Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Boys and girls: Networking

I am not a fan of boy scouting. Not at all. However, i have to admit that there’s one thing it has going for it: There’s a built-in mechanism for the boys involved in it to meet other boys with similar interests through the institutions of camporees and jamborees.

Girl scouts have similar things, but the church doesn’t sponsor girl scout groups, for whatever reason.* Odd, really, that the church would be linked at the hip with a group that has as a stated purpose the development of boys into strong-willed, independent men, but has nothing to do with a group that has as a stated purpose the development of girls into strong-willed, independent women.

* I’ve heard that this is because of the cookie sale fundraising requirement, but that rings false with me. If fundraising was an issue, the boy scouts wouldn’t be allowed to send people to scout training meetings at Mormon churches to drum up donations—but they do, they most certainly do.

1 comment:

Heather the Mama Duk said...

The reason the church doesn't sponsor Girl Scout troops has nothing to do with cookie sales. You aren't required to sell cookies and be an active troop (the girls chose not to sell the first year Ani was in Brownies and then decided they wanted to sell them the second year... it was not a problem to not do the sales the first year). From what I could find out while Ani was in Brownies, a GS troop can meet at a church (ours did the second year), but they aren't sponsored/tied to the church. There were actually no kids from that church in our group (it was the church where a leader of the sister Cadet troop went).

I wish we'd get rid of Boy Scouts, personally. I don't like Boy Scouts at all.