Struggling School-Age Boys

JInHarlem; There is no reason to call me an idiot. I graduated with an education degree with honors, and have always been in gifted and talented tracks throughout my life. They tried to kick me out of college because of my beliefs that the education system was sexist ten years ago, but a little thing called academic freedom prevented them from censoring my ideas. That the education system is biased is now almost common knowledge and I am validated by that, and I will be validated in my belief that the destructive nature of feminism needs to be recognized. Look at Great Britains welfare situation if you need to see what road we may be going down. I also have kept up with evolutionary psychology almost from the advent of the field and I konw plenty about feminisms affect on women, because I am not one and have the appropriate perspective. My alchoholic single mother made sure my brother and I knew all about the evils of men, and she learned that hate from radical feminism.

I am a high school teacher and jcmom you are right on. Society and especially the Public School system is out to passify males. Boys who are very active and have alot of energy are healthy boys, but our society labels them as ADHD and problem children. I m a male teacher who growing up hated high school mainly because I had to sit still for about 7 hrs a day.

It is people like blackdeath (down two) that create a hard time for young boys. How can we learn when teachers are favering girls. The old saying, Sticks and stones can break my bones but words can never hurt me, is a lie, words bite deeper than anything. It is society favering girls, sure boys need attention. We act up just to get attention. Girls Rule, Boys Drule, may be kind of funny but it hurts after boys see more and more of them, beleive me I know.

It seems ridiculous to me that parents can't really see what their hectic schedules do to their children. I'll grant you that I liked the occasional organized activity when I was a kid (Brownies, softball, etc). But to take up a child's entire day with organized activities (as if the parents are trying to make up for their constant absence) is truly detromental. I have my boys in 1 organized activity each and the rest of the time they draw, run around or read at their leisure. And, you know what? They are thriving! I wouldn't add one more organized activity if you paid me!

Struggling school age boys is a DIRECT RESULT of the last 10 to 15 years of putting girls first in the school room because of girls not doing as well as boys in math and science. The thought process behind this was that maybe the girls are being ignored in the classroom or because of stereotypes. This then became an agenda amongst majority of elementary teachers all across the US. There were numerous workshops aimed at helping the girls in the classroom BUT sadly the results were at the BOYS' expense! INSTEAD of focusing on what is best for ALL the children, the boys lost out. And so here we are today because of "GIRL POWER". Even though this was not the intended consequence it shows what sexism can happen in the classroom. When you try to build up one member of society, that member of society receives UNFAIR advanatages over all the rest which leads to all the "ISMS" ie. sexism, racism, etc. How do I know all this? I am an elementary teacher and have seen this agenda being pushed forward upon everyone.

I have been saying for years that kids need time to be kids. They need to learn to play alone at times and learn to play with others. Filling every waking moment with structured activities and video games and computers doesn't encourage them to use their imagination and it is a wonderful thing to be wasted. I limit the use of cell phones, games and computer time for my kids ( even teenagers ) and we spend as much time as possible out doors doing some of the things my grandparents did as children. They have all of their lives to be controlled by a schedule and need play time.

Well duh! Every child, male or female needs to be a child - not regulated to schedules constantly by parents who either expect too much. It's just common sense.

What has been the mantra for years about how adults are supposed to handle stress and frustrations of daily life for years? EXERCISE! What have we cut out of our children's lives in the name of academic achievement ? Answer: exercise and 'free play' including wrestling on the grass, tag, dodge ball, pick up ball games.

Little boys need to be little boys, they aren't the same as girls, yet another DUH moment. We as a society are trying to neutralize our natural differences in gender and this is where it has gotten us.

One theory I found interesting is the concept of image overload and tv viewership for young children. Their brains are not able to assimilate the barage of information and heavy editing of cartoons and commercials and tv today. This causes an attention deficiency once it manifests itself in real time. I don't blame all things on one cause but a multitude of causes combined. I see more young adults with the same neurotic behavior and inability to concentrate on one thing. Now it is called multitasking.

The fault does not necessarily lay with the teachers. They do not have a lot of lee way in what to teach. At least not in my state. "No Child Left Behind" has created much of these problems. It had good intentions but the road to #%&& is paved with such. The teachers, to keep their jobs, have to teach to what ever test the state uses for accountability. That accountability is used to both rank the school, teacher and ultimately the state education system. That in turn is equated to federal funds for that states school districts. The states depend on federal funds for many programs. Tell your congressman that NCLB is still a bad piece of legislature and need carefull overhauling with childrens real needs in mind. You could always throw in that their future employment would be in jeopardy if they don't get the courage to do what's right.

Wow. After reading this (and similar) articles, and reading all the posts here... I am finally 100% sure that I will not father any children. Bring a kid up in this society?? Out of the question.

