I was in the Cub Scouts as a little boy. It helped develop my character and strengthen my self image. I liked wearing the uniform. I learned about nature and felt like I was part of something larger than myself. I learned about serving my community. It was an important thing to me. Modern scouting has a very different feel to me. The scandals and politics make it feel tainted and wrong. I wish people hadn't abused their power. I am saddened for the people that were hurt. I wish scouting hasn't become so contentious and divisive. For me, it was a wholesome, educational, and exciting adventure. I wish more children could experience that.
Serious question, how long has it been since youāve been around Scouts? Because the scandals I remember are the sexual abuse scandals that go at least as far back as the 1980s when I was in Scouts. My experience was still wholesome, educational, and exciting. As a Cub Scout and Boy Scout leader years later in the 2000s and 2010s, I saw a new generation of kids had that same kind of experience I had. To what scandals do you refer? Are they worse than those I mentioned? How are those destroying the kidsā experience today?
the scouts as an organization have a pretty well known controversy around the LGBTQ community, and nationally banning gay people from being members until 2015 (the policy only changed because of fervent public backlash). The LDS was a major sponsor and declared gay people as inherently immoral, a scouts anti-LGBTQ group called "on my honor" was formed, the scouts were the defendants in multiple lawsuits, and in 2013 the band that was supposed to play their national jamboree pulled out because of the controversy. I was excited to get my kids in scouts, but it was the height of the controversy, and we declined because we believe in inclusion and the scouts whole response to it at an organizational level was just awful (lots of "traditional values" bullshit)
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boy\_Scouts\_of\_America\_membership\_controversies](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boy_Scouts_of_America_membership_controversies)
Thanks. I vaguely remember some of this, and remember arguing with idiots online. But I donāt remember it impacting the Scouts in our Troop in spite of the fact that we had some very ātraditional valuesā people in our Troop. I think we had kind of a detente. Our kids were in during this time but started beforehand. None of our leaders or Scouts were openly LGTBQ (although several Scouts would later come out including one of mine). I guess we were fortunate.
yes, so fortunate the target of the bigotry wasn't openly in your life. This kind of thing mayn't impact you in any conscious way, but it impacts others. Kids who would have joined, but didn't (like my own), people who were in the closet and heard it and felt fucking awful (like a scout that came out as gay later, after they were no longer in your life). You never had to deal with the consequences. That is why a white person cant really say wether racism exists, a man may not know about sexism happening around him, and a straight guy may not be aware of the effects of homophobia.
It doesnt impact you in any conscious way, and you have the luxury of "I vaguely remember" and "we were fortunate". Fortunate that you were a straight person, and your fellow leaders were straight, so you were isolated from bigotry.
You donāt know me or my situation. My daughter is trans, and I love and support her 100%. I have a lot of things to lol back on and figure out what I could have done better. I think on balance, Scouting was still a positive in her life. She knew and knows where we stand. She knows that we have her back no matter what. Had she wanted to leave Scouts, we would have left. We let her make that decision.
The old have fun and become good citizens mentality should come back. I remember my time in cub scouts fondly as well. Everyone should be included and all this hate nowadays is unwarranted.
No one can agree on what ābecome a good citizenā means anymore. We used to all be in the same page philosophically. Now, everyone is fractured into different groups with different ideals.
Scouting America is the parent organization that oversees both Cub Scouts (both boys and girls in packs ages 5-11) and Scouts BSA (separate girl and boy troops ages 12-17).
From what Iāve heard, it was a practical change. When I was a Boy Scout, I had a little sister and so did a couple of other scouts in my troop. There were a lot of camping trips where the parents came along and it wasnāt practical to leave the little sisters behind with a baby sitter, so they came along on the trips but werenāt able to participate in the activities on any official capacity or get ranks for doing the same things their brothers were doing. So, by just letting girls join Scouts, itās simpler and easier for families with boys and girls to participate
Girl scouts is a completely different program then scouting. And honestly scouting is just better in every meaningful way.
