Hypothetically, GSUSA just came out with a "Share the Fun" badge for your age level. Again, this is hypothetical, written by me, not GSUSA. Here are the steps:
- Learn about Girl Scouts
- Have fun in GS
- Invite a friend
- Invite a neighbor
- Tell the world
The activities given for #1 (Learn about Girl Scouts) are:
- Using your council's website, see how many girls were GS in your council in the last two years. Is Girl Scouts getting bigger or smaller in your council?
- Using GSUSA's website see how many girls were in GS in the last two years and whether Girl Scouts is getting bigger or smaller
- Look up how many girls your age are in the US and how many are in GS. Find out what percent of girls your age are Girl Scouts
The VTK scripts and badge inserts show the girls/ have you leading your older girls to the website, finding the annual report and numbers you need for them to do the math. It has you looking up the numbers and showing them to younger girls and then doing a subtraction problem or figuring percents. The inserts talk about Annual Reports having that information and they give the URL.
Questions: Do you think doing math is a necessary part of this badge? Do you think learning about Juliette Gordon Low and how she started Girl Scouts would fulfill this step? Do you think girls have to find or be told about current Girl Scout membership numbers to earn this badge? Why?
For #2 (Have Fun in Girl Scouts) the choices are
- Play Kim's Game
- Learn to sing "Girl Scouts Together"
- Do an Ashes ceremony at camp
The VTK scripts and badge insert talk about Girl Scout traditions and how we still do things that their mothers, grandmothers and even great grandmothers did in Girl Scouts, and give multiple examples.
Question: Do you think making something out of plastic lace (gimp) would fulfill this step? What about building a robot (assume your girls love robots). Why?
For # 3 (Invite a friend) they list
- Make an invitation on the computer
- Create an origami-style invitation
- Draw/write an invitation
The VTK script talks about the information needed to be put in the invitation to invite a friend to one of your Girl Scout meetings as does the badge insert.
Question: Would a "bring a friend" event fulfill this step? Is some sort of invitation prepared by the girls necessary? Why or why not?
#4's (Invite a Neighbor) choices are
- Write a letter or email to the manager of the local grocery store asking if you can do a recruiting table outside the store
- Write a letter or email to the principal of your school asking if you can do a recruiting table at school
- Write a letter or email to the leader of a local house of worship asking if you can do a recruiting table after services/meetings.
The VTK scripts and badge insert talk about how to write a letter and the information that needs to be included. Daisy and Brownie troops, the leader writes the letter with the girls watching/giving input, the girls sign and add a drawing of themselves at Girl Scouts. Older girls write their own letters. VTK also says that the leader should pre-contact the person and make sure the answer is yes before the girls ask.
Question: Is writing a letter a necessary part of this step?
#5 (Tell the World) has the troop working the recruiting table, talking to
- girls
- parents
- community members
Question: Do you have to do a recruiting table? If not, give an example of something else you believe would be appropriate.
My Comments:
In my opinion, if this was a GSUSA badge, then yes, it is necessary for older girls to look up numbers information on the website and to do math, and it is necessary for the leaders to show the younger girls the math. I don't think learning about Juliette Gordon Low fulfills the "spirit" of this step even though it would mean "learning about Girl Scouts".
I think that any traditional Girl Scout activity, like making things of plastic lace (gimp) would qualify; I don't think making robots would, no matter how much fun your girls think it is, because all the VTK talking points and badge insert text is about Girl Scout traditional activities.
Since all the talking points/text on the insert are about writing invitations and writing letters, I do think that doing the letters and invitations is what the spirit of the badge calls for, and since step five is all about a recruiting table, I think you need to do one someplace--if you have a better idea than school, church or a place of business, go for it.
I'll admit I'm a rule follower, I'll admit that I stick pretty closely to the plans from GSUSA. While I have adapted steps in a couple of badges, if I read over the VTK plans or the badge insert and think "these activities are not going to appeal to my girls" then I find another badge.
