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Considering all of the single-parent families lacking fathers these days, you'd think the membership would be GROWING instead of decreasing. My dad's troop is located in a city with a high number of single-parent households and very little in the way of youth-based activities. Yet most of the members are from families with 2 parents, white, middle-class, etc.
Ironically, Scouting was at its popularity zenith back in the days of the nuclear family. Now councils are consolidating and selling off camps because they can't afford to maintain them. When my dad and oldest brother are members of the same council yet live 150 miles apart, that should tell you how low the membership levels are. And it's like that all over the country.
Why go camping when you can use government money to buy drugs, and shoot at earch other?
Within 10 years, if not sooner, the girls will force the Boy Scouts to become just Scouts so as to make the girls feel more included. No longer will it be a boy-centered organization. Rather than demand that the Girl Scouts reform their organization, they will take away the Boy Scouts from the boys, looking to morph it into a new co-ed Scout organization.
OK, but that's the thing - I don't see this "boys-only" philosophy as being particularly important to scouting. Roughing it out in the wilderness to build independent and well-adjusted individulas (which should be the core of the entire operation, as far as I'm concerned) is not an inherently boy's thing.
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I would add that in this day and age of many boys growing up in fatherless homes that the Boy Scouts is one of the few places where they can have male-time with male role models in a totally male environment. No matter how good a job their mom may be doing, boys still need that male-time for lack of a better way of saying it. Many women don't understand this.
That is somewhat lost, but I think not to the extent you fear and on the balance, I think co-ed's advantages outweigh the disadvantages. In my experience, this doesn't need to be organized - boys and girls go off in their own groups as well, it just happens.
For instance, it's rare to see a handful of 11-year-old girls ask permission to dig a hole, but I twice had boys coming up asking to do just that. (Scoutmaster's intuition immediately sounded the alarm: What was the purpose of said hole? Who did they envision trapping in it? But there were no nefarious motives, they just wanted to dig a hole for the fun of it and they spent a glorious afternoon digging deep, improvising ladders and hoists for the dirt buckets and whatnot. Once they were done, hey presto: Latrine.)
As for male role models, I think one of the really, really important lessons older males can impart on younger ones is healthy interaction with the opposite gender.
OK, but that's the thing - I don't see this "boys-only" philosophy as being particularly important to scouting. Roughing it out in the wilderness to build independent and well-adjusted individulas (which should be the core of the entire operation, as far as I'm concerned) is not an inherently boy's thing.
That is somewhat lost, but I think not to the extent you fear and on the balance, I think co-ed's advantages outweigh the disadvantages. In my experience, this doesn't need to be organized - boys and girls go off in their own groups as well, it just happens.
For instance, it's rare to see a handful of 11-year-old girls ask permission to dig a hole, but I twice had boys coming up asking to do just that. (Scoutmaster's intuition immediately sounded the alarm: What was the purpose of said hole? Who did they envision trapping in it? But there were no nefarious motives, they just wanted to dig a hole for the fun of it and they spent a glorious afternoon digging deep, improvising ladders and hoists for the dirt buckets and whatnot. Once they were done, hey presto: Latrine.)
As for male role models, I think one of the really, really important lessons older males can impart on younger ones is healthy interaction with the opposite gender.
Boys-only is vitally important for the boys. That some women may not think it is is because they truly do not understand how boys are wired. There may be advantages for the girls to get to do what the Girls Scouts won't allow them, but what possible benefit do the boys derive from what will be a feminization of the Boy Scouts.
Using your digging a hole example, what will happen when the boys in the troop want to spend the afternoon digging a hole, or building a fort, or having a tug of war in the mud and the girls don't? Will the boys be denied doing what boys do because the troop needs to find an activity that the girls want to also do?
Why have a scout troop if the boys come in an d try to run it, like they do everything else? Part of the reason for Girl Scouts is so they can development leadership skills.
I was involved with GS for years. IMO, as far as camping goes, the girls were better at it. We shopped fresh and did camp cooking over wood fires, even in the rain. The boys just opened cans and heated stuff up on Coleman stoves. Those were not allowed on GS property.
SOME Boy Scouts were terrible. One troop I was in did hot dogs for both lunch and dinner during a winter camping, then asked me to chip in when I only ate lunch. I never saw the can stuff though. And I was camping from 1996 until 2005 as a scout. But what do you have against Coleman stoves. Those propane stoves were awesome for boy scout or recreational camping.
Boys-only is vitally important for the boys. That some women may not think it is is because they truly do not understand how boys are wired. There may be advantages for the girls to get to do what the Girls Scouts won't allow them, but what possible benefit do the boys derive from what will be a feminization of the Boy Scouts.
Using your digging a hole example, what will happen when the boys in the troop want to spend the afternoon digging a hole, or building a fort, or having a tug of war in the mud and the girls don't? Will the boys be denied doing what boys do because the troop needs to find an activity that the girls want to also do?
It don't mean the Boy Scouts will be feminized. There are women who want a more boy scout program. I don't really hear boys asking for a girl scout program to be honeat. Girls are active in high adventure co-ed BSA programs like Venture crews, Explorer posts and Sea Scouts and were in when i was in the scouts alnost 10-20 years ago.
Using your digging a hole example, what will happen when the boys in the troop want to spend the afternoon digging a hole, or building a fort, or having a tug of war in the mud and the girls don't? Will the boys be denied doing what boys do because the troop needs to find an activity that the girls want to also do?
In "my" troop (as in, the one I led), there was plenty of room for both. Looking back, not really by design, it just kinda happened.
Heck, back when I was myself a scout, we had a serious (as serious as teenagers get) debate on gender roles in our patrol (6-8 scouts in the 12-16 age bracket, running semi-autonomously - sorry if this is common information, I am not very sure of US scouting practices) and the girls decided that on the next trip, they'd go gather firewood and dig latrines while we boys could bloody well cook.
Which we did. While the girls went out into a howling snowstorm to get firewood, we stayed in the cottage and cooked up a series of delicious meals on the wood-fired stove, playing cards while the stew simmered and pretty much having a grand time. Still cherish that memory. (We might have used a bit more firewood than was strictly necessary. Might.)
When we took a group of senior scouts (16-24) canoing in Sweden (recommended, btw.), the initial split was boys & girls canoes. Thing is, canoes call for muscle in the front paddler and brains (or at least control) in the back one, and within 12 hours, it was young men in front, young ladies in back.
What I'm trying to say is, I've been in all-male groups and mixed groups, and I think that personal development happens more when there's a mix.
But what do you have against Coleman stoves. Those propane stoves were awesome for boy scout or recreational camping.
Things really do differ. We'd look very, very askance at anyone camping and not cooking over an open fire, unless conditions 100% forced it. If you slept under a roof, sure. But tents or bivouacs? There'd better be a fire ban, or a ban on gathering wood for fuel. If you can have a campfire, you can have a cooking fire.
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