Yeah, and I also think that the sort of temporary nature of most girl scout troops also hampers, what I think, was one of the most key parts of the boy scout program- the idea of “boys teaching boys” (I suppose they may phrase it more like “kids teaching kids” now)
The older kids in the troop took a really active role in running the program. Often we’d pretty much just get sort of a list of bullet points from the adult leaders for what we needed to accomplish and it was up to us to figure out how to make it happen, put together a plan, delegate responsibilities, and get the younger kids up to speed, while the adults stood by off to the side somewhere pretty much just making sure we didn’t do anything too stupid.
Not all of us were exactly natural-born leaders, but because of that sort of organizational structure we all kind of learned some passable leadership skills.
But without that ongoing recruitment and the kids of different ages being active in the troop together, that kind of youth leadership can’t really happen to the same extent
I’ve also heard some things, and I have no clue how true they are, about their adult leader training being a little excessive, like there’s separate classes you’re supposed to take before you do pretty much anything, like you need to take the training before you can go on a camping trip, and then there’s a second training for if you want to have a campfire, and another if you want to go on a hike, etc. and I believe those are all trainings you would need to pay for
So if that’s true (and it may not be, this is half-rememered info from probably about 2 decades ago) that does put a pretty high barrier of entry for a lot of people.
Yeah, and I also think that the sort of temporary nature of most girl scout troops also hampers, what I think, was one of the most key parts of the boy scout program- the idea of “boys teaching boys” (I suppose they may phrase it more like “kids teaching kids” now)
The older kids in the troop took a really active role in running the program. Often we’d pretty much just get sort of a list of bullet points from the adult leaders for what we needed to accomplish and it was up to us to figure out how to make it happen, put together a plan, delegate responsibilities, and get the younger kids up to speed, while the adults stood by off to the side somewhere pretty much just making sure we didn’t do anything too stupid.
Not all of us were exactly natural-born leaders, but because of that sort of organizational structure we all kind of learned some passable leadership skills.
But without that ongoing recruitment and the kids of different ages being active in the troop together, that kind of youth leadership can’t really happen to the same extent
I’ve also heard some things, and I have no clue how true they are, about their adult leader training being a little excessive, like there’s separate classes you’re supposed to take before you do pretty much anything, like you need to take the training before you can go on a camping trip, and then there’s a second training for if you want to have a campfire, and another if you want to go on a hike, etc. and I believe those are all trainings you would need to pay for
So if that’s true (and it may not be, this is half-rememered info from probably about 2 decades ago) that does put a pretty high barrier of entry for a lot of people.