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

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

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]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. [/quote]

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. [/quote]

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.

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