Posted on 09/20/2021 7:37:37 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
In yet another indicator that they are not ok, men in America are abandoning higher education in record numbers. According to the Wall Street Journal, at the end of the 2020 academic year, the percentage of male college students dropped to just over 40 percent. Soon, if current trend lines continue, one expert predicts, for every man who earns a college degree, two women will earn a degree.
On one hand, this says as much about the state of higher education as it does young men. Simply put, the ROI of higher education is just not what it used to be. Not only are students bombarded by narrow, progressive ideologies with little real-world application, they often graduate with no marketable skill set, high levels of debt, and no compelling vision for how to spend their lives. It shouldn’t surprise anyone that there are 1.5 million fewer college students today than there were five years ago.
Still, for men, who represent 71 percent of those abandoning higher education, return on investment is extra low. Not only are they overpaying for college, but at many schools they can expect to be consistently berated for things they have no control over, like for their ethnicity, or for simply being men.
“No college wants to tackle the issue under the glare of gender politics,” says enrollment expert Jennifer Delahunty. “The conventional view on campuses is that men make more money [and] hold higher positions. Why should we give them a little shove from high school to college?” In other words, it’s politically incorrect to help men succeed.
All of this is set against an even larger backdrop: “perpetual adolescence.” While at other times and in other places, teenaged young men would be fighting battles or managing farms or embarking on grand adventures, today we punish them with low expectations. Teenagers, especially young men, are expected to care for nothing, have no job, and spend most of their time playing video games.
Even worse, adolescence now extends to young people, especially young men, in their 20s and 30s. Young men in their 20s and 30s are aimless: refusing to grow up, addicted to pornography, and spending their time and money in digital fantasy worlds. By excusing their so-called “Peter Pan Syndrome,” we’ve subjected them to a tyranny of low expectations.
Unsurprisingly, these low expectations don’t stop the worst elements of fallen masculinity; rather, they fuel them. As one fraternity president at the University of Vermont put it, “… a lot of guys are here for four years to drink beer, smoke weed, hang out and get a degree.”
Despite millions spent on training and awareness, college campuses are still haunted by the specter of sexual assault. Tragically, that makes sense in a world where all that’s left to sexual morality is a blurry line of consent. That will never be enough to temper the bad behavior of young men trapped in extended adolescence.
All of this points to a central problem. Having abandoned moral and creational norms, we’ve no idea what to do with human beings, especially men. Fallen masculinity has always been a dangerous thing. Men account for the vast majority of domestic abuse, rape and violent crime, not to mention historically aggressive behavior in war. When men give in to aggression and violence, they leave a trail of cultural devastation in their wake, particularly for women and children.
Margaret Mead observed that a central question any society has to answer is how to make a proper place for men. Of course, she thought their proper place was somewhere on the moon, but her basic observation is correct. Missing in our current cultural equation for men is purpose. Low expectations, combined with a dearth of purpose, make for a dangerous concoction.
To paraphrase T.S. Eliot, before we know what to do with something, we need to know what that something is for. We’ll never know what to do with men, especially young men, if we don’t know what men are for.
The answer is not to reject masculinity as inherently evil, as many tend to do, including Christians. Instead, the answer is to define masculinity from a Christian worldview. Embedded in the Creation story is a unique grounding for the dignity of both men and women. We also find definitions for their purpose as male and female.
In fact, Jesus pointed to God’s creational intent for creating humans as male and female when asked about male responsibility in marriage. In that answer and throughout His ministry, Jesus confronted men, even young men, with higher expectations: action instead of passivity, protection instead of abuse, faithfulness instead of abandonment.
Many men today get each of these exactly wrong, and culture enables it. Without a corrective, we can expect it to only get worse. Fortunately, we have just such a corrective. A Christian worldview gives us this corrective, and in Scripture, we have the portrayal of a man perfect in gentleness, humility, and strength: Jesus Christ.
Originally published at Break Point.
John Stonestreet serves as president of the Colson Center for Christian Worldview. He’s a sought-after author and speaker on areas of faith and culture, theology, worldview, education and apologetics.
Kasey Leander is a Fellow with the Oxford Centre for Christian Apologetics (OCCA). Prior to his time at OCCA, Kasey earned an undergraduate degree in history and PPE (Politics, Philosophy, and Economics) from Taylor University. While at Taylor, Kasey served in various ministry roles on campus and was active in student government. He has also worked briefly in politics, serving as an intern in the US Senate in Washington, DC.
Many men are just simply enrolling in community colleges, learning a trade, etc. Therefore, they avoid the big student debts after finishing and have more useful skills and thus more easily employable.
Young men in their 20s and 30s are aimless.
And stoned causes no goals California is the poster child of it.
Generally, women will still be dumber than men.
Should be followed by part 2:
College And The Decline Of American Women
Girls go to college to get more knowledge/Boys go to Jupiter to get more stupider
"Two girls for every boy!"
No point in learning a white-collar profession if you have to go to the back of the line - not just behind the preferred gender and ethnicities, but even the imported coolies from Asia. If a company is forced to hire you, you can bet they’re looking at how to send that job to Asia.
You can’t imagine what it is like dealing with the third string over in Asia; email signatures list contact info for several people (”first escalation”, “second escalation”, etc.) because they don’t know the work.
Alternate title: Women slow to recognize the decline of a college education.
A Surf City-style two-girls-for-every-boy situation would be favorable for the young men who are still interested in college, but I’m afraid that most of them are likely too stoned and hooked on video games and porn to understand or capitalize on their good fortune.
...Because the current environment on the average University campus has become flat-out HOSTILE towards any men, who are not men of colour.
I finished my M.Sc. at the end of 2007, and even *then* I knew that I was in a place, where I was neither wanted nor needed.
Likewise there are more and more academic fields, even in the STEM disciplines, which are now all-but-closed to male applicants. And immediate example being Veterinary Medicine. A lot of schools now *vastly* favour female applicants, irrespective of what male applicants might bring to the table.
And besides a lot of the girls are LUGS these days.
unintended consequences of the 19th amendment ...
To paraphrase T.S. Eliot, before we know what to do with something, we need to know what that something is for. We’ll never know what to do with men, especially young men, if we don’t know what men are for.
Now read it again.
That’s been the case since the Late Eighties. Likewise, about the only way for a young (and especially) white male to succeed on campus these days, is to become a GUG, or come out as trans.
Obviously, I did neither of those things, so you can imagine how well things went...
You’re right. There’s an epidemic of lesbianism among young women. I remember stats posted here claiming that 1/4 of girls 18-25 identify as LGBT. I couldn’t believe it, but from what I’ve heard from young family members, it’s true. I blame women’s soccer for teaching a generation or two of girls that lesbianism is cool.
There are a lot of people with college and university degrees who are not really all that manly.
See: BHO
How many of those degrees are real degrees (e.g., NOT in the woke lib arts departments)?
Plenty of very good women in STEM, however, those women have real brains and therefore will never be seen on CNN or MSNBC.
Especially the women.
I graduated from a small college where men and women had the same opportunity - they need the enrollment and the money. The large universities suck - they can get away with all their woke BS and no one will bat an eye. Plus, I had actual professors, not TAs teaching my classes. AND, I graduated in 4 years, not 5+ as many do in large schools.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.