Boy Scout devotees be prepared for a comeuppance: When it comes to financial literacy merit badges and other awards, Girl Scouts out earn their male peers over six to one, 348,500 versus 54,000

That’s how the cookie crumbles.

But as with so much in finance, one set of numbers does not tell the whole story.

The “win” comes because Girl Scouts tend to be much more oriented at rewarding the achievement of specific skills (such as preparing a budget) in grade school while the Boy Scouts incorporate money learning into their overall program for kids in their younger years.

However at the highest level of Scouting (Gold Award for Girls, Eagle for Boys), the focus is reversed, with young men required to earn a personal management badge to achieve the honor while young women are’t.

An increase in the Girl Scouts’ efforts to nurture the ability of young women to respect and manage money is one of the many aftershocks of the recession.

“The financial crisis brought a level of urgency,” said Girl Scouts of the USA Chief Girl Expert Dr. Andrea Bastiani.

In a 2012 directive, the national headquarters declared financial literacy a mainstay goal because of the gap from the lack of comfort many parents have in talking about money with their offspring and the lack of time schools devote to the skill.

The increased effort in teaching personal financial skills is being brought to a willing audience.

Nine of 10 girls 8- to 17-years-old polled by the Scouts two years ago said it is important to learn how to manage money and to set financial goals.

With the nationwide call to start financial education as early as possible, the two most commonly earned badges in this category among Girl Scouts are Money Counts for kindergarteners and first graders (82,000) and Money Manager for second and third graders (88,000).

For Money Counts, a youngster learns how to count coins and paper money and the basics about how much things costs.

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