Brownies Badge Book Omissions!

[Klenchblaize]

Some may say I'm cruel but I couldn't resist tweaking my 7-year old daughter last night when studying her Brownies book. It started with expressing my disappointment that of all the badges she may study for not one requires the purchase of a large knife or axe! Then there is the summer camp that will not be spent under canvas; lack of guidance in the art of frication fire lighting; knots; spear fishing; tracking or foraging! There was a section on cookery but even that was not of the outdoor variety!

The fun was brought to halt however when SWMBO heard me suggesting that at the next meet our daughter demands to know why there is no badge for surviving the unwanted attentions of wild bear!

Am I really expecting too much of her??

Cheers!

 

[Womble]

no, but you might be expecting too much of the Brownies...

 

[spamel]

I have the same issue with my girls' Brownie troop. None of the leaders are qualified to take the kids out for an overnight camp, and they are not interested in doing so. They do bare minimum and won't make space for other adults to come in and take over so the kids are stuck with what they've got. We can only hope for a swift exit to the other world for the old birds, that way we could get some decent adults in and get the kids doing exciting stuff. The badges are a sham too, same as the competitions that the kids enter in school. Last year, a six year old entered the cake decorating competition and it was mind boggling! If the six year old kid made anything of that cake, let alone decorating it, I'll eat a Bushcraft forums' worth of Tilley hats!

The badges are mainly done by the kids away from brownies and it is mainly parents or friends of the parents signing off in the book and they get a badge. I think that most of them are just signing any old thing off and they probably have zero understanding of what they are earning badge wise. The whole set up down there is a sham, and she gave up on choir for it. I'd rather she did choir, she worked hard for it and got a lot of recognition and respect for it.

 

[SimonM]

I was asked to assess our local Guide's for their survival badge a couple of years ago.

I turned up, after rushing around from work etc, to find them cooking a meal on the hob in the church kitchen.

I asked why they were cooking indoors and was told "It's raining!". No sign of shelter builing, or fire lighting etc.

I advised the leader that I would come back at a later date, when they were ready to be re assessed, but have not been asked back!

Simon

 

[ScarletPimpernel]

I asked why they were cooking indoors and was told "It's raining!". No sign of shelter builing, or fire lighting etc.

You should have switched to military mode and got the infants outside.

A spot of doubling round the church hall car park would soon warm them up. Any protests from the leaders can be easily countered by pointing out that Brownies are not made of sugar, and will not melt in the rain.

 

[Steve27752]

Join the Cubs/Scouts it`s much more fun.

 

[firecrest]

You know people wonder why there is less women bushcrafters than men but its because women always get a much poorer education of the outdoors growing up. Many are led to believe they are not capable of doing these things, nor do the women who guide them have the skills to teach them.

 

[spamel]

You know people wonder why there is less women bushcrafters than men but its because women always get a much poorer education of the outdoors growing up. Many are led to believe they are not capable of doing these things, nor do the women who guide them have the skills to teach them.

Try telling my girls that! Rachel is the master pignut hunter, she dug up "The Beast" this weekend and kept taking the mickey out of Scruff! She kept laughing at his tiny pig nuts, that sounds wrong like but it's true!

 

[firecrest]

Yes but your girls have got all the best kind of encouragement, they are very lucky to have you as a dad.
she wouldnt be digging up pignuts if you had just dumped her in the Brownies.
She'd grow up looking like this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtSb...D9077D24&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=22

 

[spamel]

Yes but your girls have got all the best kind of encouragement, they are very lucky to have you as a dad.
she wouldnt be digging up pignuts if you had just dumped her in the Brownies.
She'd grow up looking like this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtSb...D9077D24&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=22

Yup, that's one of the leaders alright, bigger beard though!

 

[stovie]

Join the Cubs/Scouts it`s much more fun.

Depending on your local scout group, of course...

Two points

A. I know scouts are mixed, and have been for years, but not all groups accept girls. I have a group locally to my own who refuse to accept girls (the SL threatens to leave whenever its brought up...unfortunately he never gfoes through with it) so I take the girls from that area into my group...their loss.

2. there are scout groups that are as much a shambles as brownies/guides.

when it comes to it, its horses for courses, some girls are just that, girls and like the things on offer at brownies etc, and wouldn't attend scouts on principle. 2 years ago I took along 40 rabbits and pigeons to a district camp for scouts and guides (always a well attended and well organised event) and there was uproar among the more sensitive guide leaders (not all I hasten to add) and their little darlings. Needless to say I did it the following year just to be sure my lot were not softening. As it happened, they were the ones doing the teaching. They do make me proud, and emphasise the respect given to the source of their food.

 

[xylaria]

My 11 year old joined a scout group last week and doubled the number of girls. She likes the sensible male company of the other scouts. The other girl is the district leaders daughter and is really outdoorsy fun type, rather than the indoorsy talks about make-up boring type.

When she did brownies most of the stuff was indoors, including the cooking badge. They did do a bug hunt in vicar's jungle like lawn, which considering what the average seven year old girl is like with creepy crawlies was pretty brave of the leaders. I think that is what it gets down to, brownies are the first challenge agaisnt the prissyness of the little princesses. The world of mud, insects, and stinging nettles is quite different from the barbies and bratz that are sold as girl toys. Even if a group does very little outdoorsy stuff, it still gives invalueable lessons in co-operation and confedence. It also brings little girls into a organistion where girls grow up to be women that do the same as their male counterparts.

