In May, the Boy Scouts of America officially announced its name change to Scouting America. The name is reflective of a 2018 decision to allow girls to join Boy Scout troops. Girls have long been welcome to join their Venturing units and Explorer Scouts. But the recent inclusion of girls into the Cub Scout and Boy Scout programs seems to be a Bridge Too Far for Republicans. Conservatives are railing against the decision to include girls as ‘woke’ and that this and their 2014 decision to welcome LGBTQ members is ruining scouting. They point to these policies as the reason for the decline in Boy Scout membership nationwide. I disagree.
When my son was just about to start first grade we moved to a new house in a new town. We were looking for a better neighborhood, better schools, and lower crime. We got all of that and more, but coming to a new community where we didn’t know anyone was a little stressful, for all of us. Shortly after the school year started we received an invitation to a Cub Scout orientation night and decided to check it out. We were excited at what we found.
Cub Scouts is the Boy Scout program for grades 1-5. The local Cub Scout Pack had one group meeting each month during the school year, and 2-3 meetings per month for each grade of boys at home. Parents took turns hosting meetings. Plus there were weekend activities, camp outs, family camp, summer camps, jamborees, and more. A plethora of activities designed to engage the boys all while reinforcing the learning and social development they got at school and home. It was quite literally some of the best times we spent, both father-and-son as well as a family.
I stepped up to be one of the parents who lead one of the Dens for my son’s grade, and also served as a Pack Leader and Committee Chairman. It was a lot of work, but it was a labor of love. We have so many memories from that time. It also served as a special bond with my son. He gained friends in scouting. And even a summer job. Every summer from the time he was 14 until he joined the Army he worked at the Lost Valley scout camp as a youth leader. It was a tremendous learning and growing experience for him, and it was his first paid job.
When he got to 6th grade the boys transition from Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts. This is where we started to experience issues. Unlike the group of dedicated parents I’d worked with in the Cub Scout program, here many of the parents were less engaged. To a certain degree that is how the program works, the boys are supposed to be leading the program on their own with guidance from adult leaders. But for me there was too little adult supervision or intervention. It’s not just that the parents were less engaged with the program, some of them seemed to be less engaged as parents.
When I would bring to the attention of the adult committee issues such as boys walking around with their pants down below their butts and their underwear hanging out I was rebuked, told that if they enforce the uniform standards that some boys might drop out. Worse yet, when I went to the Scoutmaster to tell him that several of the older boys were teasing and bullying the younger boys, something that would get them suspended from school, I was told that it was no big deal and that ‘boys will be boys.’ I learned at another troop that the adults were forcing the boys to participate in religious prayer.
We ended up changing troops a couple of times. I was extremely disheartened by this because when you are looking around for a troop to join, everyone is on their best behavior. These issues don’t pop up until you’ve been there a while. By then you feel you need to stick it out, try to make it better if you can. Ultimately we found a good troop. The right balance of boy leadership and adult supervision, proper uniforms, no bullying, and no forced prayer. It was here that my son embarked on his Eagle project. The troop was thrilled to have an older, experienced boy to teach scout skills and be an example. They didn’t have any boys over 15, and hadn’t had any scout achieve their Eagle rank in many years. He even stayed on after he got his Eagle as an adult leader until he reported to the Army.
Despite these rough patches, Boy Scouts had a tremendous positive impact on my son. His outdoor skills served him at basic training. His leadership skills and volunteerism earned him a full-ride ROTC college scholarship and a commission as an officer. His work ethic has earned him several promotions in his civilian career. And there was another benefit, he met his wife in scouts. Unbeknwonst to mom and dad, his future wife was a youth leader at the camp he worked at so many summers. She was a member of the BSA Venturing program. I learned this on their wedding day.
I was a Boy Scout leader for 12+ years. I stepped down when my son joined the Army. That was 12 years ago. Even at that time the program was in decline. It became harder each year to recruit and retain boys in the program, harder still to keep parents engaged. Parents are the life blood of all youth programs. Membership in the Boy Scouts has been in decline for decades. From a high of over 4.8 million when I was a young scout in the 1970’s, to 2 million in 2019, and fell further still to 762,000 by 2021. It’s only with membership of some 197,000 girls that the new Scouting America’s membership has buoyed above the 1 million mark.
The decline in membership, even then, led to closures of local Boy Scout camps. Three Orange County, California camps closed before we joined scouting. A fourth, the Rancho Las Flores camp, located on 54 acres inside the Marine Corps base Camp Pendleton, closed in 2007. A fifth, the Schoepe Scout Reservation, lovingly referred to by scouts as ‘Lost Valley’ may soon be on the auction block for financial reasons.
And while conservatives complain that the Boy Scouts no longer welcomes boys, or that the inclusion of girls or LGBTQ members will prevent the program from turning boys into men, which was never the aim of the program, I welcome the inclusion. You can deny all you want that ‘toxic masculinity’ isn’t a thing, but I’ve seen it. In the military, in the work place, in school, and yes even in Scouting. Most Boy Scout leaders at the Troop level are male, the dads. But that will change as girls enter the program, you’ll see more women get involved. And I believe that will create a positive influence on the boys.
The “Aims of Scouting” are character development, leadership development, citizenship, training, and personal fitness. Having young men immersed in an environment where they have to interact with all genders, all backgrounds, all races (the Boy Scouts weren’t integrated until 1974), all beliefs and preferences, will help prepare them for life in the real world. True leaders are inclusive. Republicans stammer when asked to define ‘woke.’ In this case it refers to changes to make the organization more inclusive. For me I think that is a good thing.