The Four Pillars Revisited
National Operations, Opinions 5 Comments 
badges we don't need no stinkin badges, gsle, gsusa, history
This is a follow-up to my last post about revamping our program. In it, I wrote:
Our program is based on four pillars – the Outdoors, STEM, Entrepreneurship, and Life Skills. We should stick with those, but add Art into the mix too. These five pillars should be the basis of our programming moving forward.
A few days ago, I revisited these pillars. I realized this whole time that I didn’t have the same definition of “Life Skills” that GSUSA has: “By partaking in life skills programming, girls enhance the academic skills they learn in school through topics such as civic engagement, healthy living, communication skills, financial literacy, and global citizenship.”
I had assumed that “life skills” referred to ones that develop independence from a personal standpoint. The Senior badge Car Care would fall under that category. They are things that aren’t taught elsewhere anymore such as sewing (at the very least, hand stitching), personal finance (some schools offer this but not all), time management, cooking, and etiquette (every day and workplace related). I go back to what I said in my previous post – if Girl Scouts is going to attempt to be competitive with other activities, then it’s got to offer girls something they’re not getting anywhere else. Outdoor experiences and life skills are what can be promoted in order to achieve this.
I also stated we could stick with the current Four Pillars but add Art into the mix. Now that I’ve taken a closer look at GSUSA’s definitions of the pillars, I’ve changed my mind. I would turn STEM into STEAM to add the Arts and then move topics such as civic engagement and global citizenship to a fifth pillar called Citizenship. Life Skills would then change to what I describe above.
As a side note, Girl Scouting has emphasized different fields throughout its history starting in 1938.* From 1938 to 1962, they were:
- Adventuring in the Arts
- Citizens Here and Abroad
- Fun and Exploration in the Out-of-Doors
- You and Your Home
From 1962 to 1977, specific fields for badges weren’t listed, and instead, four emphases relating to personal development were placed within six elements of “The Framework for Progression” much like today’s Girl Scout Leadership Experience.
The Worlds to Explore program launched around 1977, and five interest areas were named:
- The World of Well-Being
- The World of People
- The World of Today and Tomorrow
- The World of the Arts
- The World of the Out-of-Doors
Badges were categorized in these five fields. The Worlds to Explore program began to be phased out in the late 1990s. I can’t find where the next one (late ’90s to 2010) specifically named fields, but they seemed to pretty much match up with the Five Worlds with some updated additions within the badge program.
Well, those are my thoughts. Like I said before, I wish GSUSA would really consider revamping its programming because it’s time. Maybe a new National CEO will do just that. But in the meantime, I need to be patient.
Whew, that was funny. Who am I kidding? I’m going to go full-on rogue.
* h/t to The Girl Scout Collector’s Guide for this info.
The GS program is sooo defined by it’s “Entrepreneurship” pillar – and much of that is negative in that some troops, that’s all that scouts feel they “do”…. – that I would go even further rogue and say that COOKIE SELLING is NOT a pillar.
I would call it “BUSINESS ACUMEN” where entrepreneurship is a component of navigating the business world – cookies can be the tool used to give girls first hand experience “running their own business” but in reality, they aren’t entrepreneurs – they are tools in the giant money making machine governed by the GSUSA and the local council. Civic Engagement and being good corporate citizens, and serving the community – CAN be part of business acumen.
To that point, I am not fully on board with a fifth pillar for “civic engagement and global citizenship”. These two elements are actually Life Skills. Including SERVICE to others. We have a movement in this country where SERVICE to others and Citizenship has been lost (not generally in the scouting movement). Parents are consumed with what they are doing that volunteering and service is lost – kids aren’t seeing their parents volunteer so the kids aren’t SEEING volunteerism (citizens serving others). It’s a life skill – how to incorporate a spirt of service into one’s lifestyle. And of course Citizenship in this day in time is lost in the social media quagmire that much of what the USA stands for is lost in the mess of political infighting. We only get out of this with a solidly trained younger generation that understands what is acceptable behaviour, what the founders stood for, and how to – with professionalism and care – go about impacting change.
This should be a fun, rouge conversation.
I agree, cookie selling is not a pillar. Nor is it entrepreneurship. When girls sell GS cookies, they are NOT running their own independent business. They are a franchisee. An entrepreneur designs their own business, does their own market research, and sells whatever product or service they feel the market wants. A franchisee sells the company product, in a time and manner acceptable to the parent company. A franchisee benefits from a well-known brand and marketing materials, but may not reinvent the wheel. There are a ton of successful franchisees in this country. Go check out your local McD or Dunkin. They have to sell within certain parameters, but have some flexibility, which is why when a company runs a promotion, you see a disclaimer about “at participating locations.” Because the local franchisee may be allowed to opt out of the Monopoly game.
I think the #1 issue is in selling Girl Scouting as a leadership organization. In the past (at least when I was a girl member 86-98), it seemed the focus was more on being a skill building organization, and encouraging leadership to flow from that organically. Now it feels like leadership is being forced, activism is seen as preferential to other forms of service/change making, and skill progression/acquisition is secondary. Hence why so many of us end up turning to vintage material to give girls what they want.
This discussion MUST take place. Take the lead and Courage, Confidence and Character are sound bites. In actuality, the ability to exhibit any of these characteristics is stymied by needed permission approval forms. Working with girls needs last minute flexibility that allows decision making decisions to reflect the situational changes occurring.
Ex: Hypothetically you plan on trip to Destination by certain route. Bridge is out- high water. You were given permission to Destination but it is no longer accessible. Your granted permission does not provide flexibility. Plus a girl in troop schedule changes and she can now attend, but her name is not on the list of participants – no additional insurance.
Girl Scouts MUST take the lead and listen. Why is membership declining? Cost of membership, programming, lack of leaders, Covid? I differ.
The movement is the responsibility of the members. When the members are not listened too there is no buy in or ownership or relationship.
You can’t take the lead if no one is following.
I don’t know, these worked with multiple versions of “programming” models for nearly 60 years …
The Four Program Emphases
1. Develop to her full individual potential.
2. Relating to others with increasing understanding, skill, and respect.
3. Develop values to guide her actions and to provide the foundation for sound decision-making.
4. Contributing to the improvement of society through the use of her abilities and leadership skills, working in cooperation with others.
This is really what the Movement is all about; everything else is just reflecting the current society.
None of the four is more important than the others, they are all equally important.