Pay closer attention: Boys are struggling academically

USATODAY ^ | 12/3/2004 | op/ed

[Chief_Joe]

It isn't so much that schools have changed in ways that hurt boys. It's that society has changed in ways that help girls.

Here's the first hint of who's actually writing this article: a conflicted feminist with a guilt trip who's attempting to divert attention away from the real source of the problem. Well, no missy, the problem starts in the classroom with feminist teachers creating a hostile, anti-male learning environment.  Believe it or not, men have been able to read and write for centuries -even designed things like nuclear submarines and aircraft carriers, and they wrote the technical manuals for them. No, men's learning abilities have not changed, but the learning environment has changed.

What's clearly needed now is reform of the environment that has created this situation. There needs to be a movement to put men in the classrooms K-9, and the removal of the anti-male policies that have created this situation: sexual harassment policies, the number one tool of feminist witchcraft .

[MARTIAL MONK]

Not too long ago I needed confirmation of a simple factual item that I remembered from my college days. I picked up a current college text, checked the index and tried to find it. It wasn't there, at least in simple form. I had to read an entire chapter and solve a series of mini-quizes before I could deduce that I was, indeed, correct.

My old texts would have bulleted the item followed by a simple explanation. Get and go. Instead I had to follow a convoluted logic path to confirn what was should have been intuative. I was more than a little torqued so I checked the rest of the book. It followed the same pattern. The whole text was written by and for broads.

Now I've always felt that I might be a lesbian trapped in a man's body but that experience really gave me a sexual identity crisis. I had to translate from female to normal and piss sitting down before I could get a simple answer. I should have just assumed that I was right and left the toilet seat up.

[Jakarta ex-pat]

"sexual harassment policies, the number one tool of feminist witchcraft."

I firmly believe the Anti-smoking lobby has also hurt "men" entering the classroom.

All my best teachers were smokers.

[dawn53]

Bottom line - you're gonna need more than a college education to find a good woman!

I like your answer.

And as to a college education versus a trade, I read an article a few weeks ago saying that since many areas are doing away with tech schools, in the future, we will have a shortage of tradesmen. It is not a stretch to predict that tradesman will make more income than college students with certain BA's that have no marketability.

[Mulder]

Looks like Ritalin and other mind-altering drugs are have a big effect here.

[Mulder]

And as to a college education versus a trade, I read an article a few weeks ago saying that since many areas are doing away with tech schools, in the future, we will have a shortage of tradesmen. It is not a stretch to predict that tradesman will make more income than college students with certain BA's that have no marketability

This is already happening. Instead of parents spending $50,000 (or more) to send their kids to college to get a useless major, they would be better off putting that money towards teaching them a trade and as start-up capital for a business.

[ruthles]

You would love a couple of autobiographical books by Nobel prize winning physicist Richard Feynman. He makes many interesting observations about how poorly science and math texts are written and how the memorization of information without truly comprehending how one can apply the knowledge has rendered a group of uneducated graduates. I wish I could remember the best one's title, but the second one was "What do You Care What other People Think?" They're both great reads. Matthew Broderick and his mother made one into a movie which was a complete insult to the spirit of the book.

[brookwood1]

It is disturbing that the issue of the lack of "qualified spouses" is even mentioned. Are we to feel sorry for the spouses of soldiers who have had their legs blown off in Iraq, or for the soldiers themselves? The problem the author sees is that women do not have adequate lifetime meal tickets available. And they may not be able to find a suitable man to holler at every day. This shows how perverse our society is. Smith, Bryn Mawr, Holyoke (thought not Vassar anymore) are single sex female schools. Although I think this article is a bit overblown, I actually believe boys still score higher on the math SAT and equal on the verbal. After Title IX women will have equal distraction from academic efforts and probably their performance will decline.

[fawn796]

"...in the future, we will have a shortage of tradesmen..."

You are right, of course. My husband says his employers can't find anyone qualified to hire. There just aren't many new tradesmen coming into the field.

I am in a diploma program for nurses. I'll finish my degree (added to my previous one) after I am working as an RN. We have many people in our program that have bachelors degrees in other areas - that they can't find jobs in their field, or make any money.

[fawn796]

"...in the future, we will have a shortage of tradesmen..."

You are right, of course. My husband says his employers can't find anyone qualified to hire. There just aren't many new tradesmen coming into the field.

