Posted on 12/03/2005 8:39:34 AM PST by Daralundy
In the 1990s, I taught for six years at a small liberal arts college in Spokane, Wash. In my third year, I started noticing something that was happening right in front of me. There were more young women in my classes than young men, and on average, they were getting better grades than the guys. Many of the young men stared blankly at me as I lectured. They didn't take notes as well as the young women. They didn't seem to care as much about what I taught -- literature, writing and psychology. They were bright kids, but many of their faces said, "Sitting here, listening, staring at these words -- this is not really who I am."
That was a decade ago, but just last month, I spoke with an administrator at Howard University in the District. He told me that what I observed a decade ago has become one of the "biggest agenda items" at Howard. "We are having trouble recruiting and retaining male students," he said. "We are at about a 2-to-1 ratio, women to men."
Howard is not alone. Colleges and universities across the country are grappling with the case of the mysteriously vanishing male. Where men once dominated, they now make up no more than 43 percent of students at American institutions of higher learning, according to 2003 statistics, and this downward trend shows every sign of continuing unabated. If we don't reverse it soon, we will gradually diminish the male identity, and thus the productivity and the mission, of the next generation of young men, and all the ones that follow.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
The feminization of America can't spell anything but doom.
Well, duh.
College is over rated. Get a life.
Require a physics, math, or engineering class or two, and see the balance tip back towards men (or, "males" anyway, this is Harvard, after all).
No, it will just give Asian multinational corporations an army of American slave laborers to command. The process is already well underway. ;)
I used to stare blankly at my Social Studies teacher, Miss Kazmurinsky.
What a hottie.
Apparently, males are more able to figure out that going to
college today results in serious brain damage (at considerable
financial expense), with no assurance of career enhancement.
Hint to "liberal arts" schools: the problem is your product.
"They didn't seem to care as much about what I taught -- literature, writing and psychology
Well, duh."
For too many of them it's too little, too late. But, hey, sounds good to the counselors and parole board.
I have a suggestion for all those bored college men. Join up! Spend your four years in the military. Once you've done that and grown up a little, that college stuff will seem a lot more worthwhile.
I promise you won't be bored during your military service. You'll have plenty to keep you occupied. Then, once you've served your enlistment term, you can go back to school when you're grown up enough to appreciate its value.
Well said, Boundless.
Seems to me we need a little affirmative action here - a few set-aside seats for the underprivileged male - to restore the equity and ..
No, I can't type that crap. I thought I could, but I just can't.
Boys need some organized mayhem in their lives. Since confrontation is frowned on now we only approve of that type of behavior in the few organized sports we have left. Only the athletic types get a chance to blow off the steam every adolescent male possesses. That energy will get redirected, usually into an inappropriate area.
If I were a 22 year old hard body right out of the Rangers, I would be excited about my prospects for upscale companionship on campus. I would also be able to tolerate the PC BS and know when to throw it back in the prof's face. I would also have some serious creds that he wouldn't have(Been there, did that, saw the result).
Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)
"As for My people, children are their oppressors,
And women rule over them.
O My people! Those who lead you cause you to err,
And destroy the way of your paths.” Isaiah 3:12
I thought the same thing, Then when I saw he went and checked with another Professor , this one from Howard University, in Washington DC ,I better understood the problem.
I wonder if the Professor ever gave thought that his subject matter isnt interesting and that as a teacher he sucks.
My son is just finishing up his AA. Luckily for him he earned it during high school (dual credit program) because otherwise he would have been totally disgusted.
So many of the general requirements for the first two years of college are just fluff. He took the science and calc classes, but was also required to take the Humanities, Ethics, and Composition classes in order to get a degree. (btw, I think Comp I is fine, he was in Honors Comp in fact, but there is no reason for Comp II if the kid isn't going to follow a liberal arts path.)
I can see why guys, especially technical ones, get discouraged. Requirements to get into an Engineering program are stringent enough without having to take the fluff of general ed.
Do ya think that their distress is really that so many men refuse to pay to be indoctrinated?!!
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