For years the boys would have this amazing program and the girls would have to go to gsusa which is just inferior.
Now girls have the option to have access to the same program.
Most troops have two completely separate troops that will meet in the same building on the same days but they tend to function independently. Separated by sex.
I had a similar experience. My brother and I were Boy Scouts and my little sister was a Girl Scout and our experiences were very different, with my troop being a lot more active and doing a lot more interesting things than hers. But from what Iāve learned since then, there were also lackluster Boy Scout troops and robust Girl Scout troops. It all deepens on whoās running them and how involved theyāre willing to be.
I feel like girls scouts are being prepared to enter into the exciting world of multi level marketing and the cookie sale thing puts much more responsibility on their parents as it does on the kids.
Each troop is different and like many organizations for kids it comes down to the choices and availability of the parent volunteers but the activities of the Girl Scout troops that I know are definitely not on par with what we were doing as Boy Scouts in the mid 90ās.
I'm sorry you have such a low opinion of Girl Scouts.
I was a girl scout for 6 years as a child. I camped often and learned a lot of skills and earned many ,many badges. I had interesting scout leaders. In addition to the cookie sales, which is the only thing people seem to know, As a girl scout, I:
-raised rabbits and grew tomatoes for a summer for an agriculture badge
-cooked over an open campfire many times
-learned to navigate using a compass and took so many hikes in the woods
-learned about the native birds and animals in my area
-placed flags on the graves of Veterans every year
-made Christmas cards for seniors in nursing homes
-made endless variety of arts and crafts
-got to hear my local orchestra play
and so much more.
Perhaps the girl scout troops near you didn't do much, but to blanket statement the entire GSUSA as "inferior" is insulting.
I respect that, so I'll change my wording so that it's structured more like an opinion.
I understand that every truth is different but I took my daughter out of GSA and enrolled her into scouting because although I could find a lot of troops that were active, I was unable to find one where all of the planning and coordination was run and administrated by the youth themselves.
GSA has other positives that might outweigh what scouting has for some people, but in my opinion scouting teaches a very rare skill.
And whatās more, the Gold Award is way more work than Eagle. The Gold Award project alone requires a minimum of 80 hours of planning and execution, whereas in my troop we had guys who couldnāt have spent more than 15 hours total on their Eagle projects. Iām pretty sure I didnāt put in 80+ hours on my own project.
Idk what yāall are complaining about. Here in Australia, Scouts has been for boys and girls for a long time. I met my first girlfriend through Scouts. Thereās nothing wrong with this.
The BSA here in the states were founded by a, let's say problematic man with interesting views on things like what's appropriate to do with little boys.
I really enjoyed being a cub scout and briefly being a Boy Scout. I still think itās a great thing for young kids to do, despite the checkered past. There were never problems in my troop as a kid.
I became an Eagle Scout after seven years of scouting. A girl who joined my troop the year before I left accomplished that in three years.
Iām really happy this is happening.
This rebrand seems necessary in a way. Decades of child abuse allegations and tons of money forfeit in legal battles I feel like they would have gone bankrupt otherwise. We can either have no Scouts or this.Ā
I was in cub Scouts for one year and my dad was adamant I wasn't going back but I don't know why he did that. I was 8 or 9 when it happened.Ā
Doā¦ make sure your kids are never left alone with them.
Donātā¦ forget my scout leader was accused of something really bad ā¦and killed himself the next day. That will never be documented anywhere because you canāt prosecute someone whoās dead and the BSA legal team did a good job at scaring teenagers into not talking about it.
If girls join the bsa why not let boys join the Girl Scoutsā¦ they can learn some business things and other things that Girl Scouts learnā¦ just a thought, donāt come at me.
I know right? The Boy Scouts used to be a safe haven for sick fucks that want to molest BOYS! Now what are those sick fucks gonna do? Convert to Catholicism? Wake up sheeple! The woke libtards are trying to make Protestantism a thing of the past!
