Are We Doing Best by the Kids?--A Paragraph a Day

My wife and I were at the store the other day, and we saw a stand for Girl Scout cookies.  We went over to buy some, and I noticed something that I had seen before in other places that always disturbs me to a certain extent:  there were no Girl Scouts there.  There were a few parents, or possibly Scout leaders, but there were no actual Girl Scouts doing the work of selling the cookies.  We buy Girl Scout cookies every year not because they're wonderful (though they are quite good), but because we want to support the organization and the girls it benefits.  But the adults are taking over everything, and not requiring the girls even to be there.  In the past, selling the cookies was a way to get the girls to contribute to their own experience by raising the money themselves, yet now it seems that everything is just given to them, without them even having to stand by a table for a couple of hours, selling cookies that are very easy to sell.  A great lesson in seeing the need to do some work and the benefits of that work is now not a part of their Girl Scout experience.  It's similar to the basketball player at my high school who sent out emails saying "We're raising money for our team--go to this website to make a contribution with your credit card."  When I think of the other students who are actually doing some sort of fund-raising work, it's fascinating to me to think how the actual work is now not a part of fund-raising.  It's a shame to me, because there are many important lessons that these young people aren't learning that we used to learn at a young age, and that's going to be a detriment to them somewhere in their futures.