Via Hot Air, comes this story "outing" the Girl Scouts and their unfortunate, liberal agenda.
When many parents think of Girl Scouts, they imagine young girls in uniform selling Thin Mints and Tagalong cookies – not learning about stone labyrinths, world peace, global warming, yoga, avatars, smudging incense, Zen gardens and feminist, communist and lesbian role models.
But that's exactly what many of 2.7 million Girl Scouts will learn about with a new curriculum called "Journeys" released last year.
Let me start by saying I'm a huge Girl Scout fan. Both my girls have been involved in the organization. I was a Girl Scout in elementary school, and I've been a leader, assistant leader, and Cookie Mom for most of the last 10 years.
But when Girl Scouts introduced its Journeys curriculum last year, alarm bells started sounding for me.
For Brownies, the Brownie Quest book centers on three girls, none of whom are being raised in a traditional, two-parent family.
Campbell--lives with her mother and sister.
Jamila--lives with her father and brother.
Alejandra--lives with her parents and grandparents.
Alejandra comes the closest, since both a mother and father are represented in her life. But the Brownie Quest spends little time talking about Alejandra's parents; at best, her grandfather plays a small role. And the emphasis of family life is on the girls with single parents.
While my "feelers" went up with the introduction to the girls, my skepticism only grew over the course of the year. The girls spent little time doing anything; most of the time was spent, books open, discussing the storyline. And the girls didn't like it. It felt too much like school for them. Other mothers were no happier with the curriculum than I was.
"What happened to earning badges?" asked one.
"Why aren't the girls going camping or to other activities?" asked another.
Indeed, I asked people at the council about this, and was told that Girl Scouts was moving in a different direction because girls weren't as interested in earning badges and singing Christmas carols at nursing homes.
But are girls really interested in learning about pacifism, union-building and lesbianism? That's where Girl Scouts leads girls as they enter junior high and high school.
In "Amaze: The Twists and Turns of Getting Along," girls from the sixth to the eighth grade will read a quote from Buddha and be encouraged to explore mazes and stone or dirt labyrinths – symbols rooted in pagan mythology and popular within the New Age movement as meditation tools...
In the next age group, for teens in the ninth and tenth grades, girls are taught about wage disparities between the sexes, and a lack of assets and senior management positions held by women.
"Girltopia" poses the questions, "When women don't earn enough, what happens to their children?" and "How could everyone help create a Girltopia?"...
When teens reach their junior and senior years in high school, they begin a Girl Scouts curriculum called "Your Voice Your World: The Power of Advocacy." It encourages young women to begin "raising their voices as advocates" and follow the examples of other young people who are speaking out on causes such as global warming, universal health care, racism and child poverty.
The curricula are filled with heroes from the left, including Jane Addams, Rigoberta Menchu, Ethel Mary Smyth, Barbara Jordan and Hillary Rodham Clinton. Only three women of faith are mentioned (Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman and Mother Teresa), and few men. Why so many radicals and lesbians?
WND asked (Girl Scouts USA spokeswoman Michelle) Tompkins why Girl Scouts USA has chosen to focus on lesbians, radical feminists and controversial figures as role models instead of other significant female pioneers.
"There was a council of people who worked on the 'Journeys.' They tried to figure out who would be profiled," she said. "It came out from lots of discussions. I think the change the world message has been part of Girl Scouts since the beginning. It's not a radical agenda at all."
I don't mind including certain of these women on the list, even if I disagreed with their politics. Hillary Clinton's political campaign was a milestone for women's rights, and one can find non-controversial things to mention about Barbara Jordan and Jane Addams. But many of the others were open Communists, pacifists, pro-abortion supporters and more. Were there simply no "non-radicals" the Girl Scout council could find to include as noteworthy? How about Condoleeza Rice or Sarah Palin? What about Phyllis Schlafly? Or Sandra Day O'Connor?
The leftward march of the Girl Scouts has been documented over the years, and it's no wonder membership has been in decline for a decade as GSUSA places less and less emphasis on girls learning useful skills through earning badges, camping, and cookies, and more about liberal activism.
|