First off, People are not thinking creatures that feal, We are Fealing creatures that think. The Activity called "Play" is one of the most potent learning tools that nature developed.
In this activity people not only learn (and i intentaly used the word people not kids) phyisical control of there bodys. But they also learn skills for inter-relations. BTW this is the old form of social networking
Now they focus exess "energys". And give portions of the brain a rest from the rigiors of logical thinking and more and more rote memorisation. Thruthfuly after my mothers stroke i did some self education on the brain. And aside from offering light to a few of my own quirks. I found out how many diffrent aera's of the brain there is. And that they all have there own needs.With this style of education we are selecting a few aera's of the brain to focus on. And sacrificeing the rest. All you moms out there who want grandkids. Your kids are going to go though life with a fraction of the social skills you posses.
And on the topic of obeastity , We are teaching kids now to channal physical energy into activitys that can be done at a desk....can anyone say a generation of future hardcore gamers?
But this is not even bringing up the maybe's of chemicals in food, And unknown toxins in daily life.

For these reason as well as other moral ones, I am chosing to homeschool my third son. I have had two sons complete the public school system and are now in college and I see the epidemic trend that is finally being adressed now. My husband is a football coach for our local high school and most would be appalled to believe that one day they would endorse what their sons might endure on the high school ball field because they are "boys" and need to become "marketable".

I don't know if I'm more amused or irritated by this article! Why are boys struggling? Why are all children struggling? Reason #1 - lack of discipline. If a child can't or won't behave, let's give him medication and label him ADHD instead of giving him a good swat on the butt! And heaven forbid kids should have to worry about winning or losing in sports. EVERYONE gets a trophy now. How will we ever teach children how to deal with winning and losing, or how to push themselves to do more if we don't let them experience defeat once in a while. And, this has nothing to do with boys vs girls. This has to do with teaching ALL children how to become productive members of our society!

Great article about stating the obvious and saying nothing !!! Follow the Money $$$. Psychologists substantiate their existence with their psudo science babble along with raking in the money on counseling. Would you take a person seriously that thinks 50 minutes = an hour ? A psych session or hour is equivalent to 50 minutes !! Don't even mention the money the Pharmaceutical companies stand to make with the pumping of children full of drugs. Simply put, children need both structured and unstructured time. Boys especially need "rough house" time - it's just N-A-T-U-R-A-L (the root being Nature). Let kids be kids. Sometimes we don't have the answers - Is that a problem ? No !

I have been saying pretty much the same thing for years. Kids need time to be a kid. They need to play alone at times and learn to play with others also. Filling every waking moment with computers and games along with every activity in town doesn't allow them to use their imagination. I think one day a month video games, cell phones, computers should be off limits.

Our sons are probably going crazy because of our ridiculously feminized society. When we ban a 10yr old from pitching because he throws too hard, or ban dodgeball becuse not everyone can win, we supress the natural urges to compete. What I fear is the day when these sugar coated boys are the men who are leading and fighting for our country. We are raising a generation of weak willed, undisciplined children with no work ethic. We have been doing it for a while too. Just look at this mortgage mess. If you think it is bad now, just wait 20 years. This overt effort for political correctness is eroding our country's position of strength in the world.

The responsibility of these children rests with the parents. I'm curious as to how many of the 1 out of 5 parents are on their own form of medication. Unfortunately, these parents are running to the doctors office as soon as their son ignores them for the first time. I'm sure some of these children had legitimate issues but I seriously doubt a fifth of our boys have behavior problems.

To all of the parents who think there is something wrong with their rambunctious son...PLAY with them. Wrestle, play guns, do what they want to do....LISTEN to their stories no matter how tired you are. You cannot expect them to listen to you if you do not listen to them.

In order for the problems I have experienced to be validated by a study, as the father of sons, an article like this must include the phrase "video-game". Presently, my sons' school life is their only escape from this horribly addictive fantasy world.

About four or five years ago, the Kansas City Star ran a special investigaive report on this very subject. As I read the Star's article, it fit my son to the "T". It was like reading his life story from a educational standpoint. He made staight A's in elementary school, progressed into middle school and began falling behind and couldn't get organized. The more I attempted to "help" or assist in the solutions to the situation, the more I was instructed by the school staff to keep my distance and he will grow out of it.

All the national tests he took placed him the 85-90 percentiles nationally for science and math. He hated homework (because of the lack of organizational skills) and mentally he thought if he could score A's and B's on tests why should I do the homework, he finished high school with a 2.65 GPA. He was far more mature than most of his schoolmates and I received many complements as he was growing up.

While discussing the article one evening with a group of veteran teachers and coaches, they felt the reason boys were falling behind the progress curve was that the education system had placed more emphasis on getting the girls caught up with the boys and that boys were inadvertantly getting left out in the process.

Change the educational system, not the prescriptions!!!!!! Stop trying to make everything socially acceptable or politically correct or we will continue to decline worldwide in education.