Why do girls drop out of Girl Scouts in the 5th, 6th, 7th grades?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Agree with pp that it may be perceived as not cool enough by some, but I don't understand it, nor would it cause me to want my daughter to drop it. I love the opportunity to camp, do archery, canoeing, other outdoor activities. I do think you need to find other parents who are willing to do some work on activities. It can be a lot for one leader.

Agree'd.

[Anonymous]

So what would keep middle school girls in Girl Scouts?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Couple things - If possible, most of the time should be spent out-of-uniform. The conformity feels controlling. And it's dorky. But also, my kids were tired of having to be friends (or pretend) to be close with kids they didn't choose. In their time-off, they wanted to pick their own companions.

This is why my.dd will stay in scouts. Sounds like pp daughter is a.mean girl

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Couple things - If possible, most of the time should be spent out-of-uniform. The conformity feels controlling. And it's dorky. But also, my kids were tired of having to be friends (or pretend) to be close with kids they didn't choose. In their time-off, they wanted to pick their own companions.

This is why my.dd will stay in scouts. Sounds like pp daughter is a.mean girl

Mean to not automatically click with and become close friends with a group of people she was randomly thrown into? Honestly as long as PP's daughter was still friendly to everyone her thoughts sound fine and make a lot of sense. I was always an introvert with a very small circle of close friends I actually trusted and enjoyed spending time with, and the effort to maintain appropriate social ties in groups like scouts or cast parties for school drama productions or whatever was dead exhausting and borderline unpleasant. Girl Scouts is a great program for those who are interested, but that sort of formalized socialization isn't enjoyable for everyone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think girls become very sensitive to the opinions of peers at that age. Girl Scouts is (sadly) considered lame and for goody-goodys by many older girls.

+1 When I was a kid, it was very uncool to be in scouts in middle school.

+2 or wherever we're at. You get bullied.

[Anonymous]

They drop out because they no longer put up with having their friends chosen for them.

[Anonymous]

I've got a fifth grader, and the girls who have dropped out this year have more challenging activities that take up a lot of time, so scouting has to go.

I think my daughter is starting to get bored. Her troop is run by good women, but they are girly-girl women who don't like camping, outdoor activities, or anything you'd associate with scouts.

I signed her up so she'd meet some girls outside her usual circles, and to encourage her to develop a sense of leadership, sisterhood, and confidence. In these ways, scouting has been good. But I also wanted her to have outdoor experiences and learn practical skills, and that hasn't happened. The program itself is now all about becoming a consumer and businesswoman, with a mix of caring/sharing/pretty-pink-pony busy work.

[AnaBanana]

Our troop has dwindled from 11 to 7 as they've gone into 7th grade. We've handed over meeting planning entirely to the girls, except a few things they need guidance on. They break up into small groups, choose a badge, figure out some activities, and lead the rest of their friends through the activities. They have a separate meeting for that and give me a supply list and a schedule for approval.

We don't really like the journeys either but we make the best of them. We modify them to suit our needs. We're making some really cool art journals to document our journey now. The girls actually asked to meet more frequently at our last meeting so I feel good about what we're doing.

[Anonymous]

My daughter has twins in a Daisy troop just starting out, and I must say with two working parents even meeting just twice a month is already a big time commitment with some day trips. I do not think a girl stopping GS needs to be considered in a negative way, but rather value it for the positive experiences and outcomes it has provided for as long as one participates. Life at each stage is rather short so not out of the ordinary that kids would want to choose different things.

I wonder if Girls Scouts have ever considered a way to "Invite Back" teens who may well have quit as 4th to 6th graders, but who might as high school begins consider it a worthwhile and interesting activity "if mentoriing/leading" younger girls could be a part of some badges or just volunteering in different ways. It is too bad it has to be a continuous activity through the years or nothing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
It is too bad it has to be a continuous activity through the years or nothing.

That is not a requirement! Girls can stop one year and then go back another!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've got a fifth grader, and the girls who have dropped out this year have more challenging activities that take up a lot of time, so scouting has to go.

I think my daughter is starting to get bored. Her troop is run by good women, but they are girly-girl women who don't like camping, outdoor activities, or anything you'd associate with scouts.

I signed her up so she'd meet some girls outside her usual circles, and to encourage her to develop a sense of leadership, sisterhood, and confidence. In these ways, scouting has been good. But I also wanted her to have outdoor experiences and learn practical skills, and that hasn't happened. The program itself is now all about becoming a consumer and businesswoman, with a mix of caring/sharing/pretty-pink-pony busy work.

