![\"By](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/533\/2015\/11\/FEMA_-_44431_-_Boy_scouts_Place_Flags_at_Tennesse_National_Memorial_Cemetery.jpg\")
<\/a>The situation is a bit different than prior reports of individual girls; here is a group of friends who sought membership:<\/p>\n
The Unicorns began to consider themselves Boy Scouts last fall, after they enrolled in a skills-building course,\u00a0Learning for Life<\/a>, that is affiliated with the organization and is offered to boys and girls. Several Unicorns had tried the Girl Scouts but found the experience too sedate: rest time and whispering instead of playing tag and lighting fires. . . .<\/p>\n
Led by Ella\u2019s mother, Danelle Jacobs, 43, the Unicorns moved quickly from the course lessons to more formal Boy Scout activities: earning badges, hiking alongside boy groups and buying uniforms that mimicked those worn by boys.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The story goes on to relate that the formal request for membership was turned down, or, rather, the council leadership said \u201cthey would forward the girls\u2019 requests to the national office, but said they had no local authority to admit them.\u201d \u00a0And a Girl Scout spokesperson invited the girls to re-try Girl Scouts.<\/p>\n
As usual, the comments (at both Althouse and the NYT) are more interesting than the article. \u00a0Some suggested that the Boy Scouts should go co-ed, following the model of European scouting movements. \u00a0Others, quite sensibly, said that boys and girls at that age (e.g., late elementary and middle school) need sex-segregated opportunities, that high schoolers have the option of co-ed Venturing, and that the girl\u2019s leader would serve them better by offering outdoor activities through Girl Scouts. \u00a0Even among the NYT\u2019s lefty readership there was a lot of support for sex-segregated groups!<\/p>\n
A couple thoughts:<\/p>\n
1. It seems to be far more true in Girl Scouts than Boy Scouts that the program is dependent on the troop-level leadership. \u00a0For Boy Scouts, the norm is a monthly outing. \u00a0For Girl Scouts, it\u2019s all a matter of whether the leaders are interested in camping, as it\u2019s wholly optional and incidental to the primary Girl Scout program, which consists much more of a \u201cgirl power,\u201d environmentalist, and social justice-based agenda, with the \u201cjourneys\u201d program replacing badges. \u00a0In Boy Scouts, in contast, camping is integral, and you can\u2019t advance in rank without it. \u00a0The American Heritage Girls have modeled themselves after Boy Scouting to a certain degree, with a \u201crank advancement\u201d concept, but they are, of course, not an option for non-Christian girls. \u00a0But it boils down to this: if girls want camping, and they experience Girl Scouts as potholder-making and cookie-selling, then the Girl Scout national leadership and\/or their own local community have failed them \u2014 unless they are actually in the minority and their peers are largely happy with potholders. \u00a0What do girls, by and large, truly want?<\/p>\n
2. \u00a0It is true that in Europe, scouting is typically co-ed, and there\u2019s nothing horribly wrong with this. \u00a0It would just be different, that\u2019s all. \u00a0Boy Scouts, when run well, offers citizenship development, leadership, and simply learning to function in a group, in things like cooking and cleaning, tent take-down, etc., in an outing, to boys who often find it challenging, much more so than girls, especially at the middle-school age. \u00a0In the article, parents did indeed raise the concern that boys would lose out in leadership development to more-mature girls.<\/p>\n
3. \u00a0And at the same time, in the U.K., at least, and in other countries, there are two scouting organizations: \u00a0Scouts, and Girl Guides. \u00a0In other words, the Boy Scouts have gone co-ed, but the Girl Scout equivalent stayed single-sex. \u00a0What would happen to Girl Scouts, if Boy Scouts (and Cub Scouts) went co-ed? \u00a0Would the former attract the girly-girls, who like princesses and crafts, and the latter bring in those who like the outdoors? \u00a0One commenter suggested that there was an unofficial agreement by the Boy Scouts to keep the group single-sex, because otherwise the Girl Scouts would lose their membership. \u00a0And would it be fair to boys to take away this single-sex group while girls still retain this option?<\/p>\n
4. \u00a0The Girl Scouts, of course, have the same sex-segregating policy; they only welcome boys who identify as girls, not boys who simply like crafts. \u00a0However \u2014 a little tangent here \u2014 remember the case of Bobby Montoya, a child who was first rejected from, then accepted by the Girl Scouts? \u00a0I had remembered this as a case of a \u201ctransgirl\u201d but it\u2019s not: \u00a0according to this 2011 Daily Mail article<\/a>, he identifies (and his mother identifies him) as \u201ca boy who likes girl things\u201d but it was the Girl Scouts who required that he identify as a girl to be accepted, which strikes me as tragic, to welcome a child only if he becomes not just \u201cnonconforming\u201d but \u201ctransgender.\u201d<\/p>\n
5. \u00a0The most interesting complaint about boys-only Boy Scouts was this: \u00a0there\u2019s a cachet to being an Eagle Scout. \u00a0It\u2019s a source of pride, and there\u2019s an instant recognition that this is an accomplishment: \u00a0it says that the boy has earned a given number of merit badges, including specified badges around First Aid and such, has held leadership positions in the troop, and has undertaken a major service project, requiring not just effort but leadership. \u00a0The Girl Scouts\u2019 Gold Award?\u00a0 They\u2019ve got the same service project requirement, though it\u2019s not clear from their\u00a0website<\/a>\u00a0what the precise requirements are. \u00a0According to wikipedia<\/a>, the girl needs to complete two \u201cJourneys\u201d and do a service project of at least 80 hours, though without the Boy Scout requirement for leading a team. \u00a0And despite the proclamations of its prestige on the Girl Scouts website, wikipedia\u2019s list of famous recipients is pretty short.<\/p>\n
Is it unfair that the Gold Award doesn\u2019t have the same recognition? \u00a0Maybe \u2014 but whose fault is it? \u00a0Is it simply the result of Girl Scout leadership, over generations, not having created the prestige? \u00a0 And if it is all a matter of prestige, which can\u2019t be legislated (as opposed to the tangibles \u2014 there are scholarships a-plenty for girls, and the opportunity to join the military at an advanced rank exists for both), do girls have a right to demand access to the boys\u2019 award? \u00a0Of course not.<\/p>\n
6. And, finally, is this likely to go anywhere? \u00a0No. \u00a0It\u2019s one woman, and five girls, and a New York Times reporter.<\/p>\n
(By the way: \u00a0Ann Althouse, as is often her practice, simply linked to the article with a brief quote. \u00a0I periodically think that, just to share things with readers that I find interesting, even if I don\u2019t have the time to comment on them, I should do the same, rather than my stop-gap practice of saving those links onto my facebook page, but I never quite seem to manage that, as it never just feels right to say, \u201chere\u2019s a link.\u201d)<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
That\u2019s the latest, per Ann Althouse, linking to a report in the New York Times about a scouting troop in California, composed of five girls who have officially asked to join the Boy Scouts. The situation is a bit different than prior reports of individual girls; here is a group of friends who sought membership: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":3299,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[490,491],"class_list":["post-3298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-boy-scouts","tag-girl-scouts"],"yoast_head":"\n
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