What was once old is now new again. GSUSA revamped their badge books and one of the components is a set of badges that girls can work on continually as they advance through the years, creating a core set of skills. The core areas to be covered by badge work at each level include the following:
1. Artist
2. Athletics
3. Citizen
4. Cook
5. First Aid
6. Naturalist
7. Girl Scout Ways
8. Outdoors
9. STEM
These nine areas echo some of the old core programs, such as the "Worlds to Explore," which included the World of Arts and People, the World of Today and Tomorrow, the World of Well Being and the Out-of-Doors.
My immediate thought was "thank goodness, something to work on that is NOT a Journey." My second thought was that this list represents a fair representation of the kind of practical skills that all young people should learn. These two positive thoughts led to a third though, namely why do the new Bronze, Silver, and Gold Awards require something as useless as the Journeys when they could include a solid foundation of skills in various areas as represented by this list?
The one area that was missing from what I would call the Girl Scout core when this program was rolled out was camping and/or the out of doors. The wide-scale sell off of Girl Scout camp properties when this program rolled out signaled to many leaders a departure from a focus on the out of doors. It took a few years, but not only did the outdoors make an appearance as a core program but so did STEM.
To return to the idea of what was old is now new again, my one complaint on that score is that, unlike Boy Scouts, GSUSA seems to believe that the wheel must continually be reinvented. I would instead argue that the wheel may need polishing and/or updating but the continual upheaval of the core program does little but enrage volunteers and distance those who value the traditions as set down by Juliette Low. That concern aside, I am hopeful that these new core badge programs will form a true core that will allow leaders to all but abandon the Journeys.
1. Artist
2. Athletics
3. Citizen
4. Cook
5. First Aid
6. Naturalist
7. Girl Scout Ways
8. Outdoors
9. STEM
These nine areas echo some of the old core programs, such as the "Worlds to Explore," which included the World of Arts and People, the World of Today and Tomorrow, the World of Well Being and the Out-of-Doors.
My immediate thought was "thank goodness, something to work on that is NOT a Journey." My second thought was that this list represents a fair representation of the kind of practical skills that all young people should learn. These two positive thoughts led to a third though, namely why do the new Bronze, Silver, and Gold Awards require something as useless as the Journeys when they could include a solid foundation of skills in various areas as represented by this list?
The one area that was missing from what I would call the Girl Scout core when this program was rolled out was camping and/or the out of doors. The wide-scale sell off of Girl Scout camp properties when this program rolled out signaled to many leaders a departure from a focus on the out of doors. It took a few years, but not only did the outdoors make an appearance as a core program but so did STEM.
To return to the idea of what was old is now new again, my one complaint on that score is that, unlike Boy Scouts, GSUSA seems to believe that the wheel must continually be reinvented. I would instead argue that the wheel may need polishing and/or updating but the continual upheaval of the core program does little but enrage volunteers and distance those who value the traditions as set down by Juliette Low. That concern aside, I am hopeful that these new core badge programs will form a true core that will allow leaders to all but abandon the Journeys.