People complain about the wordy scripts on VTK, but I just looked at the badge insert for the Brownie Art and Design badge. It is bright, attractive and meant for use by an individual girl. It is also twelve pages long. Three of the pages are just pictures, but the others are pretty text-heavy. They are clearly trying to teach vocabulary and art concept, as opposed to listing three activities per step. If you compare it to the inserts for the retired craft badges, or really any of the inserts that came out with the Girls' Guide to Girl Scouting, you will find it to be much more text-heavy and instructional. People complain about the wordiness of the VTK scripts on one hand, and the lack of skill teaching on the other (and it may be two different groups complaining) but they seem to want to do five activities with no real "teaching" to earn badges.
This badge I just wrote, if you did it as I wrote it, teaches how to write letters and invitations and how to run a recruiting table/talk to strangers. It also teaches older girls about the concept of an Annual Report and how to find them. However, I can see a lot of troops doing a "bring a friend" event where each girl can (but doesn't have to) bring a friend to an event where they do the Action Poem about Juliette Low (learn about GS), play Kim's Game, do a craft, and then have the opportunity to sign up if they want.
"Scouting America" whose members are about the same age as Juniors through Ambassadors have merit badge books that are far more than twelve pages of photo-heavy copy. The reality is if we want to use our badge program to teach actual information, we are either going to have to say it, or make the girls read it. They aren't going to absorb vocabulary, safety rules or information about X, Y, or Z by osmosis while doing some active game or craft.
I was a Brownie and Junior GS in the 1990s, and I still have badge books from then and previous decades. I’m very much in favor of having to accomplish specific things in order to earn a badge. There’s not much about the present style of GS that I dislike, but I do feel like there’s a lot of discontinuity about badges. The Badge Explorer on GSUSA’s site just lists the “general” and “vague” steps which can be very open to interpretation. The older badge inserts from before the “STEM explosion” (2000s-2010s) list 3 specific activities for each of the general steps. The newer STEM badges are the ones that are text and vocab heavy, as you mentioned above. And then the VTK is kind of hit and miss - sometimes it’s hard to tell what activity matches which step requirement of the badge. I think the lack of consistency makes it hard to know what exactly to do to earn a badge.
ReplyDeleteMy mother-in-law, GS of the 70s, said that Juliette Low intended for Scouts to learn enough about a badge topic to be able to do it on their own and to teach it to someone else. The CSA equivalents would have had to do a service project related to the badge topic too, to earn it. I can sadly say that neither of my girls, year 8 and year 5 as GS, can do that for most of their badges. But I’ve been trying to keep that in mind with my new Cadette troop and I know she’s trying to do that with her Juniors. But compared to Boy Scout’s or other scouting groups, GS falls short of that standard. I think current GSUSA leadership needs to consider these things as possible reasons for dwindling membership.
1. I have Daisies, I don't think any of the activity options are age-appropriate. My girls aren't to the stage of looking up things on websites, and percentages would not mean much to them. It's not engaging or enough "doing" for them. I don't think they would get much from me googling the answers in front of them. I would think that learning about the history of GS would be acceptable, but tbh I might read through it and decide to pass on doing this badge.
ReplyDelete2. I'm not familiar with the plastic lace. I'd think any traditional GS activity would work here.
3. I think making the invitation shows more about intention and learning by doing, so I'd say it's necessary.
4. Yes, again I think it shows intention.
5. Yes, or something very similar.
I agree with Amber above, for younger girls this might be a skip for me. We don't have access to a computer at our meetings and I'm not mad about it, our girls use so much technology at home and at school. That being said I would definitely try and put together the statistics and explain them in order to fulfill step one if the girls really excited about completing this badge.
ReplyDeleteNow to answer your questions
ReplyDeleteQuestions from #1
Do you think doing math is a necessary part of this badge? I actually feel a chart to show the trend is more useful unless they are of the age of understanding precents so I would question why this was a requirement
Do you think learning about Juliette Gordon Low and how she started Girl Scouts would fulfill this step? No not based on the insert but it was a poorly named requirement
Do you think girls have to find or be told about current Girl Scout membership numbers to earn this badge? Why? Again according to your explanation yes, but will they understand what the number and change means by finding the percentage? Ie what is the point of this if they don't understand the math concept.
