Someone on my Facebook Circle posted this article on my page: Boy Scouts would be better with girls.
In it, he says that Boy Scouts is a great Leadership program, while Girl Scouts is not. What I notice is that he mentions the Boy Scout Eagle Award, but completely fails to mention the Girl Scout Bronze, Silver, and Gold Awards. I think that he completely misses entire parts of the program, possibly because his own daughters were not exposed, or because Girl Scouts has failed to adequately advertise and promote these awards and programs.
The Girl Scout Bronze Award is the highest award a girl can earn at the Girl Scout Junior level – which is fourth or fifth grade. The Silver is the highest award a girl can earn at the Cadette Level – which is Junior High. And the Gold Award is the highest award that can be earned in high school. From my experience, it is actually more difficult to earn the Gold Award than it is to earn the Eagle Scout Award, because all of the conditions that are true for the Eagle Scout project also exist, however, the Gold Award is also required to be sustainable beyond its creation.
Since the Gold Award is required to be sustainable, the project takes on a new level of difficulty. It is not sufficient to build a gazebo, or a bench, or a garden. There must be a plan in place that provides for care of that item, into the future. And there are all of the other components of leadership in the Girl Scout Program. There are also a lot of other fantastic opportunities for leadership and business development that simply don’t exist with the Boy Scouts.
But, we are typical females, and we have not done a great job of pushing our girls to reach those goals. We especially have not done a great job of announcing to the world when girls have reached those goals. Ask around – who has heard of the Girl Scout Gold Award? Do you know of anyone who has earned it? I bet that those of us who are actively involved in Girl Scouts know someone, but who else? That’s my point.
We need to do a better job telling people about the great work that we do. Girl Scouts is just one example of women failing to promote the awesome work that they do, compared to men in Boy Scouts. I am not sure that girls belong in Boy Scouts, nor that the Boy Scout program is stronger. I just think that Boy Scouts do a phenomenal job managing their press on Eagle Awards.
What do you think? Are Boy Scouts Better Than Girl Scouts?