According to something I read that was put out by GSUSA, Take Action Projects are what Girl Scouts do. Unfortunately, this seems to be one area where there is a huge disconnect between what the national organization is pushing and what leaders in the trenches are doing.
What is a Take Action Project?
In order to do a "Take Action Project" you first have to know what one is. According to GSUSA, in a Take Action Project, girls team up to:
• Identify a problem they want to do something about
• Come up with a creative and sustainable solution
• Develop a team plan
• Put the plan into action
• Talk about what they learned — and what they can’t wait to do next!
The Take Action Project is supposed to be the culmination of each "Journey" the girls do. When girls reach middle and high school and are working on the Bronze, Silver and Gold Awards, they have to do Take Action Projects, not community service.
What Is Wrong With Take Action Projects?
They are not developmentally appropriate
I for one do not like the concept. Why not? For one thing, as I understand the concept, I don't think they are generally appropriate for younger girls, and I work with younger girls. Engaging a group of 5 and 6 year olds in an open-ended discussion is beyond my skill as a leader. They want to be told what to do (and it better be fun); they don't want to sit and discuss.
Many are not the girls' ideas
In reading the material put out by GSUSA, it seems to me that it is the goal of GSUSA that the girls will discover a need in the community via their "Journey" and then come up with the TAP from there. Yet, as a member of multiple facebook groups of Girl Scout leaders, I can tell you that one of the most frequently posted questions is "What TAP did you do for the _____Journey". Clearly, girls aren't coming up with most of these projects.
GSUSA publishes at Take Action Guide that goes along with its new STEM Journeys. It too talks about identifying problems, and then as an example it says something like girls aren't pursuing STEM fields. You tell me how many kids are going to come up with that as a problem.
I prefer servant leadership
The main problem I have with Take Action Projects is that they seem geared toward developing activists rather than workers. An example given is that if there is trash in the park, you should study the situation to determine why there is trash in the park. Perhaps there aren't enough trash cans. Perhaps people need educating about the importance of throwing trash away. Then we develop a plan to address the problem. We contact the park board about installing another trash can (and maybe donate it). We make anti-litter posters (which become litter themselves). Those are "Take Action" projects. Picking up the trash? That's community service, which isn't what a TAP is supposed to be.
Another example given is kids getting hurt on the playground. GSUSA said that having a bandaid drive so that the nurse had bandaids for the kids who got hurt was community service; realizing that the reason the kids were getting hurt was because there wasn't enough mulch, and doing something about that is Take Action. Ok, in that case, I see the mulch as more useful than the bandaids but so many of the recommended TAPs are to educate and inspire--teach your family how to conserve water or electricity (no, I don't want my thermostat on 65, even if it does save power), hang up posters about good diet, or make a youtube video.
They are time-consuming
Yet another problem I have with them is that if you do them in the manner they are meant to be done, they are time-consuming. The girls are supposed to spot a problem they want to solve, interface with people in the community who have knowledge of the problem or serve that population, develop a solution, implement it and then reflect on it to decide what they can do better next time.
The Take Action Guide published with the new Journeys has girls brainstorming for ideas for their TAP for a short time during three different meetings. Ok, no problem. Then, they recommend spending an entire meeting planning a TAP, an entire meeting doing the TAP and then an entire meeting celebrating the TAP. I'm sorry, but spending an entire meeting planning ANYTHING with five and six year olds is too much fun for me.
My troop meets 19 times during the year, and we have 5-10 weekend activities throughout the year. From what I can see, we are pretty typical. Unless it is something that has absolutely grabbed my girls, we don't want to spend that much time on it.
Few leaders "get" them
My comments on Take Action Projects are based on my reading and interpretation of materials promulgated by GSUSA. Is my interpretation correct? I think so, but I daresay there are people who would disagree. The original Journeys pretty much tell the younger girls what they are supposed to do for a TAP--Daisies are supposed to plant a garden, or grow worms or do composting for their TAP for the Flower Garden Journey, for example. The project is supposed to be sustainable in that you are supposed to arrange to have it taken care of when you are done--one more thing for the leader to worry about.
GSUSA put out word-for-word scripts about how to read stupid stories to Daisies, but offers little guidance to leaders on how to drag a TAP out of the girls. Are the TAPs for the new STEM Journeys supposed to reflect the content of the Journey, or not? If you do a Journey in a Day, should it include a pre-selected TAP?
