Question for Cub Scout parents

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The girl who is trying to make scouts coed wants to be an Eagle Scout.

Why don't the Girl Scouts work to create a similarly rigorous and comprehensive elite scouting achievement like Eagle that the girls start working towards as Junior scouts?

If they have one they do not publicize or promote it very well. I do not remember one when I was a Girl Scout (through 7th grade). The only thing Girl Scouts publicize and promote well is cookies, and perhaps that is where the problem lies.

To continue with this, if you ask a random person on the street to give three words about Girl Scouts, they would probably say cookies, crafts and (maybe) lots of rules.

If you did the same thing with Boy Scouts, they would probaboy say Eagle Scouts, camping and either pinewood derby or those cute Cub Scout uniforms.

I don't think that Girl Scouts has evolved to match where today's girls' interests have evolved. Perhaps there needs to be a more rigorous new scouting group for girls, or perhaps girl scouts needs to evolve to fit the times. A new organization can grow quickly if there is interest. Look at Trail Life Boys.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The girl who is trying to make scouts coed wants to be an Eagle Scout.

Why don't the Girl Scouts work to create a similarly rigorous and comprehensive elite scouting achievement like Eagle that the girls start working towards as Junior scouts?

If they have one they do not publicize or promote it very well. I do not remember one when I was a Girl Scout (through 7th grade). The only thing Girl Scouts publicize and promote well is cookies, and perhaps that is where the problem lies.

GSA does have an Eagle Scout equivalent, it's called the Gold Award. That it's not as widely known as Eagle Scout doesn't mean that it's not a significant achievement and that it doesn't involve a lot of personal growth and development to achieve.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
None of that. My daughter did crafts and went on a couple of field trips with the parents to a play and a nature walk. My son went fishing, worked with wood and tools, did more survival type activities and had field trips to places like battle fields and the police station. I was just saying DD would have enjoyed the boy's activities more so maybe Girl Scouts, or her troop, isn't a good fit.

So you might be a parent who would agree that the current Cub Scout program would be useful to your daughter?

Third Grade (Bear) Required Adventures (badgework): (These are mandatory so all dens should be doing these)

- knife skills, whittling (Bear Claws)
- camping with family and den (Bear Adventures)
- religion (Duty to God)
- naturalist skills (Fer Feathers Ferns)
- tools, building stuff (Baloo the Builder)
- flag ceremonies, emergency plans, famous Americans, police/fire visit, (Duty to Country)

plus at least one elective Adventure

games
fishing
cooking
American Indians
pets
forensic science
physics
marbles
laughter
robotics
swimming/boating/water safety
science
sound

http://www.scouting.org/filestore/cubscouts/pdf/Bear_Addendum.pdf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
None of that. My daughter did crafts and went on a couple of field trips with the parents to a play and a nature walk. My son went fishing, worked with wood and tools, did more survival type activities and had field trips to places like battle fields and the police station. I was just saying DD would have enjoyed the boy's activities more so maybe Girl Scouts, or her troop, isn't a good fit.

So you might be a parent who would agree that the current Cub Scout program would be useful to your daughter?

Third Grade (Bear) Required Adventures (badgework): (These are mandatory so all dens should be doing these)

- knife skills, whittling (Bear Claws)
- camping with family and den (Bear Adventures)
- religion (Duty to God)
- naturalist skills (Fer Feathers Ferns)
- tools, building stuff (Baloo the Builder)
- flag ceremonies, emergency plans, famous Americans, police/fire visit, (Duty to Country)

Then push for these kinds of things in Girl Scouts. Do not come in and take over Boy Scouts.

plus at least one elective Adventure

games
fishing
cooking
American Indians
pets
forensic science
physics
marbles
laughter
robotics
swimming/boating/water safety
science
sound

http://www.scouting.org/filestore/cubscouts/pdf/Bear_Addendum.pdf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
None of that. My daughter did crafts and went on a couple of field trips with the parents to a play and a nature walk. My son went fishing, worked with wood and tools, did more survival type activities and had field trips to places like battle fields and the police station. I was just saying DD would have enjoyed the boy's activities more so maybe Girl Scouts, or her troop, isn't a good fit.

So you might be a parent who would agree that the current Cub Scout program would be useful to your daughter?

Third Grade (Bear) Required Adventures (badgework): (These are mandatory so all dens should be doing these)

- knife skills, whittling (Bear Claws)
- camping with family and den (Bear Adventures)
- religion (Duty to God)
- naturalist skills (Fer Feathers Ferns)
- tools, building stuff (Baloo the Builder)
- flag ceremonies, emergency plans, famous Americans, police/fire visit, (Duty to Country)

plus at least one elective Adventure

games
fishing
cooking
American Indians
pets
forensic science
physics
marbles
laughter
robotics
swimming/boating/water safety
science
sound

http://www.scouting.org/filestore/cubscouts/pdf/Bear_Addendum.pdf

Then push for these kinds of things in Girl Scouts. Don't come in and try to change/take over Boy Souts.

There is no reason why Girl Scouts can't add more adventurous and practical skills to their badges.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The girl who is trying to make scouts coed wants to be an Eagle Scout.

Why don't the Girl Scouts work to create a similarly rigorous and comprehensive elite scouting achievement like Eagle that the girls start working towards as Junior scouts?

If they have one they do not publicize or promote it very well. I do not remember one when I was a Girl Scout (through 7th grade). The only thing Girl Scouts publicize and promote well is cookies, and perhaps that is where the problem lies.

