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Cadette Finding Common Ground badge: Step Five of Five

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

Step Four: Understand a Compromise

Step Five: Finding Common Ground Through Mediation

Mediation is the process by which a third party – called a mediator – helps people or groups find common ground. There are many different kind of mediators, including peer mediators, who are trained to mediate within their school, club or group. Other kinds of mediators help families who are going through a hard time, neighbors who are having trouble getting along, and employees and employers decide on fair compensation. In this step, you will be the mediator who helps other people find common ground and come to an agreement. Do one or more of the following activities:.

Follow the six steps of a formal mediation:

  1. Give your opening remarks: Review the conflict and set ground rules.
  2. State the problem: Let both people state their positions.
  3. Gather information: Ask open-ended questions (those without yes or no answers) to get to the heart of each person’s position.
  4. Summarize: Summarize the conflict, based on what you have heard.
  5. Brainstorm solutions: Brainstorm all together about possible solutions.
  6. Reach an agreement: Offer ideas about where you think there is common ground. If the two sides don’t agree, start with step four, and keep going until you reach an agreement.

Mediate a mural project conflict. Here’s the conflict: Your Girl Scout troop has decided to paint a mural for their Girl Scout Silver Award project. Your troop needs to decide the following things: Where to paint the mural, the subject of the mural, the design of the mural, when to paint the mural, and how to raise money to pay for the supplies. Before the mediation begins, give each person time to decide what they think the answers to all the decisions should be, and come up with three reasons why they think their solutions are fair to the group and the community. Using the six steps of a formal mediation above, mediate the discussion until a solid plan is agreed to by everyone.

OR

Mediate with a pro. Invite a civil mediator or someone studying law or conflict resolution to come to your next online meeting. Ask them to share what they’ve learned about mediation, and have them teach you their favorite mediation skills.

OR

Suggest solutions for a current international conflict. What are the issues both sides are facing? They’ve come to you for help on ending the conflict. On your own or with your troop, look for the common ground, and write a draft peace treaty that would be a fair compromise for both sides. Share what you’ve learned on our blog or with your history or social studies teacher.

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 Four of Five

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

Step Four: Understand a Compromise

A compromise is an agreement where both people give up something they want in order to find the common ground where everyone gets a little bit of what they want. Do one or more of the following activities to learn more about compromise.

A Community Compromise. Learn about a compromise in your community, such as the dress code at your school, or the amenities in a new park or recreation center. Where did the two sides disagree at the beginning? What decision did they make in the end? What did each side give up to reach a compromise? How does this compromise affect your community and your life?

OR

A Family or Friendship Compromise. Think of a situation where you and someone in your household had to compromise to be able to live in peace. Use that situation and talk to an adult in your household about a compromise that made your family what it is today. Can you imagine a more positive outcome? Share your ideas with your family and see if you can effect positive change.

OR

A state or national compromise. Learn about a compromise that occurred in your state or at the national level. You can talk with your history teacher, local historian, elected official, or another who has expert knowledge in the compromise. Where did the two sides differ in the beginning? Where did they find common ground? What did each side give up to reach a reasonable agreement? How does this compromise affect your life? What other possible outcomes could there have been?

In the next step, you will learn how to find common ground through the process of mediation.

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 Three of Five

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

 

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

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.