I am in a diploma program for nurses. I'll finish my degree (added to my previous one) after I am working as an RN. We have many people in our program that have bachelors degrees in other areas - that they can't find jobs in their field, or make any money.

[Chief_Joe]

"sexual harassment policies, the number one tool of feminist witchcraft."

I firmly believe the Anti-smoking lobby has also hurt "men" entering the classroom.

I can't recall if some or all of my favorite teachers smoked or not, but I do know sexual harassment laws are the invention of feminists who seek to control learning, working, and social environments through their proxy doctrine: Feminists are driven by hollow sexual passions, and they attempt to force everyone else to view the world through their narrow, simple-minded prism.

[blackeagle]

ill agree with you completely, the damage is being done in the early years. I'm currently a male in high school and they lack even the slightest bit of competition. its all group projects and learning is by what the teacher says to do in steps. i took a buisness class expecting to learn alittle bit about it, it would be more accurately named "basic computer applications 1" this is what public education has to offer good looking course titles and a watered down curriculum.

[Figment]

In fact, I always tried to sit next to a girl so I could copy her answers!


I grew up in the 70's too. but I sat next to girls for a different reason

[ladylib]

The local plumber charged my mother $260 to put in a new faucet. Stayed less than an hour. He didn't supply the faucet either.

The local electrician has a subscription to the Metropolitan Opera, goes on European vacations each year with his family, and had his daughter's wedding pictures featured in TOWN AND COUNTRY magazine.

It's very hard to find anyone to do any carpentry, electrical, or plumbing work in this area.

[American Vet Repairman]

"It's very hard to find anyone to do any carpentry, electrical, or plumbing work in this area."

We joke at our house if one kid wants to be a Doctor we will cry in pain due to the costs. But if our child wants to be an auto body repairman we will sing and dance for we have hit the lottery!

[ladylib]

Read this when you have time, and you will understand why things are the way they are:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1294232/posts

[ken21]

most women are not interested in low income men.

i went to the public library recently + checked out two software books. a librarian who had hardly ever spoken to me before came on to me big time, apparently thinking that i work for a local hi tech corporation + she'd be on easy street.

[dawn53]

Since you're in high school, thought I'd mention this.

My son is going to college under a "dual enrollment" program with the local state college. They also have these programs at community colleges.

The way it works, you get college credit, but it also counts toward your high school credit.

Only problem is transportation, you have to get yourself to and from the college classes.

The tuition is free...we pay for books because my son was homeschooled, but if you are public schooled and in the program they also pay for your books.

Our local program just requires a College Entrance test administered by the college. If you pass the math part and qualify for College Algebra, you can start math, but there is also a reading and comprehension portion to the test and even if you wouldn't pass the math portion but just the reading portion, then you can take classes in History or Social Sciences.

We know lots of kids that are using the program, at least for some courses, and it really is more interesting and challenging than your average high school fare of classes.

[Nick Danger]

There is a fair amount of evidence that the "amazing success of girls" in our schools was accomplished not by improving the education of girls, but by ruining the education of both sexes. It's just that boys reacted to the changes worse than girls.

If we just look at girls vs boys, it looks like girls are doing very well. But compare our kids with the kids in other countries, and another picture develops: our education system sucks.

So we are graduating all these female degree holders, and celebrating their success, but our country is not going to be able to compete on the world stage. This is done now. We can't undo it. We've allowed a bunch of liberal and feminist ideologues to hose up the education of an entire generation of American children. They are scoring significantly below the international average.

This is strategic, folks. We cannot allow this to go on for another twenty years, or we're going to be a second- or third-world country full of scientifically illiterate ignoramuses... with fancy degrees that don't mean a damned thing.

[blackeagle]

my school offers the same program. i couldn't stand going to my local community collage since its filled with pot heads and remnants from the 60s as professors, besides my GPA is to low to allow it,B average is needed, i have a C. my high school "piper high" is one of the worst in broward FLA. for the amount of time i have been there it has been graded as a D school and this years moved up to a C. teachers regularly complain about not getting enough money, and a Spanish teacher is a rabid anti - American, in love with Mexico. I am taking an AP American history class but even that is thought by a 60s left over. my chemistry teacher is a fire breathing liberal. they have been forcing me to take a remedial course for math before they let me into algebra 2. this has gone on for two years now if i am forced to do it a third, I'm trashing the guidance office. I regularly complain about the uselessness of that class. above all i would like to congratulate you as parent who realizes that todays public schools are failing the child.