Down, Down, Down Ending the "boy crisis"

Fred on Everything ^ | July 12, 2006 | Fred Reed

[colonel mosby]

One hears often now that boys flounder in school, drop out, generally perform less well academically than girls, and don't go to college. A certain amount of this commentary comes from women who seem quietly to enjoy the spectacle.

[Brilliant]

We're becoming a matriarchal society.

[faloi]

Excellent read. It basically sums up everything I've been telling my (VERY Democrat) mom about what seems to be the trend in schools and society. She really doesn't want to believe it, but even she can't ignore the trends.

[massgopguy]

I was at my daughter's school's Sports Award Night. The seniors announced what college they would be going to. All but one girl declared. Half the boys were "undecided". That's a Code Word.

[sportutegrl]

In kindergarten, my son would get points taken off for incomplete. An assignment would require him to "color the triangles red", for instance, but he would just circle them with a red color. He hated busy work, and thought of coloring as busy work. On his oral reading test, he had points taken off for 'reading too fast'.

[ClearCase_guy]

Sometimes I like Fred. Sometimes I don't.

Today he is right on. He points to parents who don't do a good job with kids (often due to divorce), he points to adminstrators who don't do a good job with kids (often due to litigation), and he points to curriculum which utterly fails kids (often due to feminazi agenda).

I'd say that boys are clearly getting the worst of it -- but ultimately, none of this is truly good for girls or women either.

I don't expect much improvement in my lifetime.

[linda_22003]

[Girls]"have better handwriting and cut pictures from magazines to paste into projects."

Handwritten projects? Paste? Pictures from magazines? It's been a long time since he was in school, all right.

[colonel mosby]

I'm convinced that boys and girls should be separated in high school, for the benefit of both.

There are so many physiological changes occurring in young men and women from the age of 14 to 18. It just makes sense to encourage single sex education during these very vital years.

The NEA discourages it, of course, which is reason enough to endorse the concept.

[DManA]

Solution to this is the same as the solution to the illegal immigrant problem - officially declare it not a problem.

[Lucky Dog]

You want to end the “boy crisis”? Easy. Give boys male teachers who understand boys and care about them. Women do neither. Let them compete. It’s how they are. Encourage them to burn off energy in the gym. Reward achievement, not pretty projects. Turn them into men, not transvestites.

'Nuff said.

[linda_22003]

I agree with you. I went to a well-known New England prep school for girls in the late sixties/early seventies, and one semester they had an "exchange" with an even better-known boys' prep school, to experiment with co-education. At the end of that semeester, the boys' school announced they were going coed immediately, and the girls' school announced they were not. To this day, it is a girls' school, and I think at that age, it's beneficial for girls to be schooled without males in the classroom.

When the males were around, the girls sat back and batted their eyes, didn't participate in class. Hormones were stronger than brain cells in those days. Without boys in school, we were more "ourselves" and did not let anything hold us back.

[colonel mosby]

Colleges face a real crisis in male enrollment. They can either endorse radical educational reform(i.e. single sex education in high schools), or they can spout the NEA line and watch themselves wither and die.

[panthermom]

Thank you so much, this article is right on. As the mother of 3 boys, this perfectly describes it all. Boys learn differently from girls, it's a fact. They learn better when they are physically engaged. Sitting for long periods of time kills them. I have said for years, most of the ADHD problems could be solved if the kids were allowed on the dang playground. There is absolutely no down time anymore. Playground time is stand around time for fear someone might get hurt. For years I have been attending the end of the year recitals, same thing over and over. They ask the kids "What was your favorite class this year?", girls answer art or reading boys answer PE or recess. By the time boys hit 3rd grade they are doomed. The counselor begged me for 4 years to put my son on medication, not for being unruly but he seemed to daydream alot and not focus. I refused, I knew he was bored. That child has aced every test he has ever taken. His 3rd grade teacher said she was amazed at how he looks like he is in outerspace but at the same time he is absorbing everything that is going on. So she let him play with his pencil and doodle etc. I have found that the teachers who have sons are far more understanding of the boy situation. My youngest had a terrible 2nd grade, not because he was bad but because he had a new teacher who had not yet figured out the boy thing. In the 3rd I had asked for a particular teacher, one who had a teenage son, his year was a complete 180. She understood the boy thing. He loved the 3rd grade.

