Every year, millions of Girl Scouts across the country put their entrepreneurship to the test when selling their famous Girl Scout Cookies.

Meanwhile, many Boy Scouts trek into the wilderness, learning about survival and life skills.

After the Boy Scouts announced their acceptance of girls into the organization, many criticized the organization for breaking the gender barrier in the US after 108 years of service. The curriculum for both Girl and Boy Scouts needs an update; girls don’t want to just learn how to make crafts, sell cookies, and go camping occasionally while boys tie knots, build fires, and do drastically different—and more useful—activities. We should allow boys and girls to choose the organization they’d like to be a part of—no matter their genders.

After the nationwide #MeToo movement, the Americans woke from their dream of gender  equality to realize men and women are not treated the same in the workplace and in our culture. This is a problem we all must face, and soon. We are all people, no matter our gender or physical capabilities. One way that we can teach the next generation about equality is through the traditional and popular Boy and Girl Scouts. If the next generation of children in this country grow up working together on a project or in a troop, they will learn partnership and tolerance of each other from an early age.

In addition, the scheduled activities for each organization need to have more variety. If you take a look at each curriculum, the Girl Scouts focus mainly on “one-of-a-kind leadership development”, crafts, and STEM activities. In contrast, the Boy Scouts feature camping and other “physical fitness” activities. Why should one group have to be restricted to one area of instruction and another group a different one?

Not all girls want to join the Boy Scouts, and not all boys want to join the Girl Scouts. One option that needs to be constructed is a gender-neutral troop that focuses on different aspects of each organization. Maybe one lesson could include business skills while another features a woodworking project. There needs to be a fun, interesting learning environment for all no matter the gender.

Some may have problems with having a troop with both boys and girls. A simple solution to that problem– troops of only boys or girls but with the incorporation of new activities! There does not have to be an actual merging between the boy’s and girl’s groups, just a new set of activities would be installed.

It is clear that some serious changes need to be made to both the Girl and Boy Scouts programs to adjust to the needs of their participants. Let’s speak up to help create a culture where kids can do what they want and get what they need, regardless of gender.