Girl Scouts sues Boys Scouts for including girls
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Anonymous
Why are those names an issue for you? You really think a six-year-old is going to relate better to "Accounting" than to "Money Counts" (which is a Daisy-level badge, earned by K and 1st graders)? |
Anonymous
My DD git the idea by comparing what she was doing to what her brother was doing ...which was way cooler. I am sure there are some cool gs troops but hers was lame. If she were younger she would eagerly sign up. I am fine with girls included in boy scouts. |
Anonymous
Also, "Accounting" wouldn't be an accurate description of that badge, more like "Budgeting." Tell me how excited your first grader would get about "Budgeting." |
Anonymous
Good lord. As many people have pointed out, Girl Scouts hasn't had badges that even look like that in decades. |
Anonymous
I get what the first pp is saying. It's a common theme that we think females need cutesy names for things for them to be applicable to females. |
Anonymous
I think a 6-year-old would take more pride in the badge accomplishment as they age if it was titled seriously and taken seriously. The BS does this amazingly well with teens proud to say they're an Eagle Scout and list off their badges. Even further there are organizations that recruit for pre-college programs who look at BS senior involvement as a plus on 'resumes' and it goes even further. You only have to note the spouse above who touted the husband being an Eagle Scout to see that. GS is loosing 1/3rd of its membership for a reason and it started well before BS did this name and policy changes post-2014. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/girl-scouts-membership-drops-sharply/ |
Anonymous
And by comparison, my DS had the same reaction to my DD's GS activities. He quit boy scouts this year because he really isn't into hiking and camping and didn't feel like there was a place for him in boy scouts anymore. He sees his younger sister's troop building marble roller coasters, designing board games and learning about outer space, and thinks that sounds a lot cooler. |
Anonymous
You seem to be highly invested in the GS, even down to the names they give their badges? I am sure they would welcome your input officially if you would like to contact them. They are always very friendly and helpful whenever I call. |
Anonymous
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I used to think boy and girl scouts were the same organization, just different branches - one for boys, one for girls. Then we joined cub scouts and learned all the intricacies. I think it was always the word scouts that tied them together for me - so removing boy from the front of it now doesn't confuse me anymore than I would have been anyway. Actually, if we had never joined, I'd probably still believe they were the same and if I heard cubs/boy scouts were now allowing girls, it would probably make me stop and learn they are different organizations.
That being said, with the advent of Family Scouting, I have had countless parents assume the two organizations have merged. I don't think this was BSA being nefarious - I just think parents really don't know. |
Anonymous
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I think it’s admirable Girl Scouts is trying to include more traditionally male activities. I know I found GS miserable as a kid because I hated crafts, I just wanted to run around in the woods.
What I hate about them is that it’s basically become a cookie selling business with some activities on the side. My friends who are troop leaders always feel pressured to sell, and they keep very little of the money. I hate that they set up outside of every store I go in and harass me. And now it’s not just cookies- multiple times a year they are bugging me to buy cookies, candy, etc that I don’t even want. |
Anonymous
| My experience with cub scouts is that families are thrilled to easily find a place for their girls. So many moms I've talked to have declared it's nearly impossible to find a den/troop/whatever they are called in Daisy/GS in our area. If they could even get information about GS at all, in order to have their daughter sign up, it was knowing someone in the troop, or volunteering to start one themselves. With Cub Scouts, all of them walked into an existing Pack and very few needed to volunteer to get their dens up and running within a week or so. |
Anonymous
Sales are twice a year, and no one is required to participate. Our troop makes good money from those sales, which allows us to pay for a lot of extra activities for the girls without asking parents to write checks over and over again (which we try to be sensitive to, since not all of our families have a bunch of extra cash lying around). Very little of our troop year is spent on selling-related activities, but I really like the financial literacy program GSA has developed around it (if troop leaders choose to use it) because it's a strong program to teach the girls about budgeting, planning and goal-setting that builds in an age-appropriate way. One of the things I didn't care for about BSA when our family was a part of it was that our pack declined to participate in any fundraising in favor of parents writing large checks every year, and I felt like they were missing out on an opportunity to teach a very privileged group of boys about putting in the work to earn your own way instead of expecting everything to be handed to you. |
Anonymous
+1 I hated the crafty sewing activities as a Girl Scout. My older child is a Boy Scout now, and I'm happy to have my little girl join as a "family scout" when she's old enough. I'm in scouting for the nature stuff, not the home ec stuff. |
Anonymous
Every system has pros and cons. It's easier to find a den to participate in because there's no size cap on dens -- they have to take everyone from their school/geographic area who wants to join. The rest for many, at least in the early years, can be massive dens that become very chaotic and can overwhelm some kids, especially since BSA doesn't seem to have much in the way of rules about ratios -- our den at its max was 22 boys, with only a single leader (which one time resulted in a handful of boys leaving school grounds into the neighborhood during a den meeting because the den leader couldn't keep track of everyone). GS caps troop sizes at 12 and is strict about ratios so you have to have at least two leaders for every troop; troops can choose to go over the cap, but then have to find another leader. This means it can be harder to find a troop with openings, but the troops themselves are far more manageable in size and have a higher level of supervision. |
Anonymous
NP. I would get behind BSA and GSA troop sales if they did more creative work. I'd love to pay a middle preschooler to rake leaves or organize my toys or shovel my walk way or a million other great chores I have. Kiwanis actually used to be good about paying for chores like that (kids would volunteer to do work and the money benefited their Kiwanis). |