Questions from #2:
Do you think making something out of plastic lace (gimp) would fulfill this step? YES especially if they learn how to tie a friendship knot out of the lace. Knots is one the outdoor skills JGL wanted the girls to have a chance to learn it is a fun tration. Think out side the box! I taught knots every 3 years are GS camp and it was my favorite I roatated between teaching outdoor cooking, progression, and crafts. Knots, fire building and knife safety was my favorite!! And all skills I still us!
What about building a robot (assume your girls love robots). Why? I don't see the see the connect and wouldn't choose too but with how STEM heavy the GSUSA I would say it is a tradition of GSUSA today just as outdoor skills was JGL focus. So I guess YES I do. Why do you think it shouldn't? To add to this your requirement is "share GS fun" I can't think of a better answer that whatever the girls find fun about GS!!
Question for #3:
Would a "bring a friend" event fulfill this step? Yes, invitations come in all forms so if they got a friend to the meeting they were successful in inviting someone.
Is some sort of invitation prepared by the girls necessary? Why or why not? It is a skill I would want want to teach them. Actually I think this activity should focus around the information that need to be shared when inviting someone...missed opportunity in the VTK write up.
Question #4:
Is writing a letter a necessary part of this step? When reading your intent yes. But I also think a poster to hang up in a public area would also get neighbors attention.
Question for 5: Do you have to do a recruiting table? If not, give an example of something else you believe would be appropriate. I think it is in the top ways to meet it. I think hosting a preview meeting or even an event open to the girls in your area - something the troop of my SU volunteer does they invite girls to a JLG BINGO birthday party every fall as recruitment for our area. They also hold other committee events in hopes to recruit new members. Do you feel like these are other options because the only option you have for this requirement is a boring table of information....
Thank you for the opportunity to critique your hypothetical badge right up and give feedback. I wish we could do this GSUSA!!!
Based on my answers would you change it?
I am A passionate leader just like you, but my style is very different and I don't feel either one of us is wrong.
Here is a meeting I actually did at the end of the Daisy level it was actually for the bridging award pass it on. We spent a while meeting planing a preview meeting (recutting event) for the 4k class that would be 5k daisies in fall (yes we had permission from council to invite them with a parent to a meeting). The girls discussed all the fun things the did and leaned over the two years of Daisies. And we asked them to Choose one craft (they chose a friendship bracelet with the beads the color of the petals/ law. One tradition ( choose to share and teacher them how to sing Make new friends). One game (choose pancake flip) And to teach them the promise (we hadn't mastered the law yet). They also wanted to each tell what they liked about GS. We also created a invite to email to the families we talked about important information that needed to be on it, they drew and colored a picture. It was emailed to all families of a female 4k student (only way we could communicate through the school. Sadly no one showed up, I did have 3 families say they couldn't make the date but wanted more info. Ironically enough that is the grade of my younger troop (my own daughter in that grade was sick the day of the meeting so I didn't even have my one sure attendee - I also had no intention of being a leader of this troop. In fact, I was hoping to talk a parent into leading it at that meeting) my younger troop is bigger than my older one - we started with 14 girls.. Luckily we borrowed a younger sister that was already GS and boy was she loved on!! And had so many teachers.
ReplyDeleteIt was a recutting event so I feel it would meet the "spirit" of this example. Noting this actual meeting was not planned for this badge so membership math isn't part of it nor do I find that appropriate for daisies at least not as written. All the lessons were but totally different on top of that it was age-appropriate and more importantly girl LED. However, based on your feeling of needing to be by the book, we would not have earned the badge. I can tell you that my girls learned a lot and were very proud of what they accomplished and it was heartbreaking for me as a leader that nobody showed up other than the little sister that we asked to stay because we had no one come.
Do you feel we failed or wouldn't be deserving of the badge because we did something personally related to our troop?