I’ve been a leader of a girl scout troop since August of last year. I thought it would be lots of fun and outdoor learning, just like when I was growing up and in the Girl Scouts. Over the past six months, however, I have learned that the organization isn’t anything like I remember it. Down at the Daisy and Brownie levels it isn’t quite as bad, but why wait to leave when my daughters are older? Why keep devoting money and time to an organization that promotes such ungodly behavior? “Happy, Healthy and Hot?” What in the world are they thinking?
It’s the time of year that leaders have to decide whether or not they will renew their memberships. These are a few of the articles I’ve found online that helped me decide not to renew:
Leslie Wiggins 
17 responses to “Why my daughters and I can’t be Girl Scouts”
Wow. Timely article. We were seriously talking to and planning to join a gril scout troop at a local shurch or co-op. I’d heard some uncurrents that I didn’t like, but with it being at a conservative church, thought it must be more locally driven. Now, it is apparent that I need to return to my fromer opinion that this is no longer a group that I wish to be a part of. I believe that the co-op also has a Keepers of the Home group, which I’ve been wanting to find forever. Thank you for sharing this stuff! Maybe you can start a Keepers group.
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Actually, if I start a similar group, and that’s a big if, I’m looking into American Heritage Girls . It’s a Christ-centered organization similar to Boy Scouts. In fact, the Boy Scouts broke ties with the Girl Scouts and formed a partnership with AHG. It looks great, but would require a lot of work on my part because we’d be starting from scratch as there isn’t even a charter here.
I haven’t heard of Keepers. I’ll look into it.
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Leslie,
You will love AHG as it is more like scouting than Keepers (although Keepers is great but does not focus on the leadership, service and outdoors experience like AHG does).
I started a troop and have enjoyed it thoroughly. visit AHG at http://www.ahgonline.org or at their facebook site. The staff is super helpful and they have been around 15 years and were started by disillusioned GS leaders just like you!
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All I can say are the words to the old song: “This world is not my home, I’m just a’passing through, if heaven’s not my home, oh, Lord, what will I do; the angels beacon me from heaven’s open door, and I can’t be at home in this world anymore!” (I hear a quite a few old gospels songs in my travels each Sunday!)
How sad that evil seeks to permeate every good thing…still we hold out for the best!
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Ugh! And the worst part is … I am not surprised. Not because it’s Girl Scouts but just because 😦
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Whatever happened to ‘Make new friends and keep the old; one is silver and the other’s gold?’
I loved Girl Scouts. this makes me really sad, but like the ‘other Kim’ said, it really doesn’t surprise me.
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guess that’s settled…Raine won’t be in girl scouts. It’s about to the point where you can’t participate in anything unless it’s ran by the church.
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WOW. My daughter is a brownie, we love it, she loves it, and we had NO idea about any of this. Sigh….
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I did research on the Girl Scouts 6 years ago when someone asked me to let my oldest be in her Daisy troop. I discovered the same stuff and could not join.
Thanks for the links again. I have long lost the post I wrote about this so long ago!
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Thanks for this. I do feel like if you have a good troop, that makes a difference, but it would be hard to pull a child who loved GS out when things get more propaganda filled. I’m glad we haven’t started yet!
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I lead a Brownie troop (7-8 year olds) and even their journey book has propaganda in it.
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Leslie, thanks for posting this. I was mortified to read how the Girl Scouts are pushing their liberal agenda on the impressionable hearts of young girls and women. I was considering GS for Macy and Lily Cate but not now.
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Our church in Southern California has a Joy Club for girls from K-8. We use Keeper pins as activities—-so far we have covered scrapbooking, foreign language, ice skating (yes, even in S. CA), watercolors, and hiking. We have a Bible study, prayer, and singing with the girls, and then an activity. The girls seem to really enjoy it, and I, as a leader, have seen tremendous spiritual growth among the girls. Our goal: To have the girls grow up to be godly, Christian women. Bless all of you reading this!!!
