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Cadette Finding Common Ground badge: Step Three of Five

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The great thing about our country is we all can have different backgrounds, experiences and opinions, and still come together and work towards the common good. No matter the level of government – from your local school board to the Congress – people have to compromise – give up some things you want in order to support somethings someone else wants – in order to accomplish their goals. When you earn the Cadette Finding Common Ground badge, you will learn how governments do that – and how you can do it in your everyday life.

Step One: Get to Know Someone Different from You

Step Two: Make Decisions in a Group

Step Three: Explore Civil Debate

A debate is a discussion between two people who have different opinions on any given topic. It is important to know how to draw on facts and logic to support your point of view. It is essential to stay calm. Ruth Bader Ginsburg said, “Reacting in anger or annoyance will not advance one’s ability to persuade,” and the point of a debate is to persuade others to your point of view. A great way to persuade others is to keep an open mind their point of view and to find common ground!

Choose one or more of the following activities

Watch candidates for elected office debate. It could be for any office – from your local school board to the U.S. Presidency. After the debate, discuss with your Cadette troop or your family the arguments on all sides, and whether the candidates found any common ground – or whether they were even looking. Where the candidates persuasive? Why or why not?

OR

Understand a famous debate in history. It might be a debate over the Equal Rights Amendment in the 1970s, or between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas in the 1860s. Find out why the debate was important to American history and who is considered the winner and why? Did the debaters find any common ground? Did they look?

In the next step, you will learn to understand how to compromise.

We want to hear how your girl is using her Girl Scout skills by taking initiative, caring for the community, and Girl Scouting at home. She can send in her story here.

Girl Scout News, Girl Scouting at Home, Girl Scouts News

Cadette Finding Common Ground badge: Step Two of Five

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The great thing about our country is we all can have different backgrounds, experiences and opinions, and still come together and work towards the common good. No matter the level of government – from your local school board to the Congress – people have to compromise – give up some things you want in order to support somethings someone else wants – in order to accomplish their goals. When you earn the Cadette Finding Common Ground badge, you will learn how governments do that – and how you can do it in your everyday life.

Step One: Get to Know Someone Different from You

Step Two: Make Decisions in a Group

In this step, you will need to work in a group. It could be planning and running your next Cadette meeting online; planning, shopping for, and cooking dinner with your family; or doing a big house project. The key goal is to make at least six decisions together as a group, such as when, where, and what you’ll eat; what you will accomplish in your meeting; who is responsible for which aspects of the project. Afterwards, discuss how the common-ground strategy you discovered in Step One affected your group’s ability to make decisions. Were compromises made for the good of the whole group? Did you trade for something you really wanted? How do you think the common-ground strategy would work at the local government level? At the state level? In Congress?

Decision Making Strategies

Majority Rules: Ask the members of your group their top three options. Write down the two most popular, and then have the group vote. The choice with the most votes wins.

Consensus or compromise: You really want to try a new Moroccan recipe. Your mom would rather a tried-and-true Mexican favorite. You could put a new spin on an old recipe, or agree that this time you’ll make the favorite and next time you’ll branch out. You both like Chinese food. Could you have chosen this instead? Discuss the options with your group until you’ve reached a decision everyone is happy with.

Pick at random: Make a numbered list with everyone’s choice. Roll a dice to choose one at random. You can also draw names out of a hat, flip a coin, or draw straws.

Use one or more of the methods above to help you make decisions in your group project.

In the next step, you will be exploring civil debate.

We want to hear how your girl is using her Girl Scout skills by taking initiative, caring for the community, and Girl Scouting at home. She can send in her story here.

Girl Scout News, Girl Scouting at Home, Girl Scouts News

Cadette Finding Common Ground badge: Step One of Five

Leave a comment

The great thing about our country is we all can have different backgrounds, experiences and opinions, and still come together and work towards the common good. No matter the level of government – from your local school board to the Congress – people have to compromise – give up some things you want in order to support somethings someone else wants – in order to accomplish their goals. When you earn the Cadette Finding Common Ground badge, you will learn how governments do that – and how you can do it in your everyday life.

Step One: Get to Know Someone Different from You

The best way to learn to find common ground with others is to learn that we have more similarities than differences. By learning about perspectives that are different from ours, we will find that our priorities are often in line with each other, even if we have different ways of approaching them.

Do one or more of the following activities to learn about how others see the world.

Difference of Background

Have a conversation with someone from a different country, state, or town who lives in your community in right now. Ask them about their journey, and the reason for their move. Ask them what their life was like before the move, and what their life is like now.  What aspects are the same, and what is different? Share with them your favorite parts of your neighborhood, to help them feel at home.

OR

Difference of Belief

Learn about someone who has a different belief system than you do. Maybe, you have a friend from school who practices a different religion than you do, and you can attend an online service. Maybe, you can interview the youth leader of an interfaith alliance.  Maybe, there’s a member of your family who has the opposite political leanings than your household. Have a respectful discussion about your similarities and differences.

OR

Difference of Opinion

Everyone has differences of opinions. Find a friend whose favorite food is something you can’t stand, or who won’t watch your favorite TV show. Have a discussion about their likes and dislikes, and your likes and dislikes. Try their favorite food, and have them try yours while you have a watch party of each other’s favorite shows. Share at least two things you liked about the other’s favorites.

Up nesxt, learn how to make decisions in a group.

We want to hear how your girl is using her Girl Scout skills by taking initiative, caring for the community, and Girl Scouting at home. She can send in her story here.