Journeys Required for Higher Awards

I've been getting a lot of emails, saying "I thought I was alone in disliking/hating the Journeys. Thank you for your articles." To all of you who wrote and to all of you who just thought that, you're welcome. Writing the articles is a lot like stating the obvious though. I have some other obvious observations to share at the moment.

The second round of Journeys are out and, oh, new requirements for Girls Scouts' top awards--the Bronze, Silver, and Gold award are out as well. It's not good news.

The new requirements require that girls work on the Journeys as a prerequisite to their project. For the Gold Award, our top honor, girls must complete TWO of the Journeys.

I knew it was coming, but I was still horrified when the news arrived. My girls, and many of yours, hate these Journeys. Add to that the fact that they have to be done in a troop setting, and my math suggests that fewer will be inclined to earn the awards. At the older stages, not only are there smaller troops that meet on an infrequent basis, but there are also many independently motivated Girl Scouts. There may be one girl in a troop who wishes to earn her Gold award, but now she will have to cajole some of her troop members into devoting a not-insignificant amount of time doing a Journey.

I also have an issue with the whole progression of the Journeys ending in a "Take Action" project. Essentially, we are asking our girls to take on three projects to earn their Gold Award. How tedious. How boring. How redundant! As I said to one person, I'd rather see them complete a series of proficiency exams in knot tying, fire building, and tent pitching. At least they'd have some skills that would help them should they ever land a spot on Survivor. The current proposal to require Journeys doesn't guarantee that they'll leave the process with any skills, except perhaps some talent in aversion avoidance.

What do I mean by "aversion avoidance?" Well, the arguments are already mounting within Councils about the appropriateness of "Journey weekends" whereby girls would knock out the majority of requirements in a Journey "to get them out of the way." Am I the only one who sees a problem with this? The response is not "Joy o joy, we will JOURNEY through this program over a period of months," but "Crud, how can we meet the letter of the law with the least amount of time and energy invested?" The image of leading a horse to water comes to mind...

In the mailbag has been a lot of questions about what we can do as leaders. Unfortunately, I think this steamroller is going to flatten us, but I do have an email that you can use to register your concerns and complaints. My suggestion is that you politely demand a non-Journey, traditional route to the higher awards. We aren't going to be able to stop the Journey train, but perhaps we can create a second train track. Here's the email and happy writing: programideas@girlscouts.org

The New Journeys

(Obviously, this post was written a few years ago).

The new Journeys are coming.... I keep hearing that, and I still don't know what it means. That is not very helpful though, so I thought I'd do a quick run down of what I do know.

First, to remind you, I have sixth graders, which means that they are technically Cadettes this year. I say "technically" because we aren't ready to be done with Juniors. Since I row my own canoe generally (mixed metaphor intended), I'm going to formally call them Cadettes in January-ish, and we'll get the new sash and all that jazz then. The way I figure it, I'm meeting the new program halfway and by the time anyone alerts the Girl Scout police and they track us down, the girls will be well on their way to college.

Level changes aside, the next problem we all have are these new Journeys. I'm on a lot of lists and, although I want to reserve judgment, I am alarmed. A first-look report I got on the Cadette-level Journey suggested to me that one of the core messages of this Journey is to teach girls to be nice to everyone with the reward being that everyone will be nice in return.

How awful. The last thing girls need is a program for girls that reinforces a stereotype that has never served their gender well. The first question I have is whether any program for boys would ever have a similar message? I think not, and I don't believe we do a service to our girls by feeding them that kind of drivel. Girls don't need to be taught to "be nice." They need to be taught to stand up for themselves and be assertive. Sugar and spice and everything nice is a Victorian value that should stay in that era.

My second concern with these Journeys is they seem to be focused on self-reflection and journaling. Although that sounds harmless, in reality, my girls are going to view this sort of naval gazing as a waste of time when they could be DOING something. Journaling? To them, that's just more of what they get in school.

My solution so far has been a plan to wait until they come out and if my fears are grounded to ignore them. Girl Scouts has generally always been whatever a troop wants. However, and this is a big however, I am also seeing reports that the Journeys are going to be pre-requisites for Silver and Gold Awards. Big problem. I'm not about to push my girls to work on a program, particularly if advance reports as to content and form are true....