 

[silvergirl]

My daughter loves Brownies.
It is run by the same old dear that has been running it for the past 40yrs. They do have walk in the woods and campfires, but so far pack holiday has been inside.
My daughter became the first in the unit to ever do her watersports badge, which she is very proud of.
Most of the stuff is inside and with an arts and crafts orientation, but she doesn't get as much of that at home as she would like.
I'll agree some of the badges don't look very outdoors orientated, but a lot of what they do is down to leaders and opportunity. Its always worth asking if they want a hand with some skills development.

I was asked to assess our local Guide's for their survival badge a couple of years ago.

I turned up, after rushing around from work etc, to find them cooking a meal on the hob in the church kitchen.

I asked why they were cooking indoors and was told "It's raining!". No sign of shelter builing, or fire lighting etc.

I advised the leader that I would come back at a later date, when they were ready to be re assessed, but have not been asked back!

Simon

Again its down to perception of what is possible.
I am also for my sins a guide leader. I volunteered because the unit was about to fold as they couldn't get any helpers.

When they did their survival badge they cooked a three course meal outdoors over an open fire, built a shelter in the woods (when it was dark and I didn't let them have torches), they had to show how to navigate and how they could find north without a compass, they used firesteels and a bow drill to light fires and had to identify six edible plants, I forget what else.
There was lots of shrieks about going into the woods without being able to turn on a torch and for some of the girls just being outside in the dark was a new thing.

Unfortunatly most of them wouldn't go to Scouts because they do like being able to mess around as girls and not worry about their 'image' in front of boys.
I used to be a bit dismissive of this influence untill I was out rafting with the guides and they hid behind some bushes when some boys appeared as they didn't want to be seen in wetsuits.

 

[welshwhit]

For the stick they sometimes get, I personally feel that scout/guide groups have the best of intentions.

Looking at some of the posts here just shows that some kids are extremely lucky to have parents/leaders willing to go that extra mile to provide a good footing in the outdoors to kids that ordinarily wouldn't get the chance, so well done all of you!

I had my start in the outdoors with my parents, then with scouts and for many years I was an outdoor instructor, and I couldn't help but feel a little saddened when I was instructing groups who had very capable leaders with them but they didn't have that all important bit of paper to say 'they were allowed' to do it.

I can't wait to get my girls into the outdoors at every available chance, but how many people don't for the fear something might go wrong?

 

[hog]

My Sons cub group is a bit wussy but I put it down to the fact that group leaders are no longer able to do the things that were done when boys were real boys.
All in the name of (and I choke every time I say these words) health and saftey.

 

[welshwhit]

Yep, health and safety can have a habbit of becoming a beast!

Drew

 

[Emma]

You know people wonder why there is less women bushcrafters than men but its because women always get a much poorer education of the outdoors growing up. Many are led to believe they are not capable of doing these things, nor do the women who guide them have the skills to teach them.

What a fascinating idea. Does anyone else think this? It just seems kind of odd to me. In my family, outdoorsy-stuff comes very obviously thorugh the maternal line - my dad, his parents, and my mum's dad were all city people. My mum, her mum and her mum were all outdoors types. By the looks of things, the next generation in our family will also have only the mother as the outdoorsy one... and the only relatives of the hypothetical kids likely to do outdoorsy stuff with them are aunts on the maternal side...

 

[Ditch Monkey]

What a fascinating idea. Does anyone else think this? It just seems kind of odd to me. In my family, outdoorsy-stuff comes very obviously thorugh the maternal line - my dad, his parents, and my mum's dad were all city people. My mum, her mum and her mum were all outdoors types. By the looks of things, the next generation in our family will also have only the mother as the outdoorsy one... and the only relatives of the hypothetical kids likely to do outdoorsy stuff with them are aunts on the maternal side...

Maybe us blokes like to bang on about all the outdoors stuff we do because it makes us feel macho, meanwhile the girls are probably too busy talking about kittens or knitting or something

 

[Womble_Lancs]

I am also for my sins a guide leader. I volunteered because the unit was about to fold as they couldn't get any helpers.

When they did their survival badge they cooked a three course meal outdoors over an open fire, built a shelter in the woods (when it was dark and I didn't let them have torches), they had to show how to navigate and how they could find north without a compass, they used firesteels and a bow drill to light fires and had to identify six edible plants, I forget what else.
There was lots of shrieks about going into the woods without being able to turn on a torch and for some of the girls just being outside in the dark was a new thing.

That sounds like great fun. When I first moved up to the Guides, we had a skipper who had one foot in the grave, and preferred us to concentrate on cookery and home-making. Then we had a real shock - a new skipper, who was ex-army. What a difference! Sports, camping, backwoodsmanship, archery, canoeing, rock climbing, fire-fighting and first aid were the order of the day. Our unit grew and grew as word got about that we actually 'did stuff'. It was brilliant. I still have all of my badges, because I am still proud that I earned them. Believe me, skip didn't take any prisoners.

I went on to Rangers, but it was rubbish, so I transferred to Venture Scouts instead, and had great fun. Oh, happy memories!

 

[British Red]

What a fascinating idea. Does anyone else think this? It just seems kind of odd to me. In my family, outdoorsy-stuff comes very obviously thorugh the maternal line - my dad, his parents, and my mum's dad were all city people. My mum, her mum and her mum were all outdoors types. By the looks of things, the next generation in our family will also have only the mother as the outdoorsy one... and the only relatives of the hypothetical kids likely to do outdoorsy stuff with them are aunts on the maternal side...

A simple way of solving the question would be a poll - how many people learned the bow drill form their parents?

And another "how many people can use a bow drill"

Then sort the results by gender

(You can substitute any skill you like by the way). I doubt many blokes were taught outdoors skills by a doting Dad - any more than most girls were taught by a doting Mum

Sorry thisone is down to Nature not Nurture IMO (or possibly societal role models - but certainly not the parental influence)

Red