Well, it is that time of year yet again. The girls are taking orders for cookies. Since I don't have to work tomorrow, we might go out and get some more orders. It will depend on how cold it is, and if we feel up to going out. I am kind of leaving it in their control this year. Too many years have been spent trying to reach goals and quotas. In Kentucky, at least it seemed like the different levels were obtainable, but here, it just seems like they want way too much from the girls. I have not even ordered from the girls yet, and will probably be ordering some for Scott as well. I think that I am just not as into it this year.
Actually, I don't think I am as into Scouts at all this year. I am not totally happy with where the movement has gone with the new Journey program. I understand the need for GSUSA to try and get the girls to pay more attention to the world around them and to have a more rounded program of badge work, camping, and service. But either I am mis-understanding what they are wanting of the girls, or they are totally out of the loop as to what the girls are capable of doing at each age level. Our troop encompasses girls from almost all of the age levels as we have 1st graders - 7th graders.
At the Daisy level (which is now a 2 year program for Kindergarten and 1st graders) they want the girls to be able to sit and listen to stories broken up over several weeks. They have lots of writing (fill in the blanks) but still just the same 10 petals for them to earn over 2 years.
Now, don't get me wrong, all of our leaders does a marvelous job with their girls, but you can see the frustration sometimes with all of us having to go over things numerous times because kids are absent. And I am not upset with the parents when the girls miss. Many of our parents have little ones and someone is sick in the family, some are military (so a spouse might be gone for a while) and some have schedule conflicts at times with other activities.
At the Brownie level, you have try-its that can be earned as well as the Journey program, and with the Journey that I am currently working on with the brownies, they had some really neat activities, but again, it is drawn out, and when the girls miss, you do have to go back over it. With the badges, if the girls miss we usually just give them the paperwork, and if they want to work on it on their own they can, but we do not redo the badgework.
I have found my own frustration with the Journey is that it is supposed to be "girl led". Can we get a clarification on what this means? Do you mean that the girls are supposed to be in charge of the program, because if you do, then why do you print a leader's book? And if it does not mean that, then why do you tell leaders that the girls are supposed to take charge???
My brownies are working on the water journey. They are learning about what it would be like to have very little water, and what it would be like to have to search for water. We had some fun activities on this. So part of the Journey is to do a service project. It is very difficult for the girls to focus on what way they can bring awareness to our water issues. They finally decided to reuse their water bottles. Kind of a stretch, but it is their project, so I went with it. We have made posters, and the girls made a sign up sheet to get others to promise to reuse. We even made up like membership cards. I have not yet seen what the results are, but we will see within the next week or two.
The older girls seem to be doing okay. Mom is working with the Juniors (I could not work with Brigid). She seems to be getting the girls to work towards their goal. Since I don't see their age level meeting time, I can only assume that they are doing well, and Brigid seems to like what she is doing. Mom does have the girls working on leading badge work, which I have mixed opinions on, but the girls seem prepared, and Mom is still leading the Journey. They can make decisions, but she still guides them and limits their decisions.
Once you get to Cadettes, it seems like all bets are off. Several of the girls no longer want to do the work, they just want to goof around. That's fine, but that is not helpful to the girls that want to work. I am also concerned with the level of independence that is assumed. Mackenzie was supposed to work on a project that talked about air quality (a field trip, none the less) that she was supposed to organize??? Meloney said she did a good job with it, but while I don't think that there was much better she could have done with the trip part (walk around to other areas outside and see if the air quality changes), she should have done slides/photos to show some air quality problems in different parts of the country. Mom and I had given her several suggestions as to how she could accomplish her goal, and her response was that she felt like we were taking over her project. Ugh...drama!
Also, as girls become older, the leader becomes more of an advisor, but that should not mean that the girls should be the teachers. The badges and the journey require and advanced knowledge, which I do not think that the girls can accurately give unless they have had advanced instruction.
It just seems to me that the organization is sending mixed messages. They telling us that the girls are supposed to lead the meetings, but does that mean that they are supposed to do the teaching or does it mean they should say we want to learn about _____! and then the leader organizes it.
I am to the point now, where I am not sure how long I can stay with the organization. Girl Scouts was supposed to be a place where the girls get to learn new things and try different things than what they would normally get to do. I don't think that the girls can accurately teach others what they don't have prior knowledge to as they get up to the older levels. I want to see the girls expanding their knowledge and see their faces when they learn something new and get it (you know, that lightbulb moment), and I am just not seeing it right now.
We will see....
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