Eggs and Chickens

... the ancient battle.

Which came first?   The chicken and egg question was first asked by Aristotle and continued in debate among intellectuals for more than two thousand years.   

The debate was entertaining, but the question is simply one of origin, of first cause.  How did we get to the place we're in today? 

Practices and Principles ... the other ancient battle.

There are two parts to how we each view things, like a chicken and an egg, perhaps.

From the outside, we have the influence of family and friends, church and school; our environment.  Cultural traditions and expectations are continually fed to us in every venue.  That's our external world.

Then there's the world inside each one of us.  It's filled with what we hold to be true along with the values fed in from the outside.  We struggle back and forth trying to reconcile it all in terms of truth and worth.  It's a lifelong process for thoughtful folks.

For example --  the Boy Scouts of America are changing to boys and girls.  The resultant kerfuffle points interestingly to that internal battle.  Why were they separate?  "Because they should be; it's best that way," is the answer that pops up first, or some equivalent.  

Now, broaden your look to include kids in Israel.  Scouts are boys and girls.  In 1909, the Tzofim (Hebrew Scout Movement) became the first scouting movement in the world where boys and girls participate together on an equal basis.  All five scouting organizations in Israel today are co-ed.

(We're decades behind much of the world in the transition to co-ed scouting, by the way.  The UK and Canada transitioned in '91/92)

Here, we perhaps believe that Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts should be separate, but why?  Because they always were.  But why?  Perhaps because there were traditional cultural roles assigned by gender.  Was that the best choice?  
(Ask a boy scout what he thinks girl scouts do.  "They do girl things like sewing and cooking and selling cookies.")  

The internal battle continues between our commitment to truth and the interpretation that our culture offers.  It's unsettling to discover an inadequate foundation for values we've held.  

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The science -- “The truth is that sex differences in math ability, spatial skills, assertiveness and competitiveness are much more a product of gender socialization and segregation.  In other words, it is precisely because girls and boys spend so much time apart, practicing different skills and relational styles, that they walk into college classrooms with different types of academic confidence and career ambition.” ~Dr. Lise Eliot, Professor of Neuroscience at Rosalind Franklin University.  Neuroscientists refute the merits of gender differences between girl and boy brains.  And rather than creating more equitable schools, critics compare separating boys and girls to racially segregated schooling.

Co-ed sports --  How might that change self-image and social interaction?

The Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts are great organizations that have helped many children achieve their goals, but the benefits are not from single-sex enrollment. 

Unnecessarily sex-segregating schools and sports or after-school activities like scouting send the message that girls and boys are somehow fundamentally different - when they're not.  Such segregation perpetuates stereotypes and encourages discriminatory behavior.
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The law -- Remember Title IX?  We had to pass a law so that girls who wanted to play school sports weren't relegated to the parking lot. 

 "No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance." ~signed into law in 1972

There were no sports for girls at my high school in the '60s.  None, unless you count pep squad and cheerleading.
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Do your own research.  Can strength, leadership, and healthy interaction be modeled for all children together, or must we separate them by gender rules and roles?  An interesting dilemma.  

Thoughts on the issues?