have purchased enough of the old retiring badges to get us through the Junior level and if there is a badge the girls want to earn out of the new program, we'll do it. But Journeys, no. Our busy get-out-and-do-it girls won't be happy sitting inside doing workbooks (I know this from experience; when they have to write something or discuss touchy-feely subjects for a badge requirement, the glaze effect takes over or they become silly and rowdy. They want active activities).
I hope the administration of GSUSA realizes that we leaders, volunteers, and young girls ARE the organization and that perhaps allowing us to choose what works best for our Troop - traditional badges or journeys - is the way to go, and not dictate that a Journey constitutes the only route to a bronze, silver or gold award.
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