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Boy Scouts would be better with girls

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nota bene

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The argument is made by a male Eagle Scout Army vet that because Girl Scouts are not eligible for Eagle Scout rank, they are thus “at an unfair disadvantage to boys in character and leadership development,” they should join the Boy Scouts.

Boy Scouts would be better with girls - The Washington Post
 
I was wondering what the new name would be--"American Scouts"?
 
Venture crews already do this. And it works just fine. It's really rather silly to segregate programs like the scouts by gender.
 
Paschendale said:
Venture crews already do this. And it works just fine. It's really rather silly to segregate programs like the scouts by gender.
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They're not programs; they're private organizations which have the right to establish their own membership rules.

Why is it a problem that they're two distinct organizations that tender to different constituencies?
 
Paschendale said:
Venture crews already do this. And it works just fine. It's really rather silly to segregate programs like the scouts by gender.
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Eh, I would agree that it's silly to enforce strict gender roles as I imagine some groups of Girl and Boy scouts do. However, I don't think it's inherently "silly" to separate the programs by gender. Boys and girls benefit from time with their own gender and often like it even into adulthood as they become men and women. That said, I think co-ed programs are fine as well.
 
Gipper said:
Guess they can invent "Pregnant at 12" Scouts.
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Yeah because everyone knows that teen pregnancy happens because of adult supervised coed activities. In fact, providing kids with leadership and guidance while learning useful skills has been shown to dramatically improve risky sexual behavior. Clearly the method to improving teen pregnancy is to ensure that girls only have contact with the opposite sex at wild drunken parties like moral decent folk do.
 
Paschendale said:
Venture crews already do this. And it works just fine. It's really rather silly to segregate programs like the scouts by gender.
Click to expand...

Did you read the article? I ask because the author specifically mentioned Venture crews, but you seem to be unaware of this.

I was a Girl Scout and loved it until I discovered I loved boys more. And I'm all for empowerment. Maybe the solution is to add the rank of Eagle Scout; I don't know. I really haven't formed an opinion.

But the author's observation was that while the Girl Scouts teach girls how to be strong individuals, the Boy Scouts teach boys how to be strong leaders. I think this is an interesting distinction.
 
Paschendale said:
Venture crews already do this. And it works just fine. It's really rather silly to segregate programs like the scouts by gender.
Click to expand...

I don't think it's silly. And I think there's room for both gender segregated scouts and co-ed scouts.

I was a Girl Scout, and it was nice to have a group of girls and women I did things with and kind of grew up with and learned from. Especially since my particular troop had lots of different types of girls and women represented. It was actually the only place where I never got bothered about being a tomboy. It wasn't so much about "keeping the boys out" as it was about having a visible model of how other girls and women deal with the cultural and social things they encounter.

I also did a couple of co-ed things, and those were great experiences as well. But they served different purposes for me, growing up.
 
I don't think it matters at this junction. In my opinion the Boy Scouts have given up by allowing homosexual members. Next thing they will allow homosexual scout masters and then is game, set, match.
 
rathi said:
Yeah because everyone knows that teen pregnancy happens because of adult supervised coed activities. In fact, providing kids with leadership and guidance while learning useful skills has been shown to dramatically improve risky sexual behavior. Clearly the method to improving teen pregnancy is to ensure that girls only have contact with the opposite sex at wild drunken parties like moral decent folk do.
Click to expand...

Adult supervised? Yeah, you clearly were a scout. Children didn't outnumber the kids 20:1.

Go back to chess club.
 
Gipper said:
Adult supervised? Yeah, you clearly were a scout. Children didn't outnumber the kids 20:1.

Go back to chess club.
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Adult supervision doesn't mean watching every kid for every second like some kind of unblinking robot. Simply having a responsible adult on-site significantly lowers the probability of something going wrong. There will always be failures of course, but kids are less likely to get in trouble during a scout meeting than doing about any other kind of activity.
 
nota bene said:
The argument is made by a male Eagle Scout Army vet that because Girl Scouts are not eligible for Eagle Scout rank, they are thus “at an unfair disadvantage to boys in character and leadership development,” they should join the Boy Scouts.

Boy Scouts would be better with girls - The Washington Post
Click to expand...


Cool. Combine the best of the girl scouts' program with the best of the boy scouts' program, and it could be really good for the kids. But the boys have to leave the homophobia behind. And as others have said- maybe keep some programs that are gender-specific, have others that are mixed, and have all the programs offer the same opportunity to get to eagle scout level.

Everyone has different preferences, let's offer a variety.
 
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