Either the product is for everyone or just for women.
Why should males be treated as their own separate entity or acknowledged as having a need for their own space?
/s
It's like the world has been taken over by the mods of femaledatingstrategy.
The Girl Scouts are still around. Their focus is giving young women an opportunity to lead and plan their own path. Often young women are pushed aside by boys, this just gives them a space and opportunity to learn in a safe environment away from the bro culture often seen in schools.
So, weāre not going to address the lack of inclusiveness, still? Could we just be done with this back and forth bullshit that is bullshit? Itās The Scouts, include everyone. All sell cookies. All sell popcorn. All learn what it means to be a scout. Dumb problem solved. Doesnāt need to be a stupid separation that was the 1910-20sā¦FFS.
So the Girl Scouts are still bigoted?
Edit - Bigoted: Obstinately and blindly attached to some creed, opinion practice
[https://www.wordnik.com/words/bigoted](https://www.wordnik.com/words/bigoted)
In this case the creed/practice would be only allowing girls into their organization.
So there are Girl Scouts, as well as Scouts who are girls
Correct!
Do the Scouts who are Girls sell cookies now too? šŖ seems like it would be profitable // good for competion at the very least
They do not. They sell popcorn, as is traditional for Scouts.
I legitimately canāt tell if you are joking or not
They aren't, Scouts BSA sells popcorn.
I was in the Cub Scouts as a little boy. It helped develop my character and strengthen my self image. I liked wearing the uniform. I learned about nature and felt like I was part of something larger than myself. I learned about serving my community. It was an important thing to me. Modern scouting has a very different feel to me. The scandals and politics make it feel tainted and wrong. I wish people hadn't abused their power. I am saddened for the people that were hurt. I wish scouting hasn't become so contentious and divisive. For me, it was a wholesome, educational, and exciting adventure. I wish more children could experience that.
Serious question, how long has it been since youāve been around Scouts? Because the scandals I remember are the sexual abuse scandals that go at least as far back as the 1980s when I was in Scouts. My experience was still wholesome, educational, and exciting. As a Cub Scout and Boy Scout leader years later in the 2000s and 2010s, I saw a new generation of kids had that same kind of experience I had. To what scandals do you refer? Are they worse than those I mentioned? How are those destroying the kidsā experience today?
the scouts as an organization have a pretty well known controversy around the LGBTQ community, and nationally banning gay people from being members until 2015 (the policy only changed because of fervent public backlash). The LDS was a major sponsor and declared gay people as inherently immoral, a scouts anti-LGBTQ group called "on my honor" was formed, the scouts were the defendants in multiple lawsuits, and in 2013 the band that was supposed to play their national jamboree pulled out because of the controversy. I was excited to get my kids in scouts, but it was the height of the controversy, and we declined because we believe in inclusion and the scouts whole response to it at an organizational level was just awful (lots of "traditional values" bullshit) [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boy\_Scouts\_of\_America\_membership\_controversies](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boy_Scouts_of_America_membership_controversies)
Thanks. I vaguely remember some of this, and remember arguing with idiots online. But I donāt remember it impacting the Scouts in our Troop in spite of the fact that we had some very ātraditional valuesā people in our Troop. I think we had kind of a detente. Our kids were in during this time but started beforehand. None of our leaders or Scouts were openly LGTBQ (although several Scouts would later come out including one of mine). I guess we were fortunate.
yes, so fortunate the target of the bigotry wasn't openly in your life. This kind of thing mayn't impact you in any conscious way, but it impacts others. Kids who would have joined, but didn't (like my own), people who were in the closet and heard it and felt fucking awful (like a scout that came out as gay later, after they were no longer in your life). You never had to deal with the consequences. That is why a white person cant really say wether racism exists, a man may not know about sexism happening around him, and a straight guy may not be aware of the effects of homophobia. It doesnt impact you in any conscious way, and you have the luxury of "I vaguely remember" and "we were fortunate". Fortunate that you were a straight person, and your fellow leaders were straight, so you were isolated from bigotry.