Have you offered to take the troop camping?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've got a fifth grader, and the girls who have dropped out this year have more challenging activities that take up a lot of time, so scouting has to go.

I think my daughter is starting to get bored. Her troop is run by good women, but they are girly-girl women who don't like camping, outdoor activities, or anything you'd associate with scouts.

I signed her up so she'd meet some girls outside her usual circles, and to encourage her to develop a sense of leadership, sisterhood, and confidence. In these ways, scouting has been good. But I also wanted her to have outdoor experiences and learn practical skills, and that hasn't happened. The program itself is now all about becoming a consumer and businesswoman, with a mix of caring/sharing/pretty-pink-pony busy work.

Have you offered to take the troop camping?

I would love to, but my health is very poor. I love camping!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was a troop leader from K-7. The girls just have a ton of activities and my daughter didn't want to have her limited free time with a lot of GS time. The Journeys are AWFUL. The paperwork and expectations for a single troop leader are ridiculous. I worked my butt off reading, planning, camping, weekend trips, community service, cookie booths, badges, ceremonies, etc... And loved it all and the girls. What I could not stand was the expectations of council. Attending adult meetings, training, paperwork for every single little decision. The nail in the offin was the change of to Journeys. Lastly the parents sucked. Expected me to do it all and bitched if things weren't the way they wanted. They did help some but no one has any idea how time consuming it is.

I recommend the kids stay Juliettes and continue on doing what they want if the troop doesn't last. Summer and camp programs are great. STEM courses for girls are outstanding as well. My troop went to NIST yearly, met NASA enigineers and astronauts for one on one. Spent the day at universities touring colleges and their STEM programs. Went to Congress. Lots of empowering things non-Girl Scouts don't have the opportunity to do. This was all before they were teens.

I think some ignorant people think it is goody good or dorky but I rather my daughter in Girl Scouts throwing a Thanksgiving Day feast for the homeless, making stuffed beds for dogs at the Humane Society, throwing a party at The Children's Inn, and playing card games monthly at assisted living homes (all things we did last year) than sitting on the Internet, applying make-up, worrying about boys, sexting, getting into trouble. Going over bullying really opened my eyes to how horrible middle school girls can be. As a troop, you are in a group that has your back. It helped them and I was glad to be a part of it.

I have a boy scout, but I bet it is very similar to Girl Scouts. He had to fill out a form recently for honor society at school and they asked about examples of character, leadership, citizenship and service. I have had the same complaints about scouts I read above (too old fashioned, out of synch with todays youth and their lives, takes up too much time, too many other activities that conflict, etc.). Yet, as he filled out the form, I it became apparent that almost every example we could think of in those 4 categories came from scouting activities. Spouse and I looked at each other and we both said at the same time, "geez, without the scouts, we wouldn't have been able to fill in even half those paragraphs." So I have a better view of it now. For what it is worth.

Yep. Scouting is all about service and rounding yourself out as an individual. Sports and theater and the like teach a much more limited range of skill sets.

As far as it being old-fashioned, that's an interesting viewpoint. Eagle Scout is something adults put on their resume. The men who run my son's troop are all Eagle Scouts, and they are amazingly accomplished men. Not remotely dorky -- instead, the are running the world.

I was a Girl Scout a long time ago, and I still remember the lessons -- from cooking to camping to leadership skills. I wore my uniform proudly. I went from Brownie through Junior, then skipped Cadette (yes, middle school) then rejoined as a Senior.

[Anonymous]

I lead a troop of 7th graders. Half the troop dropped out last year. They wanted craft hour/drop off babysitting and I wanted people who could commit and follow through on our service projects.

The parents who complained the most put in the least amount of work. I'm thrilled not to have this problem this year.

[Anonymous]

I am a troop leader of 7th grade girls. We lost a few girls this year to travel sports but we still have 9 girls. Our troop is based at a Catholic School and over the years we have noticed that the troops based at schools that continue through middle school tend to stay together longer. I am sure there are many factors on why this happens including the fact that these are much smaller schools and the girls tend to be friends already. But the biggest reason I have seen is that the middle school girls have to chance to show leadership by helping out at meetings for the younger grades that meet right after school. My dd helps out at meetings for 3 different troops during the month (and all right after school so it does not conflict with her own sports)

Because the older girls help the younger girls the younger girls LOVE them. All of the girls in our troop are already talking about planning to stay in Girl Scouts once they get to high school because they know this will be a great way to keep in contact with thier current friends that may all end up at different schools. As a troop we also try to do fun activities that the girls pick like high ropes courses and zip lines. Our troop has also quickly realized that being part of the Girl Scout troop is the quickest way to get babysitting jobs that pay!