I have a few paragraphs drafted up and a few ideas I want to flesh out and am trying to force myself to wait ’til the weekend for this, but thought I’d solicit your input:
Currently the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts in the U.S. are very different programs: Boy Scouts focuses on character development and life (especially outdoor) skills; Girl Scouts focuses on “girl empowerment” and causes such as environmentalism — though from what I’m told (from facebook friends who are Girl Scout leaders; my more immediate social world is Boy Scouts) Girl Scouts in practice is whatever the local leaders make it into.
At the same time, Scouting in other countries is quite different still. With respect to the “God” component, in the UK, girls make a promise “to be true to myself and develop my beliefs” rather than even following the U.S. Girl Scouts’ approach of asterisking “to serve God” with the notation that atheist girls may substitute “my conscience.” And in Germany (need to read more about this), there are multiple Boy Scout organizations, tied to Catholics, Protestants, and more generically secular, which come together in a nationwide organization. I suspect that there are further differences as well but I need to read more.
But before I wade into this further: readers, what’s your experience with Scouting, either with respect to yourself or your children?
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