Posted on 07/04/2008 4:44:18 PM PDT by Coffee200am
The idea that girls are the victims of “sex discrimination” in American schools is so preposterous, it is barely worth discussing. But it seems some people are still determined to believe it.
A few weeks ago, the American Association of University Women, a 127-year-old organization that in recent decades has evolved into a feminist advocacy group, released a report declaring that it had debunked the “myth” of the “boy crisis” — the troubling trend of American boys falling far behind girls academically at every level of education. The AAUW announced that the boy crisis was “a fabrication of people who are uncomfortable with the progress of girls and women,” as columnist Kathleen Parker put it.
No one should take a study by the AAUW at face value, especially because in the 1990s, it did a little fabricating of its own by concocting the myth of a “girl crisis.” In 1992, the AAUW released a report titled How Schools Shortchange Girls. Its charges of egregious sex discrimination were based on such findings as “in textbooks, one-seventh of all illustrations of children are of girls,” “girls read six times as many biographies of males as of females,” and “schools, for the most part, provide inadequate education on sexuality.”
The most sobering discoveries that the AAUW could come up with were that “differences between girls and boys in math achievement are small and declining .… The gender gap in science, however, is not decreasing and may, in fact, be increasing.”
That hardly sounds like a “crisis.” But from the media firestorm that followed its publication, you’d think we were living under the Taliban. The media leapt on the story, churning out more than 1,400 news reports on the study.
But scholars who went through the trouble of looking up the facts — such as census data and reports from the National Center for Education Statistics — quickly realized that How Schools Shortchange Girls was a crock. By 1991, the year before the AAUW report came out, girls were more proficient in reading and writing. As the AAUW admitted, they lagged slightly behind in math, but there was evidence that the gap was closing. Girls were neck-and-neck with boys in many measures of science proficiency. And although they had slightly lower scores on standardized tests, girls got better grades. In 1992, more girls took Advanced Placement examinations, through which students earn college credit. And girls were more likely to go to college.
Even worse, some researchers discovered that the AAUW had hid most of the research it conducted for the report, throwing out any evidence that didn’t fit their pre-determined conclusion that girls were victimized by the education system. One study the AAUW hid revealed that, if girls were indeed being “shortchanged,” they were totally unaware of it: Numerous surveys revealed that both male and female students believed teachers preferred girls, gave them more attention and praise and thought they were smarter.
But the report had made its impact, and politicians, educators and activists had already declared their dedication to ending sex discrimination in education. In 1994, feminist psychologist Mary Pipher’s book Reviving Ophelia, which posited that girls’ sense of self was being destroyed by the sexist school system, became a No. 1 New York Times bestseller. For the next 10 years, the schools became obsessed with trying to rectify the “girl crisis.”
This was done at the expense of boys, who were already behind academically before the AAUW’s fatuous report came out. And 16 years later, the gender gap has widened.
As former Clark University professor Christina Hoff Sommers put it, the education system is basically run “by women for girls, and boys’ presence is merely tolerated.” As official education statistics consistently show, boys are much more likely than girls to drop out of school, fail classes or be suspended or expelled. They make up the vast majority of students in special education classes, and for every 100 girls diagnosed with a learning disability, 217 boys are diagnosed. A survey of eighth graders published by the National Center for Education Statistics revealed that boys were less likely than girls to agree with the statements “teachers listen to what I have to say” and “teachers are interested in students.” On the other hand, they were far more likely than girls to agree with the statement “I often feel put down by my teachers.”
And, of course, there’s ever-growing gap in college enrollment. As of 2005, 60 percent of all college undergraduates were women. Some small liberal arts colleges, which have traditionally been more attractive to women, are well on their way to becoming all-girls’ schools — sometimes with gender ratios of two to one or even four to one. In 2006, The New York Times ran a story titled “At Colleges, Women are Leaving Men in the Dust,” which revealed that “Department of Education statistics show that men, whatever their race or socioeconomic group, are less likely than women to get bachelor’s degrees — and among those who do, fewer complete their degrees in four or five years. Men also get worse grades than women.”
Groups like the AAUW are right that there is bias in American education, but they’re not about to admit the truth: It is systematically biased in favor of girls. Instead, they’re still turning out reports with titles like “Failing at Fairness: How Our Schools Cheat Girls.”
As former Assistant Secretary of Education Diane Ravitch said a few years ago, “When will it be fair? When women are 60 percent or 75 percent of college enrollments? Perhaps it will be fair when there are no men at all.”
[Groups like the AAUW are right that there is bias in American education, but they’re not about to admit the truth: It is systematically biased in favor of girls. Instead, they’re still turning out reports with titles like “Failing at Fairness: How Our Schools Cheat Girls.”
As former Assistant Secretary of Education Diane Ravitch said a few years ago, “When will it be fair? When women are 60 percent or 75 percent of college enrollments? Perhaps it will be fair when there are no men at all.”]
To understand this you have to learn to “think” like a liberal. For the past 5000 years, men have had all the power. So it’s only fair that women have the power for the next 5000 years.
Yes, but most children do not get oodles of play time any more. Many of the boys in particular are simply medicated instead.
The point here is that in general boys have a harder time sitting still, not that all aren’t held to same standard. Another little-discussed aspect is dress codes. Girles letting it hang out will hurt boys’ achievement more than girls’ I’d guess. Sex segregated schooling makes a lot more sense to me.
Males need to get to business and kick serious arse, and quit with the mad search for excuses.
So the deck is stacked against them. So what? Did deeper and embrace the odds. It’s liberating in many ways.
Charge!
“
The idea that girls are the victims of “sex discrimination” in American
schools is so preposterous, it is barely worth discussing.
“
Not according to the Future First Lady, Michelle Obama.
See linked thread below.
Semi-Literate Michelle Obama Got By On Affirmative Action
The Patriot Room ^ | July 1, 2008 | Bill Dupray
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2039501/posts
See post 37 on the linked thread for all the aweful
discrimination and heavy-lifting Mrs. Obama had to
endure before getting her high-$$$$$ PR job.
You wrote my post for me, thanks!
Yep. And that is a very unhealthy trend for the U.S.
You’re most welcome!
Oh, yes, it is very unhealthy. We had better get our act together.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.