GSA does have an Eagle Scout equivalent, it's called the Gold Award. That it's not as widely known as Eagle Scout doesn't mean that it's not a significant achievement and that it doesn't involve a lot of personal growth and development to achieve.

Then why do they now work to make this achievement more well known? The only branding Girl Scouts do effectively is cookie sales.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The girl who is trying to make scouts coed wants to be an Eagle Scout.

Why don't the Girl Scouts work to create a similarly rigorous and comprehensive elite scouting achievement like Eagle that the girls start working towards as Junior scouts?

If they have one they do not publicize or promote it very well. I do not remember one when I was a Girl Scout (through 7th grade). The only thing Girl Scouts publicize and promote well is cookies, and perhaps that is where the problem lies.

GSA does have an Eagle Scout equivalent, it's called the Gold Award. That it's not as widely known as Eagle Scout doesn't mean that it's not a significant achievement and that it doesn't involve a lot of personal growth and development to achieve.

Then why do they now work to make this achievement more well known? The only branding Girl Scouts do effectively is cookie sales.

Why do they need to? After all, it's more about the personal achievement of the girls who earn it, not the public bragging rights.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

GSA does have an Eagle Scout equivalent, it's called the Gold Award. That it's not as widely known as Eagle Scout doesn't mean that it's not a significant achievement and that it doesn't involve a lot of personal growth and development to achieve.

It's GSUSA, not GSA, just FYI.

I'm a Girl Scout leader and former Gold Award recipient. Gold Award IS an achievement, but as the award now stands, it is nowhere near as hard to earn as Eagle Scout. There's simply no comparison.

Well, there is a comparison -- it is FAR EASIER to earn Girl Scout Gold Award. It takes far less time, effort, and dedication because it has no similar requirement to the Eagle Scout award of FIRST advancing through the requirements of Tenderfoot, Second Class Scout, First Class Scout, Star Scout and Life Scout, (each with their own requirements for camping and other activities, plus leadership requirements and an interview with adults about what they have achieved) while also earning 21 merit badges (10 of which are required, including First Aid, Emergency Preparedness OR Lifesaving, Swimming OR Hiking OR Cycling, Camping, Cooking, and Family Life, among others)

And THEN they do their Eagle project.

Girl Scouts do a Journey as a Cadette, then a Silver award project, and a Journey as a Senior, and a Gold Project. Or two Journeys as a Senior, and a Gold Project. The Journeys can be very challenging, but there are very few actual requirements and a lot of girls are doing them as 6 hours Journeys in a day.

It's not nothing. But it is nowhere near as difficult as earning 21 merit badges plus working through all the ranks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Then push for these kinds of things in Girl Scouts. Don't come in and try to change/take over Boy Souts.

There is no reason why Girl Scouts can't add more adventurous and practical skills to their badges.

I'm the OP of this thread and I'm not pushing to take over Cub Scouts!

But it appears to me that the Boy Scouts believe that they have a good program in Cub Scouts, and that they think parents of girls would also want this program for their girls. That's what the video I posted was saying. It's not me saying I want girls in Cub Scouts. It's the CEO of Boy Scouts saying he thinks they have a great program for both boys AND girls.

I'm wondering if parents of Cub Scouts (who also have daughters) think the Cub Scout program would appeal to their girls?

[Anonymous]

Tye girl program is not cub scouts or boy scouts. I believe it is called Venture scouts.

[Anonymous]

In my experience, the thing about cub scouts running wild like puppies and Girl Scouts being all orderly is a total myth. Our Cub Scout pack and den meetings each have a long component that is instructional and/or reporting (reporting on different badges earned by the various dens). Thr boys are expected to sit quietly and listen. I have two Girl Scout troops and I would never make them sit and listen that long--they are very active and just would not. There is a lot more discipline in the Cub Scout system and a lot of the dads are very strict and demand quasi-military discipline. I do like the skills learned but, like a PP, I appreciate that GS is a little more relaxed and a little more "free to be you and me" in spirit.
Ps Girl Scouts camp as much as boys scouts. And the Boy Scout popcorn is way worse than GS cookies--I won't let my son sell it to anyone but me because I'm embarrassed to ask $15 for a $3 bag of caramel corn. People actually want the cookies and the girls enjoy selling them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Tye girl program is not cub scouts or boy scouts. I believe it is called Venture scouts.

Yes, but BSA is considering opening up a Cub Scouts for girls program. Do you think such a program would be attractive and of use to girls?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Tye girl program is not cub scouts or boy scouts. I believe it is called Venture scouts.

Yes, but BSA is considering opening up a Cub Scouts for girls program. Do you think such a program would be attractive and of use to girls?

I doubt that there wpuld be enough girl interest for separate girl packs. There would be a few girls at each level, not enough to be effective. Then the boy scouts and cub scout groups would be forced to go coed, and the entire dynamic and benefit to boys provided by Boy Scouts would be changed dramatically.

[Anonymous]

I have two scouts, am married to and eagle and am a sister to an eagle.

I just asked one of my scouts what he thought about scouts being coed. He said it would not be good because then scouts would end up "just like school." He said if it was coed they would start getting in trouble for being too noisy or too wild, and they wouldn't be able to be the way they are now. He said that being able to act like boys and not having to act like they are in school is one of the best things about scouts. He also said "Why don't the girls sign up for Venture Scouts or try to get gold scout in Girl Scouts instead?"

I am sure if BSA polled scouts, both leaders and actual scouts, members would almost universally be against going coed.

[Anonymous]

I was in a BSA explorer program in the 1960s, but it's only for teens, not small children. GS's can be good if you have a committed and serious leader but most are just cliques to get your daughter established with the "right" friends.