Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts should merge

The organizations would promote scouting better if they combined.

Will Krane, Print Managing Editor|February 20, 2018

Carolyn Mason

The Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts should combine to better enhance both programs.

Over the past few years, Sydney Ireland pushed for access as an o cial member of the Boy Scouts of America. Her calls were heard on October 11, 2017, the Day of the Girl, when the Boy Scouts announced that they would expand the organization to allow girls to join as full members. While this step will help expand opportunities for girls across the country, it is a simple fix to the issue and ignores the long traditions that the Girl Scouts organization has.

The Eagle Rank is an honor that follows those who achieve it for the rest of their lives, and now girls will be able to share in this honor. However, it is important to not forget what the Girl Scouts could bring to the program to continue growth both for the members and the standards of scouting.

Therefore, it would be more effective to encourage the Boy Scouts of America and Girl Scouts of America to work together to make one overarching scouting program to take the best parts of both programs and bolster scouting to a new level.

This merge would make the majority of scouting events–– troop meetings, campouts, and merit badges––for all children in the scouting program. Many who oppose the integration claim that having both boys and girls on campouts poses potential problems for safety and inappropriate behavior. However, the Boy Scouts organization has policies in place for co-ed campouts that have worked for years in the Venturing program—a co-ed program where venture scouts go on high adventure campouts.

With this integration, there should also be times when boys and girls have the option to have experiences and learning opportunities without the opposite gender present.

Research from organizations such as the BBC about single sex classrooms show that learning with only those of your same sex can be more comfortable and productive for some topics. Within scouting, there would be optional campouts and sessions within earning merit badges, such as learning about being a successful dad and a successful mom in the Family Life merit badge––with only those who identify as the same gender.

The coming months and years will bring tremendous change within the scouting program. Although the integration of girls into the Boy Scouts program is a step forward for the organization, the combination of both the Boy and Girl Scouts organizations would make the expansion of opportunity more effective and push the organization to better make our youth prepared, for life.