The future of scouting

Here's the story. Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts are both losing members. That's a fact. There's a number of reasons for this; one may be that they're both outdated (although from the evidence in the link, the girls seem to be way more advanced than the boys, on just about every front).

The article is called Time For Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts 2.0?, and the title perfectly sums it up. Many of the activities for which badges are rewarded are out of touch with the realities of kids today. At the same time, everybody is always getting badges in what passes as real life. I mean, I go to enough different places and check in on FourSquare, and I get a badge. In fact, I've gotten quite a few badges. I can't say that I'm motivated by the badges to keep checking into FourSquare, but someone must be, or FourSquare, and everyone else, wouldn't bother.

So, blogger Phillip Torrone asks, why not connect out-of-date scouting with up-to-the-minute real life? Why not give badges for, say, Linux? And why not have digital badges? Relevant activities for kids, that make sense and provide focus for them? Absolutely!