Guest Author - Diana Laulainen-Schein

When people think about Girl Scouts, they generally think about cookies. Common sense would suggest, however, that millions of young women do not become Girl Scouts in order to sell those boxes. The Girl Scout program has a foundation in the Promise and Law (see link) but also has four fundamental goals that encourage girls to:

* Develop to their full potential.
* Relate to others with increasing understanding, skill, and respect.
* Develop a meaningful set of values to guide their actions and to provide for sound decision-making.
* Contribute to the improvement of society.

The program thus encourages girls and young women to take care of themselves and others in a way that contributes to the overall good of society. These values can be found in several of the Girl Scout traditions and in the program itself. For example, Girl Scouts have always been taught to leave a place better than how they found it. Be it a wilderness trail, a meeting place, or their own backyard, girls are reminded to make the world around them just a little bit better.

At each level an appropriate amount of leader guidance is mixed in with an appropriate amount of girl initiative. At the Daisy level, input from the girls is limited, which makes sense at an age when many of them still can’t tie their shoes. As girls age though, they are encouraged to take more and more control over the troop management. In this way, girls learn to make wise choice for themselves and emerge into adulthood with the confidence to direct their own lives.

Probably most telling is the program’s tag line: “Girl Scouts, where girls grow strong.” No other program in the US is so devoted to the overall success and development of girls...and you thought it was all about cookies.