Scouting
The Boy Scouts has decided to allow units of girls, and will enable girls to earn Eagle Scouts.
The third grade girl latent inside grown-up me leapt for joy to hear that there will now be girls allowed to become Eagle Scouts. I did enjoy girl scouts and it was formative to character. However, I had girl scout leaders that broke the mold. They turned pastures into camp grounds. They made programs where none existed and taught us to do the same. The boys still had and may have the most extensive camps, training, and likely other facilities I don’t even know about.
Girls need to become women that earn a living like Lydia of the purple cloth in Acts. Even if they are intent on being wives and moms first, many if not most work. The women in two-parent households where the man works still have leadership opportunities in the volunteer world. Good leadership training is good leadership training, and good follower and/or teamwork training benefits anyone. Boy Scouts is a wonderful way to spend a childhood and helps form a responsible adult.
On the other hand, is the decision good for boys? Boys and girls find each other icky at young ages and having girls join is not really good news for boys, especially if in ten years the girls outperform the boys as they do in many schools. The silver lining is that the units themselves will still be single gender. Boys continue to face a confusing and restricting message about what of their interests are okay to develop, and it is important for the Boy Scouts to remain experts in how to raise healthy boys. Especially with boys lagging in school, it is important that girls not sway the content or focus of the program for boys, even as they join it.
