Building Leaders through Woodburning

Last week the GreenBlood News Facebook page posted this graphic:

I commented that this is my philosophy when it comes to the way I lead our troop because this is the way that works in my opinion.  It worked for me, and I see it happening today in our own troop.  I’d like to even take it a step further and say that when the girls learn skills such as this – especially ones they’ve never done before – it builds their confidence as well.  Experiences that they wouldn’t necessarily have the opportunity to do in their everyday lives opens their minds and adds to what they can draw from later in life.

I saw it at a recent troop meeting.  At some point in my GS career, we did some woodburning, and I wanted to share this art form with our troop even though it wasn’t necessarily part of a current badge (actually I’m fitting it into the retired Folk Arts IPA).  It’s funny how smells can bring back memories, because as I tested out the woodburner a few days prior to our meeting, I remembered sitting at Mrs. Vickers’ table working on my initials.

When I first showed the girls some examples of woodburning and how to use the burner, one of the girls was extremely afraid of it.  She kept saying she was too scared to try.  Eventually after watching the others do it and with me walking her through the steps, she reluctantly tried her hand at her initials.  She became very excited and did a great job with her project.  You could see the difference and the change in confidence just from this activity.  Who knows what this will lead to in the future.

These are the types of small experiences that in my opinion build confidence and in turn, leadership.  You can’t be a leader without confidence – the right kind, of course.  I know Journeys are an easy target and have been beaten to a pulp, but there’s too much discussion and not enough “doing” like you have with a variety of badge work.  I go into more detail and explanation about this topic in the Generation Gaps post.

Here are some pictures from our troop meeting!

Side note:  I shared this graphic on my Facebook wall, and some friends made a comment about it being from David Avocado Wolfe.  I am not familiar with him, but if you are, I hope your beliefs about whatever it is he does or says does not detract from the message.