Selling Journeys to the Girls

I have tired very very hard to get my girls interested in the new Journeys. I have failed miserably. My troop is now a mixed-level troop from ages 7-12, so I bought and examined each applicable Journey. I then read both the books and the leader guides cover to cover.

I had a mixed reaction. First, I LOVED the topic of the Cadette Journey. It deals with relational aggression and teaching our girls to navigate the shark-infested waters of social relations could be the single most valuable lesson of Girl Scouts. To round out my impressions, I could easily toss aside the Brownie and Junior Journeys and be happy to never look at them again.

To introduce them to my girls, I started with my own daughters and casually let them look at them. I should mention that my girls assume anything I give them for Girl Scouts will be something they will like. My 9 year old latched onto the Junior Journey and wanted to know if she could keep the book. An important point here is that my nine year old has never met a book she hasn't loved. My 11 year old flipped through her level book and gave it right back at me with a "do we have to do it?"

Step two: I took the books to a meeting and let the girls browse through them. I wanted one of the Cadettes to show an interest, any interest, in the Cadette Journey but I was disappointed.

Step three: I tried sending books home with the girls. I finally got one Cadette interested because she found it to be just like her American Girl book. Aha! For those girls who already like the American Girl books, this was an easy sell, but unfortunately, in my troop of 20, that was one family of sisters.

Gathering further feedback, the older girls strongly reacted to the "school-like" approach of the Journey and were completely uninterested in the topic. The Junior-level girls liked their book for the same reasons; either they like that it was an American Girl clone or they liked school and anything that resembles school is great in their assessment.

I suggested to the Cadette who liked the Journey that she could lead the troop through it. Despite her enthusiasm, her first question was, do we have to all do the whole book?

At this point, I am leaving the guidance of the Cadette Journey in the hands of the one interested girl. I figured she has a better chance of getting her friends interested in the Journey than I do.

Journeys: The bad and the ugly

Last night at our neighborhood meeting, we had break-out sessions for leaders to meet and share ideas with those at their same level. As an experienced leader, I was assigned to moderate the Brownie leader group. In the course of the discussion, a leader ventured to ask me what I would do with the Journeys if I were still a Brownie leader. In response, I cast an apologetic look at the group and said "I wouldn't buy them."

The response I got was written on the faces of the twelve leaders who were participating and ranged from relief, to agreement, to joy. All of these Brownie leaders had in some way attempted to work with these materials and found them to be a dud. Echoing what I've been saying for a year, I heard "they're too much like schoolwork," "the kids don't like them," and "I can't make them fun."

When the Brownie leaders adjourned, I wandered over to the Daisy leaders who were still engaged in discussion and inquired about their experiences with the Journeys. The response I got was very similar to what I received from the Brownie leaders. Neither group like the fact that to work through the Journeys so much precious troop meeting time had to be devoted to the books over a sustained periods of time and that spreading the work out over many meetings was confusing to the girls who didn't necessarily connect that it was all one Journey. Many conveyed that they weren't sure they were "doing it right."

I encouraged the leaders in attendance to take unused materials back to the Council shop and I encourage all of you reading this article to do the same. National uses sales figures as "evidence" that their programs are successful. With that in mind, "use resources wisely" and return the books.

What I found most interesting about this mini-survey of about two dozen leaders is that they found the new Journeys to be so difficult as leaders. These are supposed to be "canned programs" aimed directly at new Daisy and Brownie leaders who need "what to do" spelled out. Clearly in that goal, GSUSA missed the mark by a wide margin.

If you're keeping score, that's two strikes, the girls and the leaders don't like them. Maybe if we all return the books we have on hand, that will be the third strike and the Journeys will be out.

Being a Good Girl Scout means NOT loving Journeys

I recently received an email that lectured me on not being a good reporter when I wrote my article on the second round of the Journeys. I was chastised for publishing a less-than-glowing article on them before their publication.

