My DD sells girl scout cookies and she's 5. She goes up to the door with me standing behind her and she makes her pitch. She sold hundreds of boxes like that this year and raised a ton of money that her troop really needed since some of the kids can't afford to do some of the things the other girls are doing and need the troop to sponsor them in order to go. If they had been selling frozen cookie dough or plastic junk I wouldn't have let her participate but for girl scout cookies I'm ok with it. While walking around the neighborhood we had people pulling over in their cars to ask to order since they had been tipped off that there was a girl scout walking around.
If DD didn't want to sell the cookies she wouldn't have to. I don't think any school or organization should force kids to sell. If they want to sell to help other kids then that's great but it should never be required.
When I was a kid my Catholic school had one fundraiser every year and it was candy bars. The school bought them for 50ยข each and we sold them for $1 per bar. There was no requirement to sell any but it did get very competative (sp?) between the kids and the class that sold the most got to wear regular clothes one day instead of their uniform.
I take issue with school fundraisers partly because we homeschool. We already pay taxes to fund the schools, we shouldn't have to buy wrapping paper to subsidize them too. It makes me want to start going door to door selling trinkets at a 500% markup to buy my kids books or trips to the zoo but we don't because we pay for what our kids need and don't ask others to foot the bill. I have never felt guilty for saying no to a kid selling stuff.
I guess I don't understand why activities can't be pay your own way. When I was in high school everything had a fee. If you wanted to be on the baseball team you had to pay a certain amount plus rent your uniform from the school and buy your own t-shirt. You also had to own your own glove and bat since the school didn't supply them. I'm sure there were kids who couldn't afford it, one year I couldn't be on the swim team because we didn't have the money but that's the way the world works. Why has this changed? Why are kids now expecting others to give them money to do these things? Inexpensive things should be paid for by the school, they get an average of $8000 per student. I have about $2000 to homeschool two kids and we are able to do most everything we want plus we use up to date textbooks and consumable workbooks. That amount includes extracurriculars and lessons. Why can't schools make this happen with 8x that amount in tax money to play with? Maybe schools taking the time to eliminate wasteful spending would allow them to fund projects without fundraising.
I really don't like kids raising money for fun extras or trips, like school ski clubs raising money to buy lift tickets - I'd like to go skiing too but it's expensive, if these kids want to go they need to earn the money themselves since they are usually teenagers anyway and could at least babysit or mow lawns for the money. Panhandling is the other annoying thing, no matter how many times you shake that coffee can in my face in front of the grocery store to raise money to buy you and your swim team new jackets I am not going to put my change in it, what's wrong with the jacket you're already wearing?
If DD didn't want to sell the cookies she wouldn't have to. I don't think any school or organization should force kids to sell. If they want to sell to help other kids then that's great but it should never be required.
When I was a kid my Catholic school had one fundraiser every year and it was candy bars. The school bought them for 50ยข each and we sold them for $1 per bar. There was no requirement to sell any but it did get very competative (sp?) between the kids and the class that sold the most got to wear regular clothes one day instead of their uniform.
I take issue with school fundraisers partly because we homeschool. We already pay taxes to fund the schools, we shouldn't have to buy wrapping paper to subsidize them too. It makes me want to start going door to door selling trinkets at a 500% markup to buy my kids books or trips to the zoo but we don't because we pay for what our kids need and don't ask others to foot the bill. I have never felt guilty for saying no to a kid selling stuff.
I guess I don't understand why activities can't be pay your own way. When I was in high school everything had a fee. If you wanted to be on the baseball team you had to pay a certain amount plus rent your uniform from the school and buy your own t-shirt. You also had to own your own glove and bat since the school didn't supply them. I'm sure there were kids who couldn't afford it, one year I couldn't be on the swim team because we didn't have the money but that's the way the world works. Why has this changed? Why are kids now expecting others to give them money to do these things? Inexpensive things should be paid for by the school, they get an average of $8000 per student. I have about $2000 to homeschool two kids and we are able to do most everything we want plus we use up to date textbooks and consumable workbooks. That amount includes extracurriculars and lessons. Why can't schools make this happen with 8x that amount in tax money to play with? Maybe schools taking the time to eliminate wasteful spending would allow them to fund projects without fundraising.
I really don't like kids raising money for fun extras or trips, like school ski clubs raising money to buy lift tickets - I'd like to go skiing too but it's expensive, if these kids want to go they need to earn the money themselves since they are usually teenagers anyway and could at least babysit or mow lawns for the money. Panhandling is the other annoying thing, no matter how many times you shake that coffee can in my face in front of the grocery store to raise money to buy you and your swim team new jackets I am not going to put my change in it, what's wrong with the jacket you're already wearing?
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