Education: Boys Falling Behind Girls in Many Areas | Newsweek Culture

The Trouble With Boys

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For Nikolas Arnold, 15, a sophomore at a public high school in Santa Monica, Calif., college is a distant dream. Nikolas is smart: he's got an encyclopedic knowledge of weaponry and war. When he was in first grade, his principal told his mother he was too immature and needed ADHD drugs. His mother balked. "Too immature?" says Diane Arnold, a widow. "He was six and a half!" He's always been an advanced reader, but his grades are erratic. Last semester, when his English teacher assigned two girls' favorites--"Memoirs of a Geisha" and "The Secret Life of Bees" Nikolas got a D. But lately, he has a math teacher he likes and is getting excited about numbers. He's reserved in class sometimes. But now that he's more engaged, his grades are improving slightly and his mother, who's pushing college, is hopeful he will begin to hit his stride. Girls get A's and B's on their report cards, she tells him, but that doesn't mean boys can't do it, too.

With Andrew Murr, Vanessa Juarez, Anne Underwood, Karen Springen And Pat Wingert

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This caste system will come about more and more over time. While a person may point to many present day offices and other places of employment where there is equality this will change for many in society in favor of Females. I found a site with Peg Tyre saying there will be an increase of about 100,000 more Females than Males going to college each year. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peg-tyre/who-says-the-boy-crisis-i_b_104172.html?show_comment_id=13400739
This could boast the percentages of Female graduation to Male graduation to a point in a few years that will become so obvious the press may take hold of this problem before the education community desires its release. The reason I am concerned is if this is taken up by the press seeking an explanation, educators may point (incorrectly) to learning differences, need of more activity for boys, role models, and more tactile learning. I ???firmly disagree with??? this approach for it greatly smacks of genetic differences. I feel if such news and advice does come out in the press, this will set up negative synergy from news organizations, drama, and even sit-coms. This will then create again, much negative synergy from a very unscientific public that will begin to put Males and especially Male children under a microscope and cast doubt as to ability and intelligence for Male children in general. This will lead to much public ridicule from women, girls, teachers, and others in society. This could in turn set off an opposite equally or worst negative synergy against society by Males.
If you can see this possibility, I have an alternative that even if incorrect, which I believe ???is correct???, will at least provide many good years to approach the Male Crisis from an environmental perspective and not one of genetics. This alternative, environmental approach will generate much more positive esteem, hope, and much more support from a general unknowledgeable society that would be more inclined to step up and help Males much more than the genetic models presented by educators.
The genetics model I feel will lead to many problems for society down the road.

It's really hard to have all that much sympathy for men when the wage gap is still alive and well between men and women.

And also--a teacher assigned "girls' favorites," so Nikolas got a D? Guess what...when I was in high school, I decided that I should only concentrate on the subjects I liked and forget about the ones that I didn't like, so I did great in some classes and very poorly in others. But I learned quickly that I needed to work hard in both realms in order to have a good GPA. That teaches you that you don't always get to do "fun" things in life and sometimes the things that are boring are still important. So excuse me, but get over it, Nikolas, and read the books you're assigned, whether they're "girly" or not.

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Posted By: mayfieldga @ 09/09/2009 12:17:49 AM

This caste system will come about more and more over time. While a person may point to many present day offices and other places of employment where there is equality this will change for many in society in favor of Females. I found a site with Peg Tyre saying there will be an increase of about 100,000 more Females than Males going to college each year. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peg-tyre/who-says-the-boy-crisis-i_b_104172.html?show_comment_id=13400739
This could boast the percentages of Female graduation to Male graduation to a point in a few years that will become so obvious the press may take hold of this problem before the education community desires its release. The reason I am concerned is if this is taken up by the press seeking an explanation, educators may point (incorrectly) to learning differences, need of more activity for boys, role models, and more tactile learning. I ???firmly disagree with??? this approach for it greatly smacks of genetic differences. I feel if such news and advice does come out in the press, this will set up negative synergy from news organizations, drama, and even sit-coms. This will then create again, much negative synergy from a very unscientific public that will begin to put Males and especially Male children under a microscope and cast doubt as to ability and intelligence for Male children in general. This will lead to much public ridicule from women, girls, teachers, and others in society. This could in turn set off an opposite equally or worst negative synergy against society by Males.
If you can see this possibility, I have an alternative that even if incorrect, which I believe ???is correct???, will at least provide many good years to approach the Male Crisis from an environmental perspective and not one of genetics. This alternative, environmental approach will generate much more positive esteem, hope, and much more support from a general unknowledgeable society that would be more inclined to step up and help Males much more than the genetic models presented by educators.
The genetics model I feel will lead to many problems for society down the road.
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Posted By: stevierae5 @ 08/10/2009 11:06:53 AM

And by the way, mayfieldga, I work at a firm where, with ONE exception (and he was just hired in the last month), the entire administrative support staff is exclusively female, whereas the "professional staff" is 50/50 male/female. So much for your gender cast system.
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Posted By: stevierae5 @ 08/10/2009 11:04:56 AM

It's really hard to have all that much sympathy for men when the wage gap is still alive and well between men and women.

And also--a teacher assigned "girls' favorites," so Nikolas got a D? Guess what...when I was in high school, I decided that I should only concentrate on the subjects I liked and forget about the ones that I didn't like, so I did great in some classes and very poorly in others. But I learned quickly that I needed to work hard in both realms in order to have a good GPA. That teaches you that you don't always get to do "fun" things in life and sometimes the things that are boring are still important. So excuse me, but get over it, Nikolas, and read the books you're assigned, whether they're "girly" or not.