The Boy Scouts of America announced on Wednesday that girls will soon be allowed to become Cub Scouts and to earn the coveted rank of Eagle Scout, the organization’s highest honor.Why would girls want to join the Boy Scouts instead of the Girl Scouts? A guess:
"We believe it is critical to evolve how our programs meet the needs of families interested in positive and lifelong experiences for their children," said Michael Surbaugh, chief executive of the Boy Scouts.
The scouting board of directors voted unanimously to make the historic change in an organization that has been primarily for boys since its founding more than 100 years ago.
The Girl Scouts have long focused on social justice, diversity and inclusion in their activities.Show of hands -- would you rather focus and social justice, or go camping?
As readers of this feature know, Benster is an Eagle Scout and Fearless Maria is a Gold Award winner. While there's no question both of our kids gained great benefits from the respective Scouting experiences, it's easy to see why the Boy Scouts are a better organization. Fearless Maria's troop essentially ended the moment she earned her Gold Award, because the other girls in the troop had fallen away from Scouting. Benster's troop existed long before Ben became involved and continues onward today. That's the bottom line.
And as Ann Althouse rightly observes:
If I were a young girl, I'd pick the organization that had activities that were fun and useful for me to learn, and "social justice, diversity and inclusion" doesn't even sound like an activity.And as one of her commenters rightly observes:
More people would want to do Girl Scouts if it were better.Indeed.
4 comments:
It's fine with me if girls have the same opportunities to learn the skills, moral lessons and commitment to service that are part of the Boy Scout ethos. The risk is that the Boy Scouts will start twisting toward the Girl Scouts model. I wonder who will be affected more?
Girl scouts became another wing of feminism a long time ago.
Interestingly, the enrollment numbers are about the same--2 million boys in Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts, 1.8 million girls in the GSA. About a million adult participants/leaders in both as well. So something in the GSA is appealing to someone.
Something in me is uneasy with this--probably not much of an issue for the Cub Scouts, but I can see problems with Boy Scout troops if camping is coed similar to those the military is experiencing. A friend of mine who was an AF officer spent a LOT of time dealing with the fallout.
And when (if) you solve the problems--presumably with gender segregation--you've got the parents of the Eagle-eager young lady cluing in that a LOT more good stuff is going on in the boys' patrols. (and they sue, and you're back to square one)
It almost seems like a bid for survival by the BSA--but if it goes wrong, it could kill both the BSA and GSA.
I remember the gender desegregation from my younger years: VMI, golf clubs, etc... I think it's a bad idea that will be regretted.
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