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As a teen girl scout, the accusations cited in this post seem quite far fetched. I’ve been a girl scout for more than 7 years, and in my opinion, the organization has more often fallen, if anything, on the conservative side of the spectrum, and has done it’s best to distance itself from the terms “radical” and “ungoldly”, siding instead with a platform of inclusion and acceptance of all. The organization, unlike its brother organization the Boy Scouts of America, puts considerable effort into incensing the fewest people possible.
That being said, I think you were misinformed. If you thought that girl scouts was a place for little girls to prepare for lives as housewives, you may not be living in the 21st century. The development of girl scouts has mirrored the feminist movement in America; as women have gained the recognition and influence they deserve in society, the Girl Scouts have adapted to maintain and encourage that positive change.
Girl Scouts is not simply about learning life skills, it’s a place where girls develop into informed, educated, thoughtful, functional women. If being influential and pertinent to today’s society is not on your agenda for your girls, by all means, place them in the clutches of a different organization that isn’t in the business of empowering women. But be warned, your girls may be missing out on the organization that gave such great women as Sandra Day O’Connor, Sally Ride, Barbara Mikulsi, Madeline Albright, and Janet Reno the tools to live their dreams.
(A note: A friend and I are just starting a blog called Radical Girl Scouts, hence the surfing the web for girl scout related posts. We’re pushing for Girl Scouts to be more activism centric and we might cause, dare I say it CHANGE – something girl scouts taught us we could do! Us girls aren’t all content to sit around the house until the end of our days – you’ve been warned!)
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I spent a few days in June at Girl Scout camp and I saw young women being rude and crass, disrespectful to others (even adults, but especially to the younger girl scouts), and downright selfish. I’ll go another step and add racist because the older scouts’ demeanor toward the obviously not WASP girl scouts made me cringe. Their behavior was appalling.
You are absolutely right: scouting isn’t JUST about learning life skills; it’s a political organization. For instance, the young woman leading our group one night couldn’t even start a fire, but she was quite skilled in rationing the stale chocolate. (By the way, worst S’mores ever).
You can say that the Girls Scouts organization has erred on the conservative side all you want, but that doesn’t make it true. While local troops leaders have the ability to make their groups what they want them to be, as an international organization the Girl Scouts is very anti-family, anti-liberty, and even anti-girl. I want my daughters to be feminine, not feminists.
The “great women” you cite as examples are perfect examples of who I do not want my daughters to become. With the exception of Sally Ride, but if I knew more about her personal life I might change my mind, I most certainly do not want my daughters to be anything remotely like the women you mention. I don’t know much about Mikulski (because I’m not from Maryland), but Albright and Reno are two of the most foolish women in recent American history. Sure, they achieved a level of status that few women do, but they were destructive in their posts. Janet Reno?! Are you serious? I’ll cut you some slack since you’re probably a person who hasn’t been given an accurate, unbiased history. And if you’re reading her bio out of a girl scout handbook, then I’m sure it is not unbiased. And Albright? Her tenure as Secretary of State was not impressive. I was grown and well-aware of current events during Clinton’s time in office. I remember his cabinet, their actions, their speeches well.
You have been misinformed, lmuskinpierret.
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YES the Girl Scouts is a political organization! http://www.girlscouts.org/who_we_are/advocacy/advocacy_news/
I was on Capitol Hill just yesterday advocating for H.R. 4925, the Healthy Media for Youth Act, which was created after a Girl Scout Research Institute Study found that the media’s portrayal of over-sexualized women has led to extremely negative health and psychological effects in girls. The girl scouts have lobbyists: be very afraid.
I’m realizing this a debate not worth arguing. When it comes down to it, I’m 15. You must be at least 35 or 40. Guess who’s generation will be in power thirty years from now?
I’m sorry you had a bad experience with girl scouts. In the meantime, tell your girls to have fun sewing. I’ll be on Capitol Hill.
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And you just proved my point.
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