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I was always deeply envious of the Scouting program. Girl's Camp was an oasis for me that I dearly wished could come about more than once a year.

It seems not only monumentally unfair but a distressing oversight. Boys are in Scouts from elementary school or even earlier. (I don't know when Cub Scouts starts.) Through their involvment with the ward Scout troop, they have chances to socialize in with the kids in their ward outside of Sunday. This may not be a big deal in the Inter-Mountain west but it was huge where I grew up. My sister and I were the only LDS kids in our school. Later our ward was split. Our YW program went from 22 girls to SIX. None of us lived anywhere near each other.

I talked to my leadership repeatedly about it. Apparently the Girl Scouts won't let the church form a ward troop the way the Boy Scouts will. Fine. I was in Girl Scouts anyway and was never that thrilled with it (on the other hand, I never liked my troop that much.) I just think we need to do something for the girls the way we're doing for the boys.

What do you think? Would you want to sign up for something like that? Or are you happy baking brownies for the boys while they play basketball and having make-up lessons from the same people who try to tell you now to follow the way of the world? (I'm sorry if my examples sound so extreme. They're real-life exampls from my stint in YW and while there were teachers and activities that I really liked, I champed at the bit quite a lot.)

What are "Achievement Days?" Maybe it's something my ward didn't have or that was introduced later. We did have Personal Progress books but that's not the same. The boys had Young Men AND Scouts. Why do we only have Young Women? Of the two I would say that Young Men and Women is more important than scouting-- spiritual development always being more important-- but learning to be good wives and mothers means, in my opinion, knowing just as much about how to prepare a nutritious meal and teach a child to pray as about how to set up a tent for a camp-out and roast marshmallows.

Rant away. I felt the same way as you many times. Perhaps if you YW asked the leaders to help you organize a bike ride of your own, minus the boys? I suggest you be firm about it. Maybe even be mean and tell them that they're letting you down by not listening. Communication is important for all aspects of life. Tell them that they're making you feel unvalued. Speaking as a Primary Teacher, I know that your teachers want you to feel happy, loved and to respect yourself. You need to let them know how they can help and when they are hindering.

I love the Gospel, Christ and the Prophet. There is so much to learn and love in church. But I do wish the treatment of the YW would change. There is nothing contrary to the Gospel in having a bike ride or a camp out.

Phoenix_Echo, you're apparently re-living my youth. I too was the only LDS kid at my school. The upside to such a situation, at least for me, was that I felt like I really had to stand for something. I was more aware of myself as a Mormon than I think I would have been if I'd been somewhere more LDS. Which is not to say I was Super Molly Mormon but I was more aware of my choices AS choices.

The problem with the Girl Scouts is that they won't allow the church to make ward troops. The church Boy Scout troops are organized by the ward and the leadership is appointed by the ward. With the Girl Scouts, the troops are organized through the GS leadership and no one else. Also, I've heard some things about their policies recently... policies on teaching the girls about birth control and other rather left-wing policies that I doubt the church would be pleased with.

I would need to know more about the organization than I do but I've been wondering for a while if an Explorer Scout program wouldn't solve the problem. I wonder if a letter campaign would work? Hm. I'm going to talk to the Bishop and see what he has to say.

I'm no longer in YW but I'm seeing what I can do for my class of Valiant girls. smile

That's pretty much what I'm thinking, except I have no car, tent or sleeping bag. Hard to go camping without them but I'll see if I can't get another member to drive us and maybe someone has a tent they can lend. First though, I have to find out if the girls even WANT to go camping. I thought it rocked but I no more want to force the girls to go camping than I wanted my leaders to give us so many make-up activities. (Or sewing... or baking... cool things that I enjoy doing, I just wished for more variety, you know?)

Most of the girls would like to or wouldn't mind camping and stuff but the leaders and the bishop refuse to let us do anything! scream

You have a very intersting topic going, it intrigues me greatly. I sympathise w/ the want to have a boyscout like group for the girls. I also think it would be a great idea.

I've been in Camp Fire USA since kindergaten. And haveing been I can see the kinds of things the girls are missing. For the most part, girls don't even know how to light a fire much less cook outdoors and I never felt girls camp gave them enough experience in these things. I would love to see girls scouts or camp fire instated w/ the young girls.

I can also see the potential problem w/ girls not wanting to go to such things as a campout. But I think the initial uneasyness is caused by a shere unsureness. If you'd never gone camping before would you want to immediately?

But I don't quite understand the problem you guys have w/ your bishops not wanting to do do abstract things w/ your girls. Mine have allways encouraged the girls to do different things to make a comfotable variety. This puzzles me as why you leaders would not want you to intoduce the girls to different things. Heck, bishop has a 5 mile hike for all the youth planned for August.


Sakerra: Achivement days arn't just in Utah. We have them here in Oregon too.