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To: WorkingClassFilth
Your view is the revisionist view softened by the needs of the 'children.' As you admit, if kids wanted a scouting experience, they could have gotten it several miles away. Too bad. I had kids that travelled over five miles to get to our meetings.

Unless those young men were 16 or older, what you had was kids whose parents were willing to drive them 5 miles or more to come to your meetings. Congratulations! But many kids don't have such parents.

My estimation of the quality of Scouting program received by Scouts in units with female Scoutmasters is based not on personal conjecture, but on personal observation of said Scouts and of their Scoutmasters. I must say, though, that it is refreshing to hear someone describe the BSA, however indirectly, as "PC". Not much of that being said these days, that's for sure.

The purpose of the BSA is to teach young men and women (starting at ages 8 and 14, respectively, and ending at age 21 for both) citizenship, character, and fitness. The fact that women are now, in a minority of cases, involved as unit leaders does not keep the BSA from accomplishing this purpose. It also does not make the BSA "gender-neutral". The preponderance of male Scouters involved in the BSA's leadership in their traditional programs (at least at the Boy Scout and Venturing levels, I'm not so sure about the Cub Scout level) fulfills the need that young men have for adult association with good male role models.

You, and those like you, have little regard for the intent, tradition, meaning, ideology and purposes of Scouting. By ignoring the fixed and inseparable gulf of sexual identity from the role of Scoutmaster, you contribute to the direct dilution and perversion of the meaning of 'Boy Scouts.'

My family has been involved in the BSA's programs as youth, adult volunteer, and adult professional since 1930. I think I've got a pretty good idea what the "intent, tradition, meaning, ideology and purposes of Scouting" are. I also think I've got a pretty good idea as to what benefits kids in America these days, and how, and what, they learn. And, frankly, if you think that a community should have no Scouting, rather than Scouting with a female Scoutmaster, I don't think you understand how Scouting works or how kids work in 21st century America. Or what communities need.

Do I think that Scoutmasters and other adult Scouters should be male? Yes. But the presence of a female Scoutmaster, to my observation, doesn't necessarily degrade a unit to the extent that the program no longer meets it's aims and that it shouldn't exist. It is necessary, in such a case, to make sure that the Scoutmaster understands her job and doesn't become Troop Mom. But then, I've seen some men that have the same problem, or other problems that make them unsuitable. It's a managable issue.

72 posted on 10/31/2002 7:33:13 AM PST by RonF
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To: RonF
I said: "Since Baden Powell is not here to illuminate the errors of your ill-conceived thought, I'll direct you to the body of traditional scouting literature. Please refrain from your personal conjecture in responding."

You said: "My family has been involved in the BSA's programs as youth, adult volunteer, and adult professional since 1930. I think I've got a pretty good idea what the "intent, tradition, meaning, ideology and purposes of Scouting" are. I also think I've got a pretty good idea as to what benefits kids in America these days, and how, and what, they learn. And, frankly, if you think that a community should have no Scouting, rather than Scouting with a female Scoutmaster, I don't think you understand how Scouting works or how kids work in 21st century America. Or what communities need."

'Nuff said.


74 posted on 10/31/2002 9:31:08 AM PST by WorkingClassFilth
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