Girls in Scouting

Just in case you did not know, from 2007 onwards, girls can join Scouts. The official reason is that in many countries all over the world, there have always been girls in Scouts. Even in our neighbouring countries - Malaysia and Indonesia.

Girls in Scouts should not be confused with Girl Guides who are also called Girl Scouts. Yes, they did originate from Scouts but their focus and activities are different. Girl Guides and Brownies learn more domestic skills rather than outdoor activities. The girls in Scouts, on the other hand, will go through the same rigorous activities as the boys. Meaning the same difficult tests and challenges.

I know many of you will be unhappy with this news. Two of the Sixers wrote down their feelings last year and I'm posting them for you to read. My own feeling is quite mixed. There are both pros and cons in having girls in Scouting. But if we follow our Scout Law closely - A Scout makes friends - then we should accept girls without any complaints. Let's just wait for the Recruitment and see how. If there are really girls who want to join our unit, then we will have to accept them. But if there are none, then so be it. :P

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Girls should not be allowed to join Scouts as they have their own activities (Brownies, Red Cross). We should do our own activities and they should do theirs. And if schools let the girls join Scouts, would it not be a waste of resources just to run Scouts and Brownies? If you look at it from a girl's point of view, if only one or two girls join, wouldn't they be very embarassed? And if a lot of them join, wouldn't it be embarassing for us? I hope that schools would rethink their option before announcing the final verdict. Many people would agree that Scouts should remain boys only. After all, you don't see boys wanting to join Girl Guides. Thus, if Girl Guides remain a single gender CCA, Scouts should also remain a single gender CCA.

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SCOUTS SHOULD NOT ACCEPT GIRLS!
The first reason is that the pupils in the school mostly have a gender barrier, like our school for example, not many boys would want to sit beside a girl and not many girls too want to sit near or beside a boy. The second reason is that Lord Baden Powell founded the two organisations and not as one. He decided to do this maybe because he wanted us to be better with people of the same gender first and not to feel the gender difference. Although there are reasons to not accept girls, there are some other reasons to accept them. One reason is that if the girls were to join, they might help that particular unit do well. Secondly, they might give the unit more chance of having trips. But I still think that Scouts should not accept girls as they are surely much more reasons to do so than letting them join.