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The New ‘Scouts BSA’ Troops Aren’t Going Co-ed After All
According to the Washington Times, the newly-rebranded Scouts BSA is not switching to co-ed troops. Instead, they’re creating new all-female Scout troops that co-exist alongside the all-male troops.
This sorta-kinda suggests that folks (myself included) may have been wrong to presume that this policy is all about watering-down the BSA to make it more girl-friendly. Instead, it really could be about creating opportunities for girls to get the sort of badass outdoor training and experience that helps foster values like self-sufficiency and individual responsibility that the Cookie Scouts of America seemingly refuses to provide, while still maintaining the benefit of single-sex troops.
For Caroline Hurley of the District, an inclusive Boy Scouts allows both of her 13-year-old twins, a boy and a girl, to be in the program, albeit in separate troops. It also provides weekend activities that her daughter lost when the local Girl Scout program disbanded.
“We had witnessed this wonderful scouting program for my son … and heard on the news that the Boy Scouts program would be expanding and opening up to girls,” Ms. Hurley said. “My daughter was right on it. She wanted to join the minute she heard the news.”
Sadly, if this plan actually does work out well in the real world, one fears it won’t last long. It just seems like way too good an idea to survive a “separate but equal” court challenge.
Published in Culture
Scouting Troops are not coed.
but people have made up their minds. I am not going to change them.
I am a proud Eagle Scout, and the father of one.
From what I’ve read about how the Girl Scouts of the USA is organized and structured, I don’t think it’s quite that simple. I can totally see how some parents would prefer the organisational structure of the BSA for their daughters, particularly when one compares the GSUSA to girl scout/guide organizations in other countries.
Other countries’ girl scouts/guides really seem to stick closer to the Baden-Powell vision, while it really does seem like the GSUSA’s vision has been corrupted over time (if it wasn’t corrupted from the very beginning by Juliette Gordon Low, who some believe(d) was a supporter of One World government).
Well, no, I don’t even think it rose even to the level of anecdotal evidence. You said (a) the Boy Scouts are short of cash and (b) ergo they are adding girls to raise money. Actually, you kind of doubled down on that opinion, saying that it was about money “pure and simple,” implying that there was no motivation other than the raising of money.
Of course, you could be correct. I doubt it, but it’s possible.
I think the BSA is actually pretty good at this aspect.
It is that simple. My wife and other GS troop leaders in our area are doing it.
Not officially, and not mandatorily (yet). However, that document you linked to shows how boy and girl scouting troops can work together and be functionally, operationally, effectively coed. And that’s before we take into account units doing things their own way regardless of the BSA rules. For units wanting to operate together, having different adult and scout leadership will quickly become one of those “rules not faithfully followed” out of simple practicality.
I continued with a story on my own personal story of my first troop not receiving organizational support while a non-traditional but well attended troop got plenty. That would be anecdotal evidence to support the perspective offered.
Also yes. I do believe that was the only motivation for the change in policy/structure. That’s not to say I believe the change is incompatible with the stated mission. If money wasn’t the only issue they would have changed policy anytime in the last 2 decades. Not 6 months after exploring bankruptcy.