Talk:Boys/Girls State

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69.120.208.247 (talk • contribs) wrote the following in the article (and misplaced it after external links and categories) I have moved it here:

Boy's state differs greatly from girl's state because there is a strong military presence at Boy's State. The average day consists of: 530 am wakeup, 600 am physical training. the rest of the day consists of marching everywhere, spending hours in a hot gymnasium mindlessly 'voting' in the mock state government. There is a 'chow hall' visit 3 times per day. A purpose of boys state is to instill certain values in young men, as well as to push some of the boys towards future military service.

I attended Nevada Boys State in 2006 and it was nothing like that. We did no marching (except to get to the various buildings on the UNR campus), there was no physical training aside from an hour of sports each day, and we woke up at 7:30. I'd like to know which state you attended and when, because that certainly isn't a universal experience. --Hemlock Martinis 06:47, 21 September 2006 (UTC)

I have a hard time believing that every state conducts Boys State this way. When I went to Kentucky Boys State in 1973, there were mainly military counselors, and we did have some AM physical training. However, I don't remember getting up at 5:30, and we did no marching. Also, all of the buildings where we met at Eastern Kentucky University were air conditioned and comfortable. We had our meeting of the entire group in an auditorium and we ate in the university dining halls. I would agree there may have been some military recruitment going on, but since there were boys that were almost all college bound, it was recruitment for officers training either in college or after. I think the anonymous editor may have a somewhat jaundiced view of the program. This same IP address had previously added a link to Hitler Youth [1] --Rogerd 06:27, 25 November 2005 (UTC)

I attended Florida Boys State back in 1981. I don't agree either with this anonymous 'editor'. I wouldn't describe it as having a heavy 'military' presence. Yes, things were heavily scheduled. We walked a lot around campus, but I wouldn't call it 'marching'. The intention of BS is to learn about government. hence we were organized into partys, counties and cities, and engaged in learning about government and conducting city, county, and state elections for positions. I don't recall any military recruitment. There was a strong 'americanism' element, but consider who is running these events: the American Legion. --Emb021 20:54, 5 April 2006 (UTC)

User:gramby I attended South Dakota Boy's State in 1983 and it was stunningly laid back. I did have to sneak down into the basement stairwells of my dormitory to have occasional cigarette breaks, but overall it was pretty casual. We did have heated debates in the Senate (I was a senator from Hawaii) and I found those to be incredibly enlightening. But to think that all Boy's State assemblies are some type of hard-core military training would be missing the point. More than anything, I learned to bond with my fellow state citizens, and I learned how to disagree with them.

The anon. was quite wrong. It is established nationally, and the programs are pretty consistent are not run in very different manners. Michael 19:14, 21 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Merging Girls Nation/Boys Nation into this article

User:JianLi had redirected Girls Nation Boys Nation to this page. I have reverted those changes and inserted {{mergeto|Boys/Girls State}} into each article. I think it is inappropriate to remove the articles about the national programs from wikipedia. For example, Boys Nation often gets national press attention and is well known for having Bill Clinton as one of its participants and meeting John F. Kennedy while Kennedy was president. --rogerd 22:05, 18 December 2005 (UTC)

Well, I don't believe that something should merit its own article just because it gets "national press attention." Arkansas Boys State gets national press attention for sending Bill Clinton to Boys Nation in the first place. Should it get its own Article? -JianLi 22:14, 18 December 2005 (UTC)

That is a specious argument. Probably more people are aware of Boys Nation than they are Boys State. Wikipedia is large enough to have articles on both. If you have an issue with Girls Nation, then fix it, don't remove it. --rogerd 23:17, 18 December 2005 (UTC)

It has been 2 months since this proposal was made, and there have been no comments except for the nominator and me. I am removing the merge requests. --rogerd 05:15, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Famous Alumni

User:gramby Michelle D. Johnson is listed in the famous alumni section along with information explaining who she is. It would seem to me that if someone is actually famous, an explanation of who they are is unnecessary. I move to strike their name from this section. Perhaps an additional section titled "Successful Alumni" or similar could be created to cover such people.

Successful? That's awkward-sounding. Michael 19:09, 21 September 2006 (UTC)