Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/05/02/girls-can-be-eagle-scouts-too.html
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My wife was a Gold Award Girl Scout. Not entirely sure how I feel about this. I’d hate for Girl Scouts to become an afterthought.
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That raises an interesting question - will the Girl Scouts still exist? Can boys now join Girl Scouts? The two programs are pretty different in their activities, from what I understand.
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My childhood had very few bright spots, but Boy Scouts and on up where a great escape. I wish them all the success in the world, and that they have as much fun as I did.
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I thought this was neat:
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This is where I make my obligatory comment about how there have been plenty of girls who earned Eagle (myself included). Just everybody else thought we were boys at the time…
I have very mixed feelings about the BSA. Although my own experience with Scouting was a net positive (thanks in large part to a pretty chill troop where the pressure to conform to gendered expectations was no higher than the ambient culture of the '90’s), it was still an awkward place to be for a kid with an identity crisis. For a while, I thought I was just kind of done with the organization in general, but it turns out I still care since every time the topic comes up, I have a hard time not chiming in. Generally speaking, I’m pretty pleased with the direction the organization has taken since the departure of the LDS and the national leadership apparently getting their collective head out of their collective ass.
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Follow link to merit badges, it’ll be an eye opener…
https://www.scouting.org/programs/boy-scouts/advancement-and-awards/merit-badges/
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Well my kid was in Girl Scouts for little while, and weirdly, I was sorta a Brownie for awhile, as my mom was a leader for my sisters troop for awhile.
Anyway, at one point it seems like the two did similar things, but segregated the sexes. But it seems like one of the reasons some girls have interest in Boy Scouts, is they do different activities. More “traditional” scouting. Honestly, the Girl Scouts focus so much on cookie sales it feels like, it should maybe be Girl Saleswomen. Or Girl Entrepreneur.
My sister is a troop leader for Boy Scouts now, and women have been an important part of the leadership for awhile. I know a few Eagle Scouts. There seems to be a fairly welcoming feel to this idea from what I’ve seen.
Now for oversharing - god damn I wanted to be a boy scout so bad. I was enamored with the uniform. I thought it sounds cool. Unfortunately, that was during the time in the 80s recession when my family was at it’s lowest financial wise. So I joined 4-H. In hind sight, it opened up the world of art with a really good teacher, where I started to learn (though not really understand at the time) the fundamentals. I also did some ceramics (cast), aquarium, and other projects. My dad would help out with the kids who did exhibits on native grasses.
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They really need to merge. From what my sister did in GSA, the curriculum was watered down with no real reason to be (other than the legacy notion that women are better suited to home making).
I think both organizations are destined to die unless they merge. This move may look like it’s about equality (and maybe it is!) but I see it much more as a shrewd move to bolster attendance and thus survive.
/eaglescout
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As do I. On the one hand they have a record of institutional bias that is disheartening. OTOH, they are one of the few organizations around these days that seems to realize that kids are future adults and that they best way to help them make that transition is to give the age-appropriate responsibilities rather than protect them from any possible negative outcome.
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This is so very true. For quite a while, though, it seemed like they were hell-bent on driving themselves into irrelevancy (thanks in large part to the influence of the LDS, according to my understanding). The organization appears to be course-correcting and I would actually consider getting my kids involved at this point (when they’re old enough).
As it is, it seems like of my three kids, my daughter would probably be happier doing the sorts of things I remember from Boy Scouts rather than what I understand is more typical of Girl Scouts and one of my boys is shaping up to be the opposite.
I hear you. Used to see the Scouting catalog display in clothing stores when I was a kid, but it was just waaaay too much money for my family. I wound up learning all stuff anyway, but it was in a farm/outdoors setting – you learned to tie a clove hitch to keep stuff from falling off the wagon, not to get a badge.
And you learned to start a fire from scratch because your POS car broke down in the middle of nowhere and it was damned cold.
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We’re going to need new badges!
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At least that will teach it for breaking down on you.
When I was a Boy Scout in the 90s there was already a program for girls who wanted to join (Venture Scouts) that didn’t attract a huge amount of interest but did occasionally get the GSA refugee who just wanted to hike in the woods or go caving or whatnot.
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The Boy Scouts of America and the Girl Scouts are completely separate organizations, so the policy change has no direct impact on what the Girl Scouts choose to do.
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The Girl Scouts oppose this change and believe in single gender scouting.
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I am for inclusion of both sexes, especially since GSA typically does less of the nature stuff so if a girl is inclined to do those kinds of activity then why not?
Though there is something to be said for having an inclusive space that’s just girls. But i suppose there can be girl-only troops within the Boy Scouts? No clue.
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I’m an Eagle Scout. When I told my wife that the BSA was going to let girls in she started crying. She was in Girl Scouts, got the gold award, but was always disappointed that she didn’t get to do all the fun stuff like rappelling, camping and boating that the boys did every month.
The Boy Scouts really saved me from being a real shithole person, and instilled values that my parents were very much lacking. I’m not very good at forming social bonds, but I did learn a ton about it in my formative years interacting with other boys at summer camp. I wonder how that changes the dynamic with girls in the mix, probably for the better, because it felt like I was at the very beginning of the “old boys club”.
edit: my wife was in Girl Scouts, not “Grill Scouts”. That’s macabre!
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