Posted on 01/21/2006 11:25:45 PM PST by neverdem
First lady Laura Bush and a growing number of physicians, educators and psychologists say Americans need to wake up and see that boys lag far behind girls in school, and then demand that something be done.
Mrs. Bush, mother of two grown daughters, speaks at conferences and in interviews about the declining status of boys in today's learning environment. She has charged that boys are being overlooked.
"I think we need to pay more attention to boys. I think we've paid a lot of attention to girls for the last 30 years ... but we have actually neglected boys," Mrs. Bush told Parade magazine early last year.
William Pollack, a psychologist at Harvard Medical School, agrees.
"Boys are suffering. They are sitting in classrooms where they can't perform at the same level as girls and so cannot compete with girls," he says. "As a result, they have lower self-esteem. The bottom line is that they are suffering both academically and emotionally."
Mr. Pollack, who also serves as director of the Center for Men and Young Men at McLean Hospital in Belmont, Mass., points out that both upper-class Caucasian boys and minority boys are failing.
"All in all, most schools across the country today are boy-uncentered," he says.
Michael Gurian and Kathy Stevens, co-authors of "The Minds of Boys: Saving Our Sons From Falling Behind in School and Life," back up claims that there is a "crisis in male education" with data from the Department of Education, the State Department and other sources. They point out that boys:
•Receive the majority of D and F grades given to students in most schools, as high as 70 percent.
•Create 80 percent of classroom discipline problems.
•Account for 80 percent of high school...
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
I remember summer days as a kid where I would leave at 9 am, come back at noon, leave and come back at dinnertime. During that time I played, fought, argued, dreamed, built, did good and did bad. But I had the freedom to do all of that. A typical kid now has large portions of days planned out for him and being out of the yard and out of a parent's line of sight is rare.
I live in a safe neighborhood filled with kids and in the summers I can count on one hand the number of kids I see outside during the day. At night, I will see dozens, all with parents nearby. I can't say "it's the heat" as I grew up in Georgia with heat these Virginia kids would faint in!
There has been a fundamental shift in America where a child is held up as a possession much like a very nice car. Hang around parents long enough and listen to them compare their little prizes as if they are reliving their own childhood again. This is the age of the child and we as a society are creating "Little Emperors" much as is happening in China.
When mine were young, I tried to NOT plan out their day. We limited them each to 2 sports a year and their music. I had several parents in my area approach me and ask if they could privately donate money so that my girls could be in more activities! They thought what I was doing was so much LESS that there must have been a problem with finances!
And yes, they attended public schools. My husband and I were very active parents and guided and still guide their instruction every year. I know their teachers, the curriculums, the books, the assignments and their homework. Both of my girls are successful by any standard one would want to toss down, and my younger daughter even more than her sister.
Some posters here who want to point the fingers at the schools as the source of all problems. There are problems in the schools, indeed, but by limiting your focus, you automatically rule out other areas that are equally to blame. In our country we have a breakdown of respect to all authority figures from the president on down to the local cop, respect to elders in ones family and in society, church attendance is at some sort of scary low, fathers are held up as objects of comedy in commercials, televison shows and movies, and there is a pervasive sense of ugliness in every area of pop culture.
Let the public schools take the hits where they deserve them, but stop and look at the larger problems, where hopefully we all can make a difference.
:-)
Sounds toxic to me.( wintertime)
To SoftballmominVA,
If it looks toxic, waddles toxic, quacks toxic, it IS toxic.
Government schools are toxic waste for both boys and girls.
Time to call government schools what they are: Toxic Waste Dumps.
But,,,,hey,,,,I bet your girls go to "Blue Ribbon" toxic waste dump schools. ( yeah right!)
Sorry,,,,SoftballmominVa,,,,your are not going to get any of this "Let's all work together" to make government schools better" from me.
Nor,,,,are you going to any approval from me for your personal "what's best for my family" decision.
NO!....Government schools HURT children. All children. YOUR children. They are a monstrosity.
It is my goal, to change the language regarding government schools. It is my goal to call them what they truly are.
Solution: Begin the process of privatizing universal K-12 education.
YOU DON'T KNOW ME OR MY FAMILY! MY GIRLS ARE NOT A MONSTROSITY AT ANY LEVEL! HOW DARE YOU?
What do you care what kind of school my girls go to if they are good citizens? I never said they went to a blue ribbon school or anything else. YOU put those words in my mouth as I have seen you do over and over to others. Who do YOU think YOU are to sit in judgement on my and my family? WE MADE THE BEST CHOICE FOR OUR CHILDREN as did you and your family. We are reaping the rewards of good, christian young ladies who will contribute well to our society. I respect your choice, you obviously do not respect mine.
I REPEAT, DO NOT POST OR FREEPMAIL ME EVER AGAIN. You can be sure this is my last post to you.
I would also suggest reading Raising Cain by Dan Kindlon and Michael Thompson.
I agree with the importance of Vocational Technical Training at the HS level! My sister would have never survived college, she took cosmotology at the VoTech in HS. She started at a good salon right after graduation, and makes more than I did as a teacher.
I think that you probably would give them the same kind of "education" no matter what. You would be a good father (am I guessing right:0)? Education begins in the home. That's for sure.
College Aid Plan Widens U.S. Role in High Schools Incentives for studying more math, science and related subjects are proposed.
New cellular flaw found in some virulent breast cancers
FReepmail me if you want on or off my health and science ping list.
Your statement seems to blame the boys. I don't think extra activities are the problem. The punishment given to boys at an early age fits for girls but is the worst thing you could do for boys. They are expected to act like girls. And then there is the feminazis in leadership positions. No, I think the schools and the system are to blame.
Both of my boys had a great lady teacher. She was able to accomplish things with the boys that no one else could. The thing I liked best about her was her ability to separate behavior from academics. She was masterful at what she did.
Sounds like you foud a CLASS A TEACHER and LADY.
Not a bit actually. I think it is a bunch of factors, one big one being the absence or presence of a strong male figure in the household. I agree with a lot of what you say. We should realize that boys and girls are different and I think a lot of people still do. My statement there was reflective that sometimes our priorities get mixed up. Sometimes TV and other things become more important than "important" things. And that could probably apply to a lot of us. I know it applies to me. We can put all of our eggs in one basket and blame the "system" (prisoners, liberals, some Hurricane Katrina survivors, and others are good at that already), but it also includes things like the family unit, individual responsibility and effort, parental involvement, media, and so on and so on. In other words, there's a variety of things to consider. After a certain age, I am responsible for my own choices and their consequences and I have learned that the hard way. I'm a dum-dum idiot because of my own efforts, not someone else's fault. :)
bump
I agree with you. One thing that I have seen is a lot more "internships" where some students get some good on the job experience. Our flower lady down the road can't keep her interns too long because they often get hired by bigger firms later on because they get so good.
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