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The Boy Gap
Pajamas Media ^ | Feb. 20 | Joanne Jacobs

Posted on 02/20/2010 8:27:08 PM PST by AJKauf

As a volunteer in my daughter’s kindergarten class, I was asked to help children write a “story” (a few words) to illustrate their pictures. Only one girl needed my writing help; only one boy could write for himself. Nearly all the boys seemed to be a full year behind nearly all the girls in their ability to pay attention, follow directions, control frustrations, sit still, handle a pencil or crayon and do what used to be considered first-grade work.

As reading and writing are pushed down to earlier ages, boys are struggling harder to meet higher expectations, writes Richard Whitmire, a former USA Today reporter, in Why Boys Fail.

“Each year since 1988 the gap between boys’ and girls’ reading skills has widened a bit more,” Whitmire writes. Boys aren’t wired for early verbal skills — and teachers aren’t trained in “boy-friendly” techniques to help them catch up.

Boys are asked to do too much too soon — and labeled hyperactive or bipolar or autistic if they act like little boys, writes psychologist Anthony Rao in The Way of Boys.....

(Excerpt) Read more at pajamasmedia.com ...


TOPICS: Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: boys; education; kindergarten; malestudents; psychology; waronboys
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To: proudmilitarymrs

Rosie O-Donnell may consider “herself” a feminist......although most sentient creatures recognize a pig is a pig is a pig.

In “her” case, literally so.


21 posted on 02/20/2010 8:58:01 PM PST by Thumper1960 (A modern so-called "Conservative" is a shadow of a wisp of a vertebrate human being.)
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To: TokuMei

The original feminist was Betty Friedan, who started the N.O.W. She went to great pains to give the illusion of having been a very apolitical, completely ordinary housewife for years.

It was alllll BS:

She was a Marxist-Leninist who lived in a huge mansion on the Hudson river. She didn’t even have to do housework, instead employing several domestics. She also had an affair with one of the commies who developed the Atomic Bomb with Oppenheimer.

THE ORIGINAL LIMOUSINE LIBERAL/TELLER OF THE BIG LIE


22 posted on 02/20/2010 9:00:03 PM PST by TokuMei
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To: TokuMei
When my son was in the 4th grade his teacher decided he might be ADD. I ended up doing a little research on the subject and discovered that the “symptoms” of ADD are vague, and basically being a boy.

After I met the teacher I realized that she just wasn't that good of a teacher and consequently, my son got bored.

Both the school counselor and my (now ex-)wife were insisting on getting him started on Ritalin, but I wouldn't budge. I refused.

He's 25 now and that was the only time the subject ever came up. And after comparing notes with other parents over the years I realized that those teachers ill-equipped to handle boys would rather just medicate them. Makes their jobs easier.

23 posted on 02/20/2010 9:00:15 PM PST by Tex-Con-Man
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To: Thumper1960

Rosie can’t even figure out tabs go into slots. Like anyone should ever listen to her for advice with the one exception as to where the good restaurants are in town.


24 posted on 02/20/2010 9:00:23 PM PST by Secret Agent Man (I'd like to tell you, but then I'd have to kill you.)
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To: knarf

Well put!

My son, who is 6’3 and 210 as a sophomore in high school, is treated terribly by the feminist teachers. He is a really good kid, but a boy! They treat him like his he inferior. Makes our blood boil.


25 posted on 02/20/2010 9:00:36 PM PST by whitedog57
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To: Thumper1960

Oh, how the truth just must be spoken.

thank you

mrs


26 posted on 02/20/2010 9:01:58 PM PST by proudmilitarymrs (New Jersey has no soul, only taxes)
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To: whitedog57
Just continue assuring him he's not only OK, but a desireable entity.

The sissymen wish they were like him and the machowimmin want a piece of him.

It's a screwed up psychology, but a normal male, familiar with killing insects, can easily parry psychologically (with family support) any overt of sublime arrows

27 posted on 02/20/2010 9:05:20 PM PST by knarf (I say things that are true ... I have no proof ... but they're true)
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To: Tex-Con-Man
My son, too. He had so much energy! It was never recommended to s=us he might be ADD or ADHD but I would never have considered Ritalin. We put him in so many sports he had no time to be bored. He also had no excess energy at sunset. It worked for us. He is now a graduate of the USNA and in the Marines. He's just the best kid!!
28 posted on 02/20/2010 9:05:49 PM PST by originalbuckeye
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To: AJKauf
I still remember the first grade teacher who called us at home with grave concern about our younger son's emotional well being. It seems he was given a writing assignment. He wrote and illustrated a story all about a good knight who battled evil forces. In the course of battle, the knight was slashed with a sword, and bled black blood all over the ground. Some sort of creature arose from the pool of black blood. The poor teacher was absolutely certain that our son was emotionally troubled and would grow up disturbed and dangerous to humanity. We quickly figured out that the teacher was a single woman who had never actually lived with brothers or sons.