You donāt know me or my situation. My daughter is trans, and I love and support her 100%. I have a lot of things to lol back on and figure out what I could have done better. I think on balance, Scouting was still a positive in her life. She knew and knows where we stand. She knows that we have her back no matter what. Had she wanted to leave Scouts, we would have left. We let her make that decision.
The old have fun and become good citizens mentality should come back. I remember my time in cub scouts fondly as well. Everyone should be included and all this hate nowadays is unwarranted.
No one can agree on what ābecome a good citizenā means anymore. We used to all be in the same page philosophically. Now, everyone is fractured into different groups with different ideals.
"Don't" use a font color that's the same gray scale as the background.
- When you learn that you are red-green color blind. \*Referring to you u/kelovitro
DO remember that they had decades of child abuse swept under the rug. DONT you ever fucking forget it.
Definitely. I feel like my youth butthole dodged a dick bullet hahaha.
Still confusing here. Scouts BSA, Scouting America, or both? What's the difference?
Scouting America is the parent organization that oversees both Cub Scouts (both boys and girls in packs ages 5-11) and Scouts BSA (separate girl and boy troops ages 12-17).
Thanks!
Boy Scouts and Girls Scouts. Both are exceptional organizations all on their own.
But, together, they could be not asking people to stop saying one thing or another. Just saying.
But why.gif?
Because the girl scouts sued them when they rebranded... After being sued for being called the Boy scouts...
From what Iāve heard, it was a practical change. When I was a Boy Scout, I had a little sister and so did a couple of other scouts in my troop. There were a lot of camping trips where the parents came along and it wasnāt practical to leave the little sisters behind with a baby sitter, so they came along on the trips but werenāt able to participate in the activities on any official capacity or get ranks for doing the same things their brothers were doing. So, by just letting girls join Scouts, itās simpler and easier for families with boys and girls to participate
Girl scouts is a completely different program then scouting. And honestly scouting is just better in every meaningful way. For years the boys would have this amazing program and the girls would have to go to gsusa which is just inferior. Now girls have the option to have access to the same program. Most troops have two completely separate troops that will meet in the same building on the same days but they tend to function independently. Separated by sex.
I had a similar experience. My brother and I were Boy Scouts and my little sister was a Girl Scout and our experiences were very different, with my troop being a lot more active and doing a lot more interesting things than hers. But from what Iāve learned since then, there were also lackluster Boy Scout troops and robust Girl Scout troops. It all deepens on whoās running them and how involved theyāre willing to be.
I feel like girls scouts are being prepared to enter into the exciting world of multi level marketing and the cookie sale thing puts much more responsibility on their parents as it does on the kids. Each troop is different and like many organizations for kids it comes down to the choices and availability of the parent volunteers but the activities of the Girl Scout troops that I know are definitely not on par with what we were doing as Boy Scouts in the mid 90ās.
I'm sorry you have such a low opinion of Girl Scouts. I was a girl scout for 6 years as a child. I camped often and learned a lot of skills and earned many ,many badges. I had interesting scout leaders. In addition to the cookie sales, which is the only thing people seem to know, As a girl scout, I: -raised rabbits and grew tomatoes for a summer for an agriculture badge -cooked over an open campfire many times -learned to navigate using a compass and took so many hikes in the woods -learned about the native birds and animals in my area -placed flags on the graves of Veterans every year -made Christmas cards for seniors in nursing homes -made endless variety of arts and crafts -got to hear my local orchestra play and so much more. Perhaps the girl scout troops near you didn't do much, but to blanket statement the entire GSUSA as "inferior" is insulting.
I respect that, so I'll change my wording so that it's structured more like an opinion. I understand that every truth is different but I took my daughter out of GSA and enrolled her into scouting because although I could find a lot of troops that were active, I was unable to find one where all of the planning and coordination was run and administrated by the youth themselves. GSA has other positives that might outweigh what scouting has for some people, but in my opinion scouting teaches a very rare skill.
