Girl Scouts Lack Training

[Midnight]

I am writing a proposal to a few Girl Scout councils concerning a problem about how Girl Scout Leaders seem to lack basic camping skill training. And before anyone gets mad, let me say this, I am NOT saying that all Girl Scout leaders are incompetent, I'm just trying to get a handle on the opinions and the thoughts concerning this situation.

 

My history of scouts is based on the fact that I am a Girl Scout resident camp counselor (hence the camp name, Midnight). I am also trained in Traversing, Climbing, first-aid, CPR, and all the usual stuff that GS Leaders are required to be trained in. I have earned my Silver and Gold awards and have been in the organization for over fifteen years.

 

From the first summer that I was old enough to staff at a GS camp, I began noticing how Girl Scout leaders lacked some of the most imperative camping skills. One leader taught her girls that the "correct way" to build a fire was by spraying a can of bug spray over a lighter for a torch effect. Another leader saw a snake, freaked out, and ran halfway across the camp leaving her girls behind screaming and crying. One woman didn't understand how to set up a tent, got upset over it, and in the process, upset all the girls to the point to where they all left and went home. Another leader, one who I've known from a very young age, allowed her girls to go swimming in a lake without any knowledge of whether the girls knew how to swim or not. The leader had no swimming experience herself, and one girl who started struggling might have drowned had the camp ranger not intervened.

 

These are just a few examples of things that I have been a witness to. Others have told me their own horror stories of incidents that happened in their own troops. I actually took this information to one of my councils but was dismissed because I didn't have any proof in writing outside my own notes.

 

I'm looking for opinions on this. But even more importantly, I'm looking for reasons why you believe that Girl Scout leaders require more training.

 

Thanks

 

[SagerScout]

Wow, you must be in a council on another planet. In my council (Girl Scouts of the San Antonio Area), you can't get a camp permit without a Troop Camp Leadership trained person and a second person with First aid/CPR. That's for cabin camping at the council site. If you're going tent camping you must have OE-3, which covers tenting and state park safety rules. If you are having a backyard BBQ with your scouts you must have outdoor cooking training for that. To get their little pinkie toes wet, even in a shallow backyard pool or wading in six inches of river bed, requires a Red Cross Lifeguard over the age of 18. These rules are covered to exhaustion in Quickstart and leadership training.

 

I can't imagine most of the girl scout leaders I know running screaming from a snake, doing the torch thing, or letting kids go swimming in a lake like that. However, I've seen that type of behavior from untrained parents, many of whom then take offense at the "ridiculous" training rules. My personal favorite was the dad along on a 3rd grade Brownie cabin campout who came running into the Kiva, nearly hysterical, when he found a scorpion on his bunk. He had half the girls ready to pack for home that minute. Same dad got all bent out of shape when he couldn't get a camp permit for an outing where he was going to take a bunch of 4th graders to the lake and drag them behind his boat on inner tubes - with no lifeguard. No Way, said the council. Good for them.

 

Was that reasonable - well, would I do that activity with my own children? Sure, would and did and with them at a younger age to boot. Would I do it with my troop? NO HOW NO WAY! Too much liability, they do not have the swimming skills my kids do, they do not have the trust level with me that my own kids do, and furthermore it's agin the rules.

 

Anyway, I'm wondering what planet you are Girl Scouting on because it sure ain't like that around here.

[sctmom]

I've been told by Girl Scout leaders they had to go through a weekend of training to take the girls to ANY type of camping. Also, they have to have a First Aid/CPR trainged person along.