Girls Just Wanna Be Cub Scouts

[SpEdScouter]

I think the publicity behind this has embarrassed the GSA. I've posted this discussion on other boards and GSA admits their program is severely lacking in rugged outdoors activities. They defend their GSA program and claim that their program is what the girls wanted and supposedly, the girls voted out the camping component.

 

I will say the GSA has at least put a face on emphasizing more camping. For the first time since the 70's their is now a girl scout knife offered on their website. Still no girl scout axe though which they DID have in 1953. In fact they now offer way more camping essentials that even 5 years ago.

[qwazse]

... One big caveat however, is the American paranoia about males around children (Eek! A Man! Remember: all males are predators). It gets worse if any of those children are female (does the GSUSA even allow men at their camps?).

The one lifeguard I provided (thanks to the Laurel Highland Council's VOA network) and I were welcomed (and fed quite nicely ) at a camporee that one of my venturers organized for her Gold award.

 

... They defend their GSA program and claim that their program is what the girls wanted and supposedly, the girls voted out the camping component.

 

I will say the GSA has at least put a face on emphasizing more camping. For the first time since the 70's their is now a girl scout knife offered on their website. Still no girl scout axe though which they DID have in 1953. In fact they now offer way more camping essentials that even 5 years ago.

This is a vicious cycle, many girls who leave the program, when interviewed, claimed they did so due to a lack of outdoor activities. This leaves the girls who remain to dictate the program, unless the moms set boundaries that guide them outdoors. Sometimes the outdoors-women take the reigns and form challenging programs. Other times, they hit an upper limit to how far their troop will go (a "glass canopy" if you will).

 

That does not mean the question goes unasked. From a 2012 study (http://www.girlscouts.org/content/dam/girlscouts-gsusa/forms-and-documents/about-girl-scouts/research/GSRI_More_than_Smores-Outdoor_Experiences.pdf):

Outdoors Once a Month in Girl Scouts: A Key to Leadership Development

Monthly involvement in the outdoors contributes to girls’ lead-ership development. Experiences such as playing and walking outdoors and taking outdoor field trips do not demand much specialized equipment or training, but they may provide girls with a very low-stakes, socially supportive context in which to improve their health, practice cooperation and teamwork, and try things they thought they couldn’t do. Environmental service also seems to provide girls with a sense of purpose and to socialize them into an environmentalist mindset—one that promotes connection with, concern for, and conservation of the environment. However, only about 40 percent of Girl Scouts participate in monthly outdoor activities through Girl Scouts. What about the other 60 percent? Why are the majority of Girl Scouts not getting outdoors regularly in Girl Scouts?

 

So, I don't think what you are seeing is not merely a reaction to a bunch of bloggers. Comprehensive studies of girls in the program are driving organizers to ask "why not more?"

 

A nation-wide Girl Scout Voices survey this year (nearing conclusion this month) might offer some insights as to if and how things are moving on that front.

[Cambridgeskip]

As it happens.... my lot are meeting up with the GSA group from RAF Alconbury on Saturday. They seem quite friendly and no issue with men from them! 

[Tampa Turtle]

I think there could be a tremendous co-ed Scouting program...I think at some ages the girls would leaven the troops with a little more decorum and a lot of camping girls don't get enough in GSUSA. BUT...and it is a big BUT I have zero confidence that National is competent to pull it off.

[qwazse]

...I think at some ages the girls would leaven the troops with a little more decorum ...

Let's set aside irrational optimism.

At any age co-ed program that I've seen girls drive us to chaos. Maybe that's because the girls who are drawn to them favor disestablishment. (Let's face it, they ain't looking to us guys to sit around and knit doilies with them.)

[Ankylus]

Why shouldn't we let in girls? We cannot discriminate based on any other reason. Why discriminate based on sex?

 

Au contraire, as a private club we can discriminate on many bases. That's been to the US Supreme Court and back.

[Ankylus]

There can be no doubt that BSA has been under attack from the political left on a number of grounds over a rather long time. Whether you agree with their goals is not material to whether this is happening. It is happening. This is just one front in that battle.

 

So the question really is what does BSA do about it?

 

Well, BSA caved on the whole homosexual issue, for good or ill. (But I ask, what difference does a scout's sexual orientation make? It's not like sexual activity of any kind is permissible amongst scouts within the scope of the  program.) Did it satisfy the critics? Did they back off? No, they just smelled blood in the water and started circling for the next concession.

 

The BSA's critics will never be satisfied no matter what BSA does until the program is unrecognizable. The first rule they should adopt is to never change program because of political pressure. That is not because all such changes are undesirable, but because that is the wrong reason to make such a change.

 

The program is already unrecognizable from when I was a youth. Thankfully my youngest son will be Eagle soon. But I would like this organization to be around and recognizable if I blessed with grandsons so that we can all have something worthwhile to share.