Girl Guides membership - our daughter cannot join?

Bitsy_Beans

Person_one wrote: »

I remember getting given a sash and a 'pixies' badge, skipping over some ribbons, and then everybody having orange squash and biscuits.

So I don't think your experience at the world's most boring brownie pack is necessarily representative.

poet123 wrote: »

I can remember making my Promise and the weeks of prep that went into the run up to it. All the wording was dissected and broken down into elements that could be understood by a child of that age. So I don't really accept that argument.

Am afraid that my experience was like Persons, it was all about getting the words right (not an analysis of what I was actually saying) and twirling around in front of a papier mâche toadstool. I am more inclined to think your experience is not quite the norm Poet.

WeirdoMagnet

Person_one wrote: »

Do they still do the invisible table thing?

The thread has moved on a bit from this but:

Yes, on camp you do. And although it seems a bit bizarre, it's (IMO) all about being used to sitting around a table. Some of our girls are not familiar with eating their meals with either their families or others at the table. Also, if they are allowed walk across the invisible table, they may be walking across conversations etc, which of course you could not/would not do if you had a real table. I suppose the other thing is that if you sit in a circle/horsehoe and can walk across the middle, some 'little angels' may see it as a 'stage'! :rotfl:Again, all units are different, and some might not do it!

Seems weirder to me to sing some kind of grace (to God) before eating said meal, but there you go. I'd rather say thanks to the cook! :T

WeirdoMagnet

On the promise, we work through the Becoming A Brownie book at a pace suited to the individual (and they are also able to take it home and often come back with it completed!) and do some activities (games, chats etc) with the whole unit around the promise and what it means, which often serves as a useful reminder.

Brownies is not so regimented as it used to be - in my day we all did our promise by the toadstool, but in our unit now we don't have a toadstool, although when I tell the girls how it was in the 'old days' they all rather like the idea! The girls are able to choose where and when they do their promise - we've had girls making their promise in the swimming pool, on sleepovers, on pack holidays and in a corner of the World of Beatrix Potter!

apples1

I had forgotten the toadstool. Yes, our daughter did do her Brownie "joining up" Promise around a big painted toadstool - no wonder this request for a faith has caught us out! She wasn't ever asked about a faith although the Brownies did go to some "special" church services - maybe half a dozen times in the three years she was there. She went along and enjoyed it.

mikey72

HighlandLass wrote: »

........ think that although GirlGuiding have been trying to get away from the public perception that it's a Christian organisation there will always be some (through recalling their own experience of guiding) who find it difficult to break with this...............

What's wrong with being a christian organisation?
Is it so embarrassing now?

Is the problem the belief in any god, and is that what shouldn't be mentioned, or is it christianity itself?

Mojisola

enabledebra wrote: »

and if this hasn't happened this forum thread is interesting:

It is perfectly possible to make the promise without any religion. I have no belief in any mythical deity. My "god" is science and truth based on fact and evidence. That what I promised to love.

http://www.guiders.co.uk/showthread.php/27521-Atheist-and-guiding/page2

I like the wording of the Canadian promise -

I promise to do my best,
To be true to myself, my beliefs and Canada.
I will take action for a better world
And respect the Guiding Law.

mountainofdebt

mikey72 wrote: »

What's wrong with being a christian organisation?
Is it so embarrassing now?

Is the problem the belief in any god, and is that what shouldn't be mentioned, or is it christianity itself?

I'm guessing that when the Girl Guides were formed in the year dot, the UK was a total unrecognisable place to what it is now.....I would imagine that it was a very rare event for a person back then who considered themselves Christain didn't go to Church on a Sunday for example.

Also I imagine, that families of other faiths were few and vey far between.

So as times change so must Organisations if they are to survive and grow.

Person_one

mikey72 wrote: »

What's wrong with being a christian organisation?
Is it so embarrassing now?

Is the problem the belief in any god, and is that what shouldn't be mentioned, or is it christianity itself?

We've moved on mikey, most people accept that you can be good and kind without being Christian.

So if the point of the organisation is actually goodness and kindness, rather than worship of the Christian god, there's no need for it to be exclusive.

zaxdog

Mojisola wrote: »

I like the wording of the Canadian promise -

I promise to do my best,
To be true to myself, my beliefs and Canada.
I will take action for a better world
And respect the Guiding Law.

That is MUCH better. Takes away the restrictions of being religious and a monarchist from children!

Welshwoofs

poet123 wrote: »

gs.The Promise
Adults, Senior Section members and Guides work towards making, or reaffirm, the following Promise:
I promise that I will do my best:
To love my God,
To serve the Queen and my country,
To help other people
and
To keep the Guide Law.


So, it is clearly there and one chooses whether or not to make that promise or not.

Could you please point out to me where what promise says that non-believers are excluded? An atheist can easily swear to that vow on the basis that if they had a god, they'd love him...but they don't, so it's irrelevant.

Again, there is absolutely nothing on the Guide's website that says that membership is only open to believers.....in fact it goes a long way to state over and over again that it does not discriminate for ANY reason.

redpete wrote: »

(You must have done something very bad to get 'kicked out' - sure you didn't just get bored and not turn up after 2 weeks?)

No, my Mother was told when picking me up on Week 2 that I wasn't 'suited' to Brownies. All I can remember about it is that, when we were told about gaining badges, I told them that I wasn't interested in trying for any of them (I was only going along because my friends went and I liked the berets)


By the way.....did anyone else chuckle over the irony of a christian based 'promise' being made in front of a Pagan symbol (The toadstool). Class that!