Guess Who Can Be a Boy Scout Now?

Anonymous
Guess Who Can Be a Boy Scout Now?

So guess who can be a boy scout if they want now? Girls! Hooray!

I know I should be like, go girls go, you can do anything...except there is already a parallel scouting program not surprisingly known as the Girl Scouts and after this historic announcement, the president of the GSA was not a happy camper.

Some girls and their families want to join Boy Scouts for a few reasons: one, parents like the option of dropping all the kids off to one activity. Two, many girls want to obtain Eagle scout status, the boy scouts highest achievement ( the Gold Award offered for Girl Scouts is their highest honor, but not as well known). Third, girls want to reap the benefits of a lot of the training not offered to the girl scouts, but that is offered to boy scouts.

Guess Who Can Be a Boy Scout Now?

From NBC News: "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. "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."

Okay, so again, reading that, I should be like yea!, but this for me wasn't a case of, oh hey it's about time like schools having to both fund girls and boys sports programming. This was more like a meh (shrug). In case you're wondering if the girls and boys in the upcoming "scouts" will be interacting with one another...no, none of that. They still believe in segregation over there, and if girls want to join, it will need to be in an all girls den and the boys, in an all boys den--you know, because cubs live in dens.

Guess Who Can Be a Boy Scout Now?

The leader of the GSA is of the opinion that the Boy Scouts are essentially preying on their stock and trade. Girl Scouts of America has prided itself for decades on educating women in life skills, character building, and growing strong women in these modern times and feels the Boy Scouts should quite literally stay in their lane.

I guess with all said and done now, what will be will be, but this isn't a case of lack of fairness, or sexism, or poor funding of the GSA or anything of that nature. I honestly see this as more of a money grab from the Boy Scouts and an effort to pave over what has been a rocky road with it's dealings with gay scouts and gay scout leaders. On the opposite end, this puts a bit of a black eye on the face of the Girl Scouts because it makes them seem like they are incapable of offering programing that caters to the young girls and women of the 21st century who'd rather be cubs, stars, and eagles, than daisy's, brownies, and ambassadors.

Guess Who Can Be a Boy Scout Now?

I was a girl scout for most of my years in elementary school and learned a lot of skills that I still use to this day. I found the experience invaluable with the amount of travel, volunteering, camping, life, survival, and social skills I was able to learn. Do I think girls can get that in boy scouts, sure, but I'm not so sure this was a necessary move that needed to happen for the advancement of girls in this world.

Guess Who Can Be a Boy Scout Now?
42 Opinion