ref: Need Opinions!!!!
Carol McLane (Carol.Mclane@COMMERCE.STATE.MI.US)
Tue, 28 Nov 1995 09:33:09 -0500
on 11/25 Melanie Lasley wrote: "I have a 5th grade Junior G.S Troop and in
my opinion they should have some responsibilities. ..<clip>.... She is
what you might call an "air-head" and if people keep protecting her and
reminding her of things to do shes never going to grow out of
it....<clip>................I just want to know how YOU would handle the
situation. "
Melanie, Good for you for starting the girls on leadership. Your idea of
the girls having to accept responsibility for themselves is correct. We
talk about this in Basic Leader Training all the time. Remember the
Girl/Adult Partnership? By the time the girls are Juniors they should be
starting to coordinate their activities. I always expected the girls to
bring handbooks and paper and pencil to every meeting. instead of me
writing down and making copies of the dates and times of activities, I made
them write them down -- hoping that after seeing the date -- talking about
the date and writing the date they would have it firmly fixed in their
memories.
Also, have the girls start doing the planning. It takes the pressure off
from you to do everything plus it makes the girls 'owners' of the
activities. You can't expect that they are going to have all the
planning skills right away but you can teach them in steps over the year.
You can get some good start by having them work on some of the Leadership
badges. Also work on the Leadership chapter in the handbook. Also, pull
some of the information from your Basic Leader training on how to plan a
meeting or event. Most of the steps you do instinctively, but you have to
teach the girls one step at a time. Yes, they will make mistakes but they
will learn and soon will be doing it without thinking. When you have
taught them how to plan for an event, you will have set them with one very
important life skill that many people never learn because they always have
someone taking care of them instead of taking care of themselves.
As for your girl that didn't call -- maybe her job should be checking out
the Safety Wise for any trip rules and getting all the permission slips
signed. By giving her duties you can teach leadership and responsibility
Carol McLane
Michigan Trails GS.
Portland Cadette Troop #300
Carol.McLane@Commerce.State.MI.US
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