First of all, let's me be clear; I am not a reporter. I have worked in the field of journalism and I am well aware that a reporter's job is to report facts. I write editorials that express my opinions, and sometimes I write about ideas that have worked for me. I don't report the news. My journey article was a straight-up editorial on what the horrible marketing materials that were sent out to "sell" the second round of Journeys.

The email I received also told me what a naughty girl I was for not supporting Girl Scouts as I should as a long-time member (over 25 years and counting). The writer told me I should be an advocate for Girl Scouts. First of all, I am a supporter of Girl Scouts, but that does not mean I have to swallow the crap they are shoving down our throats with the Journeys.

I would also argue that supporting the Journeys is not being a good advocate for Girl Scouts at all, particularly given how poorly they are being received by many many girls and leaders. I am not a voice in the wilderness here, and I am not alone in my concern that if this is the future of Girl Scouts, then Girl Scouts has no future.

My email "fan" requested that I "give them a try." What an assumption that is....I did try the Journeys on two separate levels (Juniors and Cadettes) and not only did I find them impossible to do in a fashion that was not "school-like," but my girls HATED them. I tried several different approaches to them and not only because I could see that they resembled American Girl in "look," and I do have some girls who love that. I was actually disappointed that no matter what I tried, I could not sell the girls on the AMAZE journey because I find the topic of relational aggression so important. I had girls tell me they would quit if this is what "we had to do." The bottom line for me is that I did think it was important to "give them a try" but after trying for a year, I no longer have any desire at all to support them in any way and thereby go against the wishes of my troop members.

The email also informed me that the Journeys are not "party-time for girls." Uh, ok, but then neither is what we do as a troop. This year most of my troop spent several months working on a Bronze Award project that benefited the local food and clothing bank. Just this week, I had girls put in over several days' worth of community service, and several of them are going to be serving as junior counselors at a summer camp next week to earn their Silver Leadership Award. The troop has also voted to support a local cat shelter next year where their primary job will be cleaning out litter boxes (not exactly my definition of a party).

In the past year, we have hiked, camped, gone rock climbing, participated in a ropes challenge course as a team, and learned to shoot archery. I suppose you can call that "party-time" but I call that healthy activity that teaches the girls independence and confidence. I could spend another hour listing all the activities we have participated in as a troop that do not qualify as "party-time," but I think the point has been made.

The writer went on to ask me if I really thought "the badges the GS Juniors are earning ALL have value?" I won't comment on ALL the Junior badges because we certainly don't try to do all of them. We do what the girls want to do only and, as a matter of fact, I do find those that they choose to do to be valuable.

Just some of the badges my girls earned as Juniors included Camp Together, Horse Fan, Camera Shots, Caring for Children, Hobbies, Architecture, and Drawing and Painting. Each one of these badges taught the girls something new. The more I think about it, the more I think that GSUSA really got it right when they offered the "Worlds to Explore" program for girls. Learning new things always has value and badges offer a way to do that without making the girls sit and read and do activities that mirror those they do in the classroom.

The writer then noted that "the Interest Project Patches were outdated when introduced in 1995." The correct terminology for these awards is IPAs (Interest Project Awards), and I worked on them as a girl when they were introduced as IPPs in the mid 1980s. I wasn't really fond of their format then nor do I love them now, and I fully support the idea that they need to be reworked, but the Journeys are not, IN MY OPINION, an acceptable replacement for try its, badges, and IPAs.

Try its, badges, and IPAs allow girls to follow their own interests whereas the Journeys dictate themes that will have to be worked on for the better part of a year. As I've already noted, my Cadettes had zero interest in the topic of the AMAZE journey. The environment is the general theme for the second round of Journeys. I am not suggesting this isn't an important topic, but it really has been done to death. My girls went to at least three Girl Scout events that focused on this topic just last year. Furthermore, do we need every Girl Scout troop in the country to be working on service projects that relate to the environment? (Journeys culminate with girls/troops "taking action" within the theme of the journey.)

To summarize, as far as my girls are concerned if the theme of a future journey is not camping, horses, or archery, then they are not interested and therefore neither am I. After all, one cannot lead if the girls will not follow.

