[NewHampshireDuo]

I think that the interpretation of this is "we haven't sissified our boys enough, so we must do more."

[mirkwood]

[SteveMcKing]

Have a gawk at this fruit, William Pollock:

Here's the real story on this Harvard turd-case:

http://www.massnews.com/2006_editions/2_feb/20806_how_the_graham_are_intruding_boys_story.htm

The research that made Harvard psychologist William Pollack a famous expert on American boys and frightened American parents and educators is seriously flawed, if not fraudulent, according to people familiar with the study. It became the basis of Pollack's bestseller, "Real Boys: Rescuing Our Sons from the Myths of Boyhood."

Pollack's overtly anti-male conclusions were used by Harvard Medical School in 1998 to declare a "national emergency" that called for "major social reform" of boys.

The boys at Belmont Hill School who were used by Dr. William Pollack to conduct the research for his best-selling book about American boys thought that the survey, which reportedly employed coercion, was a farce.

"No one around me took the exam seriously with such one-sided and leading questions being asked," one former pupil says. "The test turned into a complete farce when kids began shouting out their answers to their classmates in an effort to make a joke."

[Pietro]

I beleive the reason some boys are doing poorly in school is because of the feminization of education. The educational elite in this country live in a dream world.

Young boys rejecting this stupidity is a good thing.

[JoanVarga]

are being hurt by an unwritten set of social rules that discourage them from showing their emotions

C'mon. This is such recycled "research" as to be officially labeled a "chestnut" of laughability.

[IronJack]

"If he puts on a ballet outfit and tutu, then we say we hope he'll grow out of it."

If he puts on a ballet outfit and a tutu, he gets thumped that night out behind the bleachers.

[chilepepper]

sounds like leftist B***S*** to me...

[bannie]

"Let's overcome human nature and turn boys into girls."

BLECH!

[muir_redwoods]

"If a boy puts on a football helmet and cleats, then he's a real boy," said Pollack, co-director of the Center for Men at Harvard Medical School. "If he puts on a ballet outfit and tutu, then we say we hope he'll grow out of it."

Well, Duh

[trimom]

Worst thing that ever happened to boys was stopping them from settling playground disputes with their fists. Now, they are repressed enough to simmer for ages until they let loose with firearms.

Why did we ever allow educators to stop boys from being boys?

[dcnd9]

Note to Pollack:

Stop the craziness of trying to now make 'men more like women' as we tried to make 'women more like men' the past 30 odd years.

Men and Women are equal BUT they ARE different [emotionally and physically] and that's OK!

[lastchance]

The problem is the over feminization of education. Want to help boys learn? Do these simple things.

Bring back recess or increase recess time for elementary grades.

Give boys choices in reading assignments that will interest them. Most school literature is so boring to boys they rapidly lose any love they had for reading.

Remember boys may have a different learning style from girls. They are more likely to be hands on rather than passive learners. Teachers should tailor school and any homework to take advantage of this.

And give them lost of strong male role models to emulate(sp). Lots of boys these days lack that in their lives.

[montag813]

Pollack is committing the fallacy of coincidence. Boys are underperforming girls. Boys are also masculine. Therefore, he asserts, the masculinity of boys is causing their poor academic performance relative to girls. This is not proven. It is mere coincidence.

He leaves out the fact that it is only a very recent occurrence that boys are underperforming girls. And, as Christina Hoff Summers has so thoroughly researched, much of this is due to teachers and school systems increasing bias towards girls and against boys in the classroom, along with side issues such as punishing trivial actions as perceived "early harassment" of girls by boys. Boys are being hurt by their own teachers and schools, and in frustration are underperforming as they have never done before. Sticking tutus on them and making them act like girls is not the answer. Ending the war against boys in our school is.

[Leftism is Mentally Deranged]

How about:
strong, hard-working, achieving, unwilling to let emotions rule him, firm but gentle,
responsible, mentoring, risk-taking.

[El Gato]

If he puts on a ballet outfit and tutu, then we say we hope he'll grow out of it."

Well, the tutu part. Nothing wrong with dancing. It's usually very athletic, much like gymnastics, but requiring a sense of rhythm that men's gymnastics does not. (Womens' floor routines are set to music).

Still if I had boys, or grandsons, I'd rather they take up gymnastics, baseball, basketball and shooting, not necessarily in that order. (In fact I'd put shooting at the top. My girls do that, some anyway, as do their husbands. ).

[Defiant]

The conference was sponsored by Boys To Men

An organization that wants to get Men into Boys.

[freeangel]

I know I'm a baby boomer and went to school in the dark ages, but--Few boys had trouble "learning" when I was in school and the basics were being taught. Most boys had two parents and neither parents nor boys were on drugs for the latest psyco-social ill. There were few gangs, thugs or miscreants who would shoot up rooms full of students without a second thought. It's either bad parenting or something in the water that has changed to produce such a sad, sorry state in todays society and my vote goes to...hmmm.