Our little boy is now a perfectly normal 14 year old who likes snowball fights, computer games, rock climbing, girls and robotics, to varying degrees on various days. He plans to study mechanical engineering or industrial design. He still loves swords, and won a classical league competition with his hand-made 4-foot Roman sword. Boys will be boys, thank God.

29 posted on 02/20/2010 9:06:13 PM PST by Think free or die
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To: Tex-Con-Man

So glad that you stuck by your boy!

Bully for you!

mrs

boys really are different than girls. This girl is very happy about that!


30 posted on 02/20/2010 9:06:44 PM PST by proudmilitarymrs (New Jersey has no soul, only taxes)
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To: knarf

Fellow I know was living with his girlfriend in a basement apartment. When one early morning they were awakened to a home invader in their bedroom.

The drug addict threatened them right there in their bedroom and demanded money. The boyfriend did nothing and let the guy have the run of the room and told him to take what he wanted and get out.

After hearing the story the first thing I said is its over for them. She’ll leave him at the first chance. Everyone who knew them said I was crazy. They’re in love, they’re made for each other and they are going to be married.

She walked in less than a month. No woman wants to marry a coward who’d let some half-live crack addict terrify her in her own bed. The feminists and the metrosexuals who follow their advice have one thing in common - their the last of their breed.

As they die off our society and culture our getting stronger. The sooner we get them out of our schools/indoctrination camps, the better off America will be. We need vouchers asap.


31 posted on 02/20/2010 9:15:12 PM PST by 1010RD (First Do No Harm)
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To: hellbender

Women don’t make those babies on their own.


32 posted on 02/20/2010 9:15:49 PM PST by donna (SarahPAC has donated money to...(wait for it)...Lindsey Graham!)
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To: Think free or die

I would like to know how his story ended. It sounds fascinating!!

I guess I’m just boy oriented.

mrs


33 posted on 02/20/2010 9:17:28 PM PST by proudmilitarymrs (New Jersey has no soul, only taxes)
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To: Think free or die

...that sounds like an interesting story. (At least I think so.)


34 posted on 02/20/2010 9:20:07 PM PST by OneWingedShark (Q: Why am I here? A: To do Justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with my God.)
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To: Secret Agent Man
"I believe it’s because there are so few men left in the schools teaching these days"

True enough. It's especially true at the elementary level. We seem to have quite a few men teaching at the high school, or even at the middle school level in our district. Once the boys get past elementary school, they usually have at least some male teachers, especially if they are in higher level math and physical science classes. Unfortunately, many of the good men teachers end up in administrative positions, and are lost from the classroom after a few years.

Our older son's AP calculus teacher is retiring after this year, and his honors chemistry teacher from last year is now the assistant principal. Our son has a lot of respect for both of them, and and we hope that he'll have a decent teacher in his senior year for calc II. Unfortunately, his younger brother will miss out on both of these excellent teachers. They both prefer men teachers in most instances. Part of it is rapport and male-friendly teaching style, and part of it is avoidance of some of the feminist bias in how content is presented.

35 posted on 02/20/2010 9:20:36 PM PST by Think free or die
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To: donna

>Women don’t make those babies on their own.

They will when the government controls health-care because, in addition to food-stamps, single women will be provided with ‘sperm-dollars.’

[/sarc][/cynic]


36 posted on 02/20/2010 9:22:00 PM PST by OneWingedShark (Q: Why am I here? A: To do Justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with my God.)
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To: HiTech RedNeck
Sometimes boys need a man around to keep them under control.

And not just keep them under control but give them a positive, masculine male role model (if they don't have one at home) and also to distinguish between truly destructive behavior and little boys acting like little boys.

37 posted on 02/20/2010 9:24:16 PM PST by Still Thinking (Freedom is NOT a loophole!)
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To: Think free or die

Sounds like your typical little-boy fantasy. It’s not all unicorns and rainbows....


38 posted on 02/20/2010 9:27:18 PM PST by HiTech RedNeck (I am in America but not of America (per bible: am in the world but not of it))
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To: proudmilitarymrs; OneWingedShark
I liked his story too. I think it pretty much ended with the creature rising from the blood. He probably ran out of time and did something else after recess - or his teacher "re-directed" him!

Apart from being a bit naive about boys, I actually liked his first grade teacher. Having traveled in the former Eastern Bloc, she knew a bit about the world. She was unusually patriotic among her peers, and after a year in her classroom, our son was bugging us to go visit Mount Vernon during the summer. We did, and we all enjoyed it. He's always had a great love of country, and she helped encourage it.

39 posted on 02/20/2010 9:28:26 PM PST by Think free or die
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To: proudmilitarymrs
Rosie O’Donnell considers herself a feminist.

Oh, I get it, feminist means you like women just like communist means you like communism. In that case, I'm a feminist.

40 posted on 02/20/2010 9:29:37 PM PST by Still Thinking (Freedom is NOT a loophole!)
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