Attending Leader Meetings

It's a new year and a good time for resolutions. This year, make it a goal to attend your local service unit/neighborhood meetings.

Neighborhood meetings are run by volunteer service team members who generally are leaders themselves. Service team members are not paid for these jobs, although many of them require many hours of dedication. They take care of jobs that are beyond the realm of a troop but are not of a council or national level. As such, they serve as a liaison between the troops and your local council. Generally, any member of a service team is going to be an invaluable resource to you as a leader. They are there to help, so talk to them!

As for neighborhood meetings themselves, the purpose and content of any particular meeting can be as varied as the neighborhoods in which they are held. They are intended to disseminate information from the national, council, and neighborhood levels to the individual troop leaders. For example, these meetings are where information about registration, fall product, and cookie sales will be distributed. In addition, information about training and policies and procedures will be made available in this setting.

Leader meetings also provide an opportunity to network with other leaders, to ask questions, and to share ideas. Finding a sister troop to work with should be a snap at any meeting. Some neighborhoods will take the opportunity to provide social activities for leaders at this time whereas others will be all business. Opportunities for leader enrichment, such as training, may also occur at neighborhood meetings.

Neighborhood meetings are also the place where neighborhood events will be planned and information about how to sign up will be disseminated. Neighborhood activities can include events such as back to school and round up activities, skills days, sing alongs, father/daughter and mother/daughter activities, and more. The only limit to the kinds of activities that can be planned and offered is whether someone can be found to volunteer to coordinate such activities.

With all this excellent information available to you just by attending a neighborhood meeting, make it a resolution to attend as the new Girl Scout year gets under way.

Amaze Journey for Cadettes

The new Girl Scout Journey program is called "It’s Your World—Change It!" The Cadette journey is entitled "Amaze: The Twists and Turns of Getting Along" and is basically about relational aggression among girls and how to deal with it.

This journey has both its pluses and its minuses as far as I am concerned. For starters, I believe the topic is perhaps the most important that we can address as Girl Scout leaders. Relational aggression, for those of you unfamiliar with the term, defines bullying among girls. It encompasses all the unsavory games that girls can play in the social process that too often scars girls in the middle school years. In my opinion, any Girl Scout leader, mentor, or teacher who works with young girls should educate themselves about relational aggression and how to combat it.

A good starting point is Rachel Simmons revealing and thought-provoking book Odd Girl Out: The Hidden Aggression Among Girls. Simmons book is richly researched and demonstrates that the social quagmire that exists in middle school and high school is one that can irrevocably damage young women and resonate throughout their lives. As such, it argues strongly against taking the stance that "girls will be girls" and letting the girls sort it out for themselves.

Girls (and let's be honest, grown women) use lies, gossip and rumor, teasing, exclusion and ignoring, insults, and alliance building to manipulate the social scene. Generally, a girl is targeted so that others can "move up" in the social hierarchy, gain power and/or popularity, or simply deflect negative attention from themselves. The damage inflicted on the target, as Simmons demonstrates, can last a lifetime.

Simmons' book and others addressing the topic frustrate in that they do not offer solutions. The Girl Scout Amaze journey, therefore, offers a proactive approach to addressing relational aggression.

The Cadette journey has problems, however, beginning with getting girls interested in doing it. I have strong reservations about the whole direction that the Girl Scouting is headed. A lot of the new materials focus on talking, sharing, and reflection. Although that sounds fairly benign, in practice, when I offer my girls programs that center around these activities, the girls actively complain. To them, Girl Scouts is about doing. They would rather camp, shoot a bow and arrow, or perform community service. Pushing activities that they see as too like school work only turns them off.

Another problem that I have with the journey is related to this lack of attractiveness to the girls and that is the time commitment. The adult guide suggests eight sessions as a minimum to complete the journey. For many troops, eight sessions would encompass almost a year's worth of activities. Thus the journey program would effectively be the Girl Scout program with no time for badges, camping, or, gasp, cookies!

I am thus in a quandary over Amaze. On the one hand, I truly believe the topic is one that we as Girl Scout leaders need to acknowledge and address if possible. Yet I am not convinced that what amounts to a workbook is the best method to take that action.