And whatās more, the Gold Award is way more work than Eagle. The Gold Award project alone requires a minimum of 80 hours of planning and execution, whereas in my troop we had guys who couldnāt have spent more than 15 hours total on their Eagle projects. Iām pretty sure I didnāt put in 80+ hours on my own project.
Idk what yāall are complaining about. Here in Australia, Scouts has been for boys and girls for a long time. I met my first girlfriend through Scouts. Thereās nothing wrong with this.
The BSA here in the states were founded by a, let's say problematic man with interesting views on things like what's appropriate to do with little boys.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
When I was a cub/scout (in Australia) there were Girl Guides and Brownies. How long ago are you talking?
You donāt think boys and young men deserve spaces for themselves?
What is this supposed to mean?
I really enjoyed being a cub scout and briefly being a Boy Scout. I still think itās a great thing for young kids to do, despite the checkered past. There were never problems in my troop as a kid.
about time the yanks caught up with something the rest of the world's scouting organisations did decades ago
I became an Eagle Scout after seven years of scouting. A girl who joined my troop the year before I left accomplished that in three years. Iām really happy this is happening.
This rebrand seems necessary in a way. Decades of child abuse allegations and tons of money forfeit in legal battles I feel like they would have gone bankrupt otherwise. We can either have no Scouts or this.Ā I was in cub Scouts for one year and my dad was adamant I wasn't going back but I don't know why he did that. I was 8 or 9 when it happened.Ā
Older Eagle Scout here, can troops be mixed like venturers? Or is it all boys troops and all girls troops?
Correct them?
Doā¦ make sure your kids are never left alone with them. Donātā¦ forget my scout leader was accused of something really bad ā¦and killed himself the next day. That will never be documented anywhere because you canāt prosecute someone whoās dead and the BSA legal team did a good job at scaring teenagers into not talking about it.
Abolish the Girl Scouts
If girls join the bsa why not let boys join the Girl Scoutsā¦ they can learn some business things and other things that Girl Scouts learnā¦ just a thought, donāt come at me.
If gender is a construct, then so is the movement to change the concept.
Thereās boy scouts and thereās girl scouts. Whatās the fucking problem. Just make another scouts that are mixed with boys and girls. Who cares.
Sad to see what has become of a once great organization. The downfall of mankind is upon us.
I know right? The Boy Scouts used to be a safe haven for sick fucks that want to molest BOYS! Now what are those sick fucks gonna do? Convert to Catholicism? Wake up sheeple! The woke libtards are trying to make Protestantism a thing of the past!
not mankind. just the west.
[ Removed by Reddit ]
Due avoid leaving your young kids alone with scout masters to avoid sexual abuse, trauma and extensive counseling.
Either the product is for everyone or just for women. Why should males be treated as their own separate entity or acknowledged as having a need for their own space? /s It's like the world has been taken over by the mods of femaledatingstrategy.
So, Girl Scout Cookies are done?
The Girl Scouts are still around. Their focus is giving young women an opportunity to lead and plan their own path. Often young women are pushed aside by boys, this just gives them a space and opportunity to learn in a safe environment away from the bro culture often seen in schools.
So, weāre not going to address the lack of inclusiveness, still? Could we just be done with this back and forth bullshit that is bullshit? Itās The Scouts, include everyone. All sell cookies. All sell popcorn. All learn what it means to be a scout. Dumb problem solved. Doesnāt need to be a stupid separation that was the 1910-20sā¦FFS.
This is the Boy Scouts opening itself up to all people. The Girl Scouts are still doing their own thing. It's not a merger.
So the Girl Scouts are still bigoted? Edit - Bigoted: Obstinately and blindly attached to some creed, opinion practice [https://www.wordnik.com/words/bigoted](https://www.wordnik.com/words/bigoted) In this case the creed/practice would be only allowing girls into their organization.
Boy Scouts has gone gay