[colonel mosby]

I went to an all-male Catholic high school. We had great athletic teams, strict discipline administered by a mostly male faculty, and virtually all the graduates went on to college.

Soon after I graduated several decades ago, the school suddenly announced, without consulting the alumni, that it was going co-ed. This caused a tidal wave of criticism, and brought about the demise of a very fine all-girls Catholic high school.

The result ? A generic private school, now mostly female, with a predominately female staff, very poor male athletics, poorer general academic achievement, and fewer male graduates attending college.

[Lucky Dog]

or they can spout the NEA line and watch themselves wither and die.

Not happening in engineering schools, business schools, military academies, medical schools, etc.

Letting some of the rest "die off" might not be a bad idea. I think the arts, literature, etc., would survive without dedicated academic support. After all, they did mighty fine before such was available. Furthermore, the feminist studies, black studies, queer studies, etc., probably deserve to "wither and die."

Your thoughts?

[linda_22003]

That's fine, as long as higher education is only meant to be a trade school.

[ishabibble]

Your situation sounds just like what happened to my now defunct all-girls Catholic high school. Providence, RI?


My only comment on this article is that when you read your local Sunday paper or watch public service announcements on TV, just note how many fund-raisers and road races there are for "women's issues". Breast cancer awareness is all the rage these days. I don't mean to diminish the disease at all (I've already been flamed for not being more succinct in my opinion). I am simply trying to point out that men are never given the kind of mass attention and funding that women get, whether it is the pink ribbon causes or female health issues or domestic violence, men are being eased out of most facets of social conscience.

There is a 5K run planned for this weekend near Mr.X's home. I am thinking of going only to gather up the literature that is handed out by the "awareness" ladies, and once I get it, I think it will be interesting to find the leader groups, and more importantly, the money. I wonder if the runners and the sponsors would turn out if it were to raise money for prostate cancer. How about a 5K Run for the Nuts? Don't think so...

[Lucky Dog]

That's fine, as long as higher education is only meant to be a trade school.

You have a problem with “trades?” Our society would not long survive without engineers, doctors, soldiers or other “tradesmen” (to use your term). On the other hand, it existed for several hundred years without feminist studies professors, black studies professors, queer studies professors, etc. The former “tradesmen” have proven their worth through positive contributions for hundreds of years (and thousands of years to other societies before the existence of our society). The later have proven to be nothing but leeches on our society and have provided not a single benefit to any other society.

Education is the acquisition of knowledge and skills. As such, acquisition of any knowledge, even knowledge based upon false premises and illogical conclusions, qualifies as education. The acquisition of any skill, including the skill of running successful “con-games” also qualifies as education.

Consequently, one must question whether any
useful knowledge (that which is based in fact and logic) or useful skill (that which benefits both the possessor and society) is acquired in black studies, feminist studies, queer studies, etc.

I guess the short answer to your implied question is simple: “Higher education,” or any education, for that matter, is about imparting knowledge and skills that are useful both individual recipients and society at large. Education that imparts knowledge and skills that are useful to neither the recipient, nor society, is worthless. If useful education is that which is available only in “trade schools,” then so be it and let the rest “sink or swim” on the same definition of merit.

[colonel mosby]

I agree that a lot of the curricula in our colleges should cease to exist, including those you named.

However, the undergrad enrollment at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, is approximately 67% female. That illustrates a general, and alarming, trend nationwide.

Something is definitely amiss with our educational system.

[linda_22003]

What do you think those yellow rubber bracelets are for? :)