[21049] in APO-L
[APO-L] History of World Scouting (was Re: Legislation or Other?)
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Brown Michael-EMB021)
Tue Jul 25 11:29:30 2000
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Date: Tue, 25 Jul 2000 11:29:16 -0400
Reply-To: Brown Michael-EMB021 <Michael_Brown-EMB021@EMAIL.MOT.COM>
From: Brown Michael-EMB021 <Michael_Brown-EMB021@EMAIL.MOT.COM>
To: APO-L@LISTSERV.IUPUI.EDU
>From: Kevin Yue <kyue@GLUE.UMD.EDU>
>
>> I would be very much in favour of such an amendment. Scouting is a
>> worldwide co-ed movement. In some countries it is segregated by
>> gender. We only have half of Scouting represented.
>
>Do you realize that the BSA was founded on the basis of developing young
>MEN? The point I'm trying to make with that statement is that the BSA
>may be the first its kind in the world with Scouting, but when other
>countries decided to develop their own scouting programs, they did it with
>the vision of developing young people. The Boy Scouts of America are, and
>it is in their policies, there to develop young MEN, which is the reason
>why they are all-male (well, the direct Scouting line, not exploring or
>venturing). This is one of the reasons the GSUSA came into existence. If
>the BSA were just Scouts of America, then the GSUSA would probably not
>exist.
Uh, from your comments I have to assume you know little about the history of
world scouting.
When B-P establish scouting in the UK it was Boy Scouts. No girls. When he
found that girls wanted to be in scouting, he established a SEPARATE program
for them called Girl Guides. Both programs were picked up by people in
other countries, where they established Boy Scout and Girl Guide (or Girl
Scout) organizations in their countries. Thus the origin of the BSA and
GSUSA. All the Boy Scout organizations then formed the World Organization
of Scouting Movements (WOSM), while the Girl Scout and Girl Guides groups
formed the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGS).
Co-ed programs were a rarity during the time the BSA & GSUSA were formed.
The phenomenon of co-ed scouting is really very recent. Only in the last
couple of decades have SOME Boy Scout associations in SOME countries (about
third to two thirds) gone co-ed. In most cases that countries Girl
Guide/Girl Scout organization STILL exists. Only in 1-2 cases did the Boy
Scout & Girl Guide/Girl Scout organizations merge (Israel is only example I
know of). Campfire Girls became Campfire Boys & Girls only in the last
couple of decades. Exploring went co-ed in 1971.
Thus, despite what some think, the BSA is not some lone hold out of
male-only scouting.
Also, will most probably know our own organization was male-only until 1976.
We have a sorority counterpart called Omega Phi Alpha that still has a few
chapters out there.
