Girl Scout Org Accused of Being Radically Left Wing

[liveonearth]

I was a Campfire Girl, not a Girlscout or Brownie. So I don't know from the inside. But from the outside, having been a river guide and taking many screaming groups of Brownies rafting on whitewater rivers, the organization appears squeaky clean and rather conservative. I never would have guessed that the organization would teach girls about abortion. But who knows? Maybe they are. That's what the teenaged girls from Texas are saying, and they're making news on The Daily Beast. It occurs to me though that the organization will probably have its name cleared. The organization officially does not endorse any political party or birth control method. Meanwhile, the offended girls have started a blog to get their story out. The case they are making is that the official girl scout materials mention websites and people who are "pro-abortion" and so if you follow the links you will discover that these perspectives are ubiquitous. Big surprise. I wonder what fraction of the links in the girl scout material go to sites that hold the opposite viewpoints. It seems to me that the org would serve the girls best by exposing them to many opposing viewpoints so that they could learn to think and decide for themselves. Girls who want to be cloistered would be better served in a nunnery.

Comments

[bloomingmom.livejournal.com]

I was a brownie/girl scout. I think what the troop learns or is "about" depends heavily on the leader, not so much the organization. I grew up in conservative Indiana - but, right by Purdue University. For a few years we had a very interesting grad. student from Purdue leading. She was really "different" (at least from the average mom we encountered later) and probably cast some seeds of ideas which wouldn't be officially condoned by the national group (or by many parents...) Loved my time with her, when she moved on the troop had a series of nice/dull moms - I lost interest and wandered away to jr. high.

[liveonearth.livejournal.com]

Makes sense. As a campfire girl I was always disgusted that the moms in charge of our groups didn't know how to build a campfire. I could have gone for a leader who had a few more ideas of any kind.