Posted on 05/07/2013 12:47:29 PM PDT by BruceDeitrickPrice
Four years ago, psychologist Leonard Sax (MD, PhD) wrote a well-received book titled “Boys Adrift.” The doctor tried to answer the question, why have so many young males fallen into passivity and indifference?
Dr. Sax had heard more and more parents complain that their boys stayed indoors most of the time, spent hours on video games, and in general seemed to lack the confidence and esprit de corps that had characterized boys throughout history.
“Something scary is happening to boys today,” Sax concluded. “From kindergarten to college, American boys are, on average, less resilient and less ambitious than they were a mere twenty years ago. The gender gap in college attendance and graduation rates has widened dramatically.”
The book’s full title is, “Boys Adrift: The Five Factors Driving the Growing Epidemic of Unmotivated Boys and Underachieving Young Men.” Sax lists the five factors right on the cover: “video games, teaching methods, prescription drugs, environmental toxins, devaluation of masculinity.”
It’s worrisome that he seems to like them all. That might be a clue that he has not solved this mystery. Indeed, let’s consider the possibility that none of these theories is the deep answer we want. Let’s start from scratch and consider the things we know for sure.
First of all, critics have often noted that schools seem organized more for girls than for boys. Most boys do not want to be confined to a desk; they would rather be outside playing and competing. Second, not only are boys kept passively inside, they are forced to deal almost the entire day with reading, writing, and arithmetic, probably not their own first choices.
But these factors are historically common. Boys have always been restless at their desks. They have often stared out the window and daydreamed...
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
That's great. I've had something like that in mind for our older girl and I do teach her mechanical work -- and like yours, she's very, very feminine -- no gender identification problems at all. She was in the Young Marines for a couple years and they did an excellent job keeping the girls, girls.
I don't belittle or bully my players, but I've been focusing on holding them accountable: getting to practice and games on time, hustling/giving their best effort, etc. My wife says I'm too impatient, yet every dad tells me to keep up the good work.
There's 2-3 weeks left in the season, so it can go either way (for next year).
I’m 63. About 2/3 of the boys I grew up with broke an arm or a leg in childhood at least once. We did this by doing something stupid, daring, exciting and dangerous. Most of these guys had access to a BB gun, a pellet gun or a real .22lr rifle. Many had all three. We rode bike or walked when we wanted to go somewhere. We slept in the woods, built fires, swam in ponds, smoked cigarettes we didn’t actually enjoy and grew up to be responsible adults. I see my daughters boyfriends and am pretty sure I could kick their asses even today.
Maybe it’s estrogen in the water supply from birth control pills. Maybe it’s feminized education. Maybe I’m just an old fart who misremembers. I think I grew up with better men.
Education is one thing, but I think the biggest obstacle is the absence of fathers. You can’t learn to be a man without having a man teach you how to be one. And the father has to be around daily not periodically.
I have read every comment in this thread....and everyone is correct with their observations. We have emasculated todays young male
It’s not just the public schools. My son graduates next week from a small Christian high school. I don’t think any of the girls in his class have ever been on a date. The boys were not seen as potential mates, but as competition for scholarships. There is no teenage pregnancy, but there’s also really no friendship. Everything is about the girls getting jobs. And the female teachers have no concern for the boys. We paid a lot of money for him to go to a school where they can pray, but you don’t see much of “the fruit of the spirit”.
That’s obviously a big factor but the phenomenon is occurring even with live-in fathers. Now, many of the younger fathers might be feminized themselves...
My 2 grandsons, unable to spend 30 minutes away from the computer, and texting on a cell....but I can see that they are defeated....it is clearly a female world; women, are everywhere, I never deal with a man, at the bank, or at a store....the feminists of 60s, sat out to eradicate the male from their society, and from what I see, they are just about there....
Great comment. You nailed it.
She has no problem doing dude work or being a female. She’s a Sgt now and moved on to another field in the AF, but she did the F117 the 22 and the 35.
And she will be the first to tell you that women probably SHOULDNT be in the military. But many of the guys today are wimps. Thank God that America is big enough that we still have plenty of MEN joining and serving like MEN. But there are fewer all the time. Thanks to the feminization of boys in general. Not a popular thing to say. But facts bear it out.
we went from father knows best to father is a dumb ass.
There is not one positive father on TV.
Father is just a word for check.
Case an point Ashton Kuchar, the cast of Friends and How I met you mother.
Where I live there are lots but I don’t get out much and have never seen one personally. I have seen some sodomites and have worked with a few. I changed my last job because I could not stand all the metro-sexuals, queers and foreigners my software company hired. Beware these are the types that are writing health industry software.
My daughter works at a supermarket, and she has two, yes TWO, transgenders on her shift — both girl to guy. There are about 20 part-timers covering her shift.
Anyone else know any transgenders? Or is this just a Massachusetts thing?
I think it is because of birth control pills inthe water supply and certain estrogen mimicers.
“This eye-opening study served as a wake-up call, exposing the systematic bias that girls face in education.”
Wow. Systematic bias - and yet girls get better grades and more go on to college - despite scoring lower on tests of intrisic academic/mental ability.
Moreover this “sytematic bias” would mostly be PERPETRATED by women - the majority of school teachers being women.
So despite lower test scores, they get better grades, and more go on to college - and they are being systematically discriminated against by women!
Yeah.........
I’ve read all the comments on this thread.
When do fathers who used to be married or never bothered to marry step up and take responsibility for abandoning their sons to be raised exclusively by women?
Boyhood has been criminalized.
Manhood has been made into a thought crime.
Thought crime is the worst crime upon humanity, imprisoning the mind is far more devistating that imprisoning the body, especially when you can make the prisoner their own warden....
That is a either a paraphrased quote or soemthing I just made up in which case, use it.
~ GraceG
I know one thing discouraging good boys is the knowledge that no matter how hard they work and make the government will take all they can and cause inflation to get the rest.
Just the other day I was amazed that my son said kids he graduated college with just a couple years ago are expecting to make $80K plus out of school because they cannot live on entry level wages. I didn’t make that until I was in my 40’s.
bookmarked
Boys are the future of Western society. Western society is being attacked in its entirety. Therefore, boys are being attacked and reduced to impotency. It will be conveyed in word and deed that Western boys of European ancestory are inferior to Third World children and in time they will be inferior.
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