Now before anyone gets all wound up about this, let me just say that I love Girl Scout cookies and I probably like most girl scouts as well. But, after devouring a few of my favorite cookies this week, I decided to take a look at the box – pictured here. Now I’m sure that the Girl Scouts actually do teach girls some lessons that they retain throughout their lives but I think they are laying it on a little thick. Let’s approach this one skill at a time, shall we?

            

1. Goal Setting – I set a few goals to eat fewer cookies and I think that each girl (and their family) probably has to decide how many boxes they can realistically sell. So, I’ll give them this one.

2. Decision Making – Should I walk around my neighborhood in the freezing cold selling cookies or should I have one of my parents just put the sheet out in the break room at work? Easy.

3. Money Management – I’ll give them another one, they do have to collect money and turn it in.

4. People Skills – I don’t know, I’ve asked the little salespeople where the money goes and gotten nothing but blank stares. One particular girl this year actually didn’t say anything at all. She just showed up with her girl scout vest on and a bag with cookies in it and my wife filled out the form, wrote the check, took the cookies and the salesperson was on her way. Not a lot of people skills. Not a lot of skill building for little girls who sell cookies because their parents leave a form in the break room either.

5. Business Ethics – This one is really the one that put me over the edge. I mean come on, are 8-year-old girls really learning business ethics from selling cookies? I’m not saying that the world doesn’t need all the help it can get as far as ethical behavior goes but I’m having a hard time associating what I’ve observed as the cookie sales process with any meaningful ethics lessons.

So, as far as I’m concerned, cookies and girl scouts are a good thing but I think that the propaganda could be toned down a little, don’t you?