Is making pet toys for the animal shelter a TAP? When we asked the shelter what we could do for them, the answers were to collect/donate supplies or make pet toys. Neither of these are sustainable in and of themselves. Some would say that if we made flyers (litter) and distributed them to "educate and inspire" along with these, then they are sustainable. On the other hand, reading the TAP guide definitely gives the impression that a skit performed for family members satisfies the "educate and inspire" requirement.
What About the Higher Awards?
Ok, I guess I've made it clear that I'm not crazy about the concept for little girls, but how about the big ones? Should the Bronze, Silver and Gold require "Take Action Projects" or is community service enough, in my opinion. I think it depends.
GSUSA has chosen a leadership model that is based on problem solving rather than on directing others. In the past, the Gold Award or its predecessors could be earned with individual community service (along with a bunch of other requirements). I know someone who handmade a large number of ____ for the local _____. Presumably these were things that were needed, but I'll agree, that project, in and of itself, did not show leadership. She learned how to make ______ and made them. She spent a lot of time on them but she didn't get other people involved (nor was she required to).
Now, the high awards are almost totally project-based. Still, many projects are done without substantial help from other people (except the parents who haul them all over). The "leadership" seems to come from seeing a need, teaching other people about the need and then developing something to meet that need. I don't know what ideas have been offered in my council, or turned down, but it seems that most girls who earn Gold have projects with strong educational components. In other words, I think I'd be more likely to see a girl going into schools or churches with some type of educational program about homelessness than I would be to see a girl gather a team and paint and decorate the local homeless shelter. Is that because the girls prefer to do the educational-type project or because things like painting and decorating the shelter aren't "Take Action" projects?
Another frequent topic on Girl Scout leader facebook groups is the difficulty in getting Gold and/or Silver award projects approved. While I suspect some of the rejected projects were thrown together ideas with hours stretched to meet the time goal, without any real leadership shown by the girl, it sounds like others were really good projects with plenty of invested time, which didn't click someone's boxes for originality or sustainability.
Some people who are on Gold Award committees will post that the problem is that girls aren't really learning to do TAPs through the Journeys; that leaders are selling them short by either not doing Journeys or not making the girls wrestle with the whole TAP project and, instead, doing community service. I know that based on my understanding of what a TAP is, most of the Journey TAPs I see on those facebook groups are more community service than TAP.
What do you think about Take Action Projects? Are they what Girl Scouts do?
Love this. I agree that TAPs are a ridiculous expectation of 5-6 year old Daisies (as well as Brownies). I actually think Journeys should have service projects rather than TAPs (if at all--I actually think it should be more of an in depth exploration of a topic, but I digress). The TAPs (in their definition--sustainable and attempts to solve an underlying issue) should be reserved for the Bronze, Silver and Gold awards.Though, I also agree with you that it shows no leadership abilities despite being a "leadership award." Leaders also dilute (to no fault of their own--they weren't really trained) the idea of a TAP by the haphazard ideas found on Pinterest and Facebook. The badges are good, but the journies are definitely not a great curriculum.
ReplyDeleteI don't think GSUSA actually expects Daisies to 100% plan and do the TAP they just need to fully participate in each step. GSLE is progressive. As they get older they take on more responsibility.
ReplyDeleteIf you start them young it is easier to get them talking and trusting the process as they get older. They learn that its ok that their brainstorm idea wasn't chosen, or that their cool idea is not feasible due to cost or space limitations or whatever. They learn that it is important to actually consult with who they want to help before they give them 50 pet beds even though they still have 100 left from the last group that made them pet beds.
I think it's a progression and I tailor it to my girls. I have a multi level troop (DBJ). My Daisies participate in the discussion and brainstorming and planning but once they start to drift off a leader takes them aside to do something else while the rest keep working and then we'll peal off the Brownies. The Juniors do almost all of a TAP on their own (with help and guidance from the leaders and lots of help from the younger scouts) and will do the bronze in the same way but with less help.
I think it will be much easier for our Daisies to plan and execute their TAPs and Bronze award because they will have lots of experience with the process even though they will not 100% execute the entire process until they are Juniors or Cadettes.
A class I took defined community service as fulfilling a direct and, usually, urgent need. Very important and very needed for the community and a huge part of being a Girl Scout. The TAP is for going deeper. Finding a cause of that need and trying to address it in a sustainable way. Equally important but not meant to be done instead of community service. Think of TAPs as coming from community service not replacing community service.