Does Size Matter?

 Pick battles big enough to matter, small enough to win."
--Jonathan Kozol,
American writer, educator and activist 

I like that quote for this morning.  I was thinking about Gold Award interviews, on the drive in this morning, and about our last Gold Award Advisor Training we had a week ago.  One of the things the class asked was about size, and does it really matter?

A Gold Award Girl Scout is asked to identify an issue that she is interested in.  And then she's asked to drill down to the root cause of that issue.  Those issues can be huge, and so can the root causes.  What the girl is asked to do is to figure out how she can make a local difference in her community.  And this could be defined as state? county? city? school district? school?  

She needs to make a difference in the defined community.  Her project needs to be reasonable and achievable, not easy, and a stretch.  The girl needs to figure out what to do in the huge arena of possibilities, and then plan what how to address her issue.

Winning is not really the point, but achieving her goal is!  Our Gold Award girl needs to make a measurable change in her chosen community, and she needs to ensure its sustainability for the future.  At the end, she needs to celebrate her "win"/success and SEE that she made a difference.  Acknowledge her success and share it with others.

What do we advisors/leaders/parents do?  Help her get there! Serve as a resource, help her think it through and give her the support she needs to do the work.  But not do it for her!  It's all on the girl, and we know she can do it!!!