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What's Up With Girl Scouts?


I had the pleasure of taking a 9-year-old girl on her first rock climbing outing last weekend at the Hocking State Forest Rock Climbing and Rappelling Area. Then I had the – well, I wouldn’t say pleasure – of seeing her Junior Girl Scout Badge Book.

Flipping through the guide, I truly couldn’t believe some of what I saw. Did you know that young Girl Scouts can earn a badge for Looking Your Best? I am not making this up. The actual sew-on badge features a hairbrush, a comb and a mirror. Then here’s the badge big oil somehow managed to get into the Girl Scout curriculum: Oil Up. The badge is an oil derrick and it only goes downhill from there. (In fairness, the guide has a photo of a bear with spilled crude oil on her fur. She is definitely not looking her best.)

It’s not all bad, of course. There are plenty of standard badges – Swimming, Adventure Sports, Finding Your Way (compass skills) and Being My Best. There are even some progressive elements in the Girl Scout Badge Book – the Car Care badge is pretty cool and the photos feature racially diverse groups of Girl Scouts. My favorite badge? Stress Less – it’s got an image of a hammock on it!

Local Girl Scout councils have as much variation as the badge book. I’ve met Girl Scouts in the field while they were on camping, caving and rock climbing trips. On the other end, my local Girl Scout council one year had a – prepare yourself – mall lock-in. Instead of camping, they had the girls spend the night in the mall. (Those mothers must still have post traumatic stress disorder from the experience.)

What’s the take-home message from all of this? It’s simple: get involved. If you’re an outdoor adventurer, share your skills with young people, especially girls who sometimes don’t have the same access to these skills as boys. You can become a troop leader but you don’t even have to go that far. You can just take a girl out in the woods and teach her – and her friends, her sisters, her brothers – the skills that make outdoor adventure safe and fun.
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Training, training vanzari said…
I actually don't understand why boy scouts are separate from girl scouts....in theory they should learn the same things..
I was reading your article and i start to wonder if we are really in the 21st century..
September 22, 2009 at 8:36 AM
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