When you think Girl Scouts, what springs to mind?
If it’s some variation on “camping, crafts and cookies,” that vision may be a little outdated. For years, the national organization of the program, Girl Scouts of the U.S.A., has been working to shift scouts in the direction of what might be considered more modern pursuits, with a particular emphasis on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, or STEM. A 2011 overhaul of girl scouting programs emphasized leadership opportunities, social issues and professional opportunities for women.
New badges included digital filmmaking, financial literacy, eating local, social innovation and business etiquette. Girl scouting has seen a significant drop in membership from its height in 2003, and alumnae, leaders, troops and councils disagree (sometimes heatedly) over whether the right response is modernization and change, or a re-emphasis on the organization’s roots. There were, and still are, badges to be had for traditional pursuits like camping, hiking or archery, but many in the organization saw the overhaul as part of a decades-long journey away from outdoor pursuits and activities that literally took girls outside their comfort zones, particularly as some troops and councils shift away from outdoor camps and even sell off properties. In place of such activities, they see a program that looks more like school than scouting and which they argue fails to engage girls.
As Jennifer Dobner reported in “Girl Scouts Debate Their Place in a Changing World,” 6,500 scouts, volunteers, staff members and others gathered at a convention this past weekend in Salt Lake City, where outdoor programs were part of the discussion. Members read aloud a new pledge about the outdoors, and the national organization committed to adding at least four new outdoor badges and to working to expand outdoor programs, partly in response to a 2012 survey of scouts, in which more than half of the respondents asked for more outdoor badges.
The coming change is already not enough for some. On the GSUSA, Are You Listening? Facebook page, which has been a gathering point for those dissatisfied with the national organization, there is little rejoicing. Leaders of the page are still promoting their own survey (of adults and parents) regarding camps and outdoor programming.
If you’re the parent of a girl scout, a scout leader or a former girl scout, what do you think of the changed program and of changes — hoped for and realized — to come?