Thousands of Girls are Joining Cub Scouts - Scouting Wire

I agree.

I was never a Scout, but have been a Scouter for over 15 years. I have four boys, two are Eagle Scouts, one a Life Scout, and one a Tenderfoot. My daughter (my youngest child) has been a Girl Scout for four years, and she loves it and has no desire to be a Boy Scout. She is very familiar with Boy Scouts, and much prefers to be with her friends who are girls. We love the program for her, as all of her leaders are teachers, very organized and do a fantastic job with the girls. The programs are different, but the highest award for each is viewed the same from college recruiters, the Eagle Scout award for young men, and the Gold Award for young women. Both are service projects, but the Gold Award actually goes one step beyond the Eagle in that the Girl Scout's Gold Award project must be self-sustaining. With Eagle project, the boy is simply asked to re-visit the project for maintenance one year after it's completed. After that it is up to the receiving entity to maintain the project. I'm not sure there would be so many Eagles out there if every project had to be self-sustaining. In any case, I am not for girls in Boy Scouts. I think that it's OK to separate boys and girls, and not everything needs to be open to both genders at the same time. Boys and girls together creates a different dynamic, no matter the age. Boys and girls are different, and more times than not have different friends and different interests. As children get older and change, their interactions get more complicated, naturally. Those complications detract from the purpose of the group. The Scout Oath and the Scout Law are not gender specific, but how you get there can be, and in my humble opinion should be. It's hard enough keeping sexuality out of Scouting with a single gender, and I wager it will be virtually impossible with both genders. The backbone of Boy Scouts is camping, overnight camping. Therein lies the quicksand in this lovely PC version of Scouting. You are an Eagle Scout, so you know what's involved in Scout camping. With women and girls, it will be untenable. There is a reason we separate boys and girls at around 12-13 years old for sports, and that same reason applies in Scouting. It will be what it will be, but I think Boys Scouts of America just made a huge problem for themselves. They will probably say the same thing about this that the said regarding openly gay Scouts: "We believe we have the right to exclude anyone for any reason, but we just can't afford the law suits (even though they never lost a law suit, before the change the organization was spending over $1,000,000 a year defending itself).

I don't know about that. These girls joining Boy Scouts weren't necessarily happy with GS to begin with. They probably have a brother in Cub Scouts. Cubs is more family friendly and has a lot of moms involved. I've been a Scouter (adult leader) in Cubs and Boy Scouts for over 15 years and it was never a problem letting sisters participate in the program. We let them do everything the boys did, including pinewood derby, skills, activities, etc. Remember, Cub Scouts is not a drop-off program, and there is no overnight camping without a parent with the child (they don't share tents with other youth. Girl Scouts is perfect for my daughter, even though she has four older brothers, two Eagles, a Life and a Tenderfoot Scout. Girl Scouts is different because girls are different. They face different challenges in life, and GS is there to help them prepare to be leaders. Whether or not girls can benefit from Boy Scouts is not the issue fr me, of course they could, the do and have, but once they hit adolescence it is a different ballgame, what with hormones pumping at a 100 miles per hour. It's just not a good mix. It distracts from the purpose of Scouting. It becomes something else, and that's not good for anyone. Scouting has Venture Scouts, which is for older youth and young adults and focuses on adventure activities, and has always been co-ed. As a marketing tool, allowing girls into Boy Scouts is working out quite well, but there will be a big clash for 10-17 year olds if girls are allowed to cross over into Boy Scout troops from Cub Scouts.