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I suspect you have not had a boy in public school lately. I have, and this article rings very true with me. My son (now almost 13 and entering 8th grade) was pegged by a poor first-grade teacher as probable ADHD. We had him tested and the psychologist told us it was a mild case at worst. He sometimes was disorganized and his mind wandered. We refused to medicate him or do anything to give him any indication he was different or inferior. One day I went into his class unannounced and found this teacher literally screaming at another boy, while the other children cowered. I realized she could not cope with normal boy behavior. The same thing occurred when my son was put into the gifted program in fourth grade. The teacher was a shrew who hated boys. She gave my son a hard time about everything. Conferences with her were painful because we stood up for him.

Two years ago we moved to another state and the schools are like night and day. My son has had many male teachers, and even his female teachers do not treat him like a problem. The school principals are men. He has thrived and is now a straight-A student for the first time.

The most clear proof is this: 45% of students entering college are male (and dropping steadily). When it reaches 40% there will be 1.5 times as many girls as boys in college. And we (in the university system) continue to see highly-funded programs promoting women in certain fields (science, engineering), but the silence on the other side of the coin is DEAFENING ... where are the program to help make up for the growing shortfall of boys' performance in reading and language skills, or their shortfall in even reaching college at all?? Think about it - the long-term implications are serious!

I don't think demasculization is an issue.

I happen to think that emasculation is rampant in the public schools. At least at the grade school my son attended.
In first grade his teacher emplored me to have him tested for add.....I declined. There were a couple other issues we had to deal with.
Second grade he had a male teacher and I NEVER had to attend a special conference. He had no problems with my son. But the clincher was in the third grade. Almost EVERYDAY he had to sit out recess......his teacher told me he fidgets in his desk. I could go on about this teacher, but why? The damage has been done. The problems just kept coming. I kept telling myself things are gonna get better....but instead, they got worse.
Finally, last year when he started the ninth grade, things started spiralling downward at a fast rate. I said that's enough. Pulled him out of public school and got him enrolled online at a christian private school. I can't tell you what a difference it has made in my son. He's pleasant (most of the time) he's not perfect. But don't discount this article because I saw it coming many years ago. If I had it to do all over again, he would NEVER have attended public school at all.

No competitive play on the playground. No running, even. Many schools do not permit their charges out on the playground at all.My wife teaches and notes the same things that this writer notes. Part of the problem is that discipline is outlawed so that Ritalin has become necessary to control normal boys. All that is one reason that we are no longer producing the numbers of scientists that we once did. We remain nr. one in science because we sill import the cream of other countries' schools but that is diminishing now, too.

You know, I'm not sure I believe any of this. With arts programs on the outs, and sometimes even athletics, and not enough activity for all that young energy, I don't think demasculization is an issue.

Have you listened to any teenagers talk about school these days?

The one disagreement I have with the article is that there ARE girls in Special Ed nowadays, and they hold their placement as some sort of badge of honor, like being considered stupid is cool.

There are a number of boys who do well in school; the really smart kids always do well. The special ed kids get advantages, too, like modified assignments. The ones in the middle get the squeeze, though. They are just shunted along, unless they happen to get a fabulous teacher. But from what our daughters friends say, they are few and far between.

One of the reasons we homeschooled our younger two, starting in middle school, was because our daughter was beginning to exhibit signs of abject boredom. She approaches education much like boys; she wants to know the point, and she's not interested in fluff. I guess having a brilliant Dad and 3 brothers helped, but I'm not much of an education fluff person, either, so she gets it honestly. We sent our youngest son back to school for his first two years of high school, but it was an all boys school, and there was not a hint of fluff, anywhere, but we decided that we enjoyed the freedom of homeschooling, so he'll finish his last two years at home. It will be great having him home again. He's our youngest, and, as are his older siblings, is just fun to be around.