Here's the story. Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts are both losing members. That's a fact. There's a number of reasons for this; one may be that they're both outdated (although from the evidence in the link, the girls seem to be way more advanced than the boys, on just about every front).
The article is called Time For Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts 2.0?, and the title perfectly sums it up. Many of the activities for which badges are rewarded are out of touch with the realities of kids today. At the same time, everybody is always getting badges in what passes as real life. I mean, I go to enough different places and check in on FourSquare, and I get a badge. In fact, I've gotten quite a few badges. I can't say that I'm motivated by the badges to keep checking into FourSquare, but someone must be, or FourSquare, and everyone else, wouldn't bother.
So, blogger Phillip Torrone asks, why not connect out-of-date scouting with up-to-the-minute real life? Why not give badges for, say, Linux? And why not have digital badges? Relevant activities for kids, that make sense and provide focus for them? Absolutely!
As an Eagle Scout, let me just say that this is really dumb. Soldering is naturally part of the electronics merit badge, which I earned. Lasercutting or 3D printing could be used to build components in any number of badges. You can easily fulfill the requirements of the computer badge with Linux (and would counselors really be available nationwide for these things?). Budgets, credit, and all that are all included under the personal management badge, which is required for Eagle. The reason girlscouts have badges for all of these things is that their badges are much more compact and easy to earn than boyscout badges (e.g. in horsemanship, which I know about since my instructor taught both girls and boys, the boyscout version requires about 3x the hours and skills).
ReplyDeleteSure, the proliferation of demands on student and parent time is hurting scouting numbers, but that's no reason to give up on outdoorsmanship, the most popular set of scout activities and where they have a competitive edge. Scouting has already tried giving into the fads, as with their "varsity teams" effort starting in the 1970s youth sports craze, and it's been a big flop.