Here\u2019s the background: my husband is a Boy Scout scoutmaster (well, assistant scoutmaster). They leadership team has been talking about adding a \u201cVenture Crew\u201d \u2014 a coed program for teens \u2014 to combat the attrition once the boys reach high school, and thought that the natural set of girl recruits would be Girl Scouts entering high school, but who are interested in continuing scouting in a different way than more Girl Scouts, but his initial feelers to Girl Scout leaders weren\u2019t well-received. <\/p>\n
So I went online. Could a Venture Crew be an alternative to Girl Scouts for girls who don\u2019t have a high school-level troop to join, or could a Boy Scout and Girl Scout troop join forces? <\/p>\n
Boy Scouts is all about the camping, or outings in general. As my husband says, \u201c75% of Scouting is Outing.\u201d And an active Venture Crew is likewise, though it may not always be camping but other kids of \u201cadventure,\u201d as they label it. To earn Boy Scout ranks, a boy needs to have demonstrated various outdoor skills \u2014 knot-tying, camping, swimming, plant-identification, etc. But Girl Scouts? From what my facebook friends post, there are plenty of outings, but this is much more optional, and depending on the individual troop leader\u2019s initiative. Actual advancements? Badges seem to have fallen by the wayside, and replaced by \u201cjourneys,\u201d which seem to be a set of activities having to do with single topic, such as environmentalism or community change or girl-empowerment, meant to be worked on over a dozen or so meetings. And the capstone, Eagle rank-equivalent is a 80-hour girl-initiated and run project, which is substantial but very one-dimensional and doesn\u2019t require the diversity of skills of the Eagle rank. <\/p>\n
So that leaves me thinking that Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts are really quite different \u2014 and wondering: do the majority of Girl Scout troops include camping even though the official curriculum doesn\u2019t? Or is that the exception, and for the most part, Girl Scouts is a completely different program, focused on girl-empowerment and cookie selling? <\/p>\n
(Oh, and don\u2019t get me started on cookie-selling! Yes, Cub Scouts sell popcorn, and our Boy Scout troop, at least, sells wreaths, but isn\u2019t it a bit odd for cookie-selling to be such a major part of Girl Scout indentity?)<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Here\u2019s the background: my husband is a Boy Scout scoutmaster (well, assistant scoutmaster). They leadership team has been talking about adding a \u201cVenture Crew\u201d \u2014 a coed program for teens \u2014 to combat the attrition once the boys reach high school, and thought that the natural set of girl recruits would be Girl Scouts entering […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[490,491],"class_list":["post-589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-boy-scouts","tag-girl-scouts"],"yoast_head":"\n