At my Girl Scout Cadette meeting last Friday I brought up the crisis in Japan. We are doing a Journey (A new Girl Scout badge book) named Breathe this year and are learning about the aspects of air. Radiation leaks seemed to fit in nicely(okay, that sentence is weird) so I thought we would discuss it.
First off I asked them “What is going on in Japan?” Several girls ( I had about 14 girls there) shout out “Earthquake, Tsunami, Flooding, It is flattened”. Then after some time someone says “Radiation”. Bingo.
What is radiation? ” Um, bad for you.” “Gives you Diarrhea.”
Where does radiation come from? “Bombs from war.” “Nuclear power.” Bingo.
What is Nuclear Power? “Bad.”For War.” “Dangerous”
Is there anything good about Nuclear Power? ” No.” “No.” No.” “Well, it does give us power.”
So Nuclear Power can be useful and dangerous? “Yeah.” “You have to be careful with it.” Bingo.
So in about five minutes fourteen girls were able to concentrate, after school no less, on a current event. They knew what was going on, even though they wanted to act as if they didn’t. They are listening to what we talk about, they are catching some of the news we watching. They can figure out problems and solutions even though they act like they cannot. We need to realize that and make sure we are talking things out with our kids so they are getting the full side of the story and are able to verbalize thoughts and fears.
I am editing out the diarrhea conversation that happened between the above comments. Once the word diarrhea entered the subject matter they all got silly and talk of atomic toilets and nuclear flushers went rampant. Fourteen 11, 12 and 13 year-old-girls silly. Who would have thought?
To end out the lessons we wrote Haiku to send to the Girl Scouts in Japan. They wrote two. On silly diarrhea one and one serious one. Here are some samples, don’t pay to close attention to the 5-7-5 rule please!
Were sorry about
What happened things will turn out
Do not lose your hope.
DH age 11
Did you hear the news
Japan is having problems
Our prayers are with you
LT age 13
Your flag is still
Waving white and red
Haiku is for you
EN age 11
White flying Japan
Stand proud honor repeat yeah
You’re in our thoughts yeah
RS age 12
This one is great, though not quite a Haiku
True-fully I am
Sad to see your destruction
Your arches, once so beautiful
Are tearfully torn apart
Rain is before the rainbow
Your luck is to start.
JGK age 12
Some things are not good
What’s happening is not good
Good things are coming
MM age 11
I love these girls!
