I was a Girl Scout and my daughter is -- I think the appeal of cookies is not value (they have never been a good value) but that they are available once a year, and that they benefit girls. I think selling cookies is a great endeavor -- it teaches responsibility, goal-setting, and assertiveness in a low-risk setting. It's very easy to sell cookies if you just ask, so girls can learn how to be successful along with experiencing more limited rejection. You make a sale maybe 1/3 of the time -- you learn to hear no without getting too discouraged. Imagine trying to get published if you had never learned to hear no! Imagine a child trying anything new and having the success rate that many of us have experienced while querying.
Girl Scouts does have a strong outdoors education and self-reliance component. My 13-year-old niece is still a Girl Scout and her troop has been raising money for a trip to London for FOUR YEARS. What a great lesson that is -- we live in a wealthy town where many kids travel all the time. I'm sure some or most of the parents of the Girl Scouts could just write a check, but these children are earning the trip on their own. And because they are earning it together, it doesn't matter if their parents can pay or not -- they are a team.
Girl Scouts does have a strong outdoors education and self-reliance component. My 13-year-old niece is still a Girl Scout and her troop has been raising money for a trip to London for FOUR YEARS. What a great lesson that is -- we live in a wealthy town where many kids travel all the time. I'm sure some or most of the parents of the Girl Scouts could just write a check, but these children are earning the trip on their own. And because they are earning it together, it doesn't matter if their parents can pay or not -- they are a team.