What can we do to improve the prospects of boys? For one thing, we must acknowledge the fact that boys and girls are different. In many education and government circles, it remains taboo to broach the topic of sex differences. Many gender scholars insist that the sexes are cognitively interchangeable and argue that any talk of difference only encourages sexism and stereotyping. In the current environment, to speak of difference invites opprobrium, and to advocate for male-specific interventions invites passionate and organized opposition. Meanwhile, one gender difference refuses to go away: Boys are languishing academically, while girls are soaring. Read more»
Christina Hoff Sommers | “How To Make School Better For Boys”
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It does. thanks. Personally, I think the laity could use a lot more guidance on this. Depending on your *cough* geographic location, the decision on public school is more or less crucial.
This post shows up in my feed and in ‘recent posts’ on your sidebar but not on the first page of the Heidelblog. Any idea why?
Okay, I understand. Heidelquotes are a special type of post. It in feeds/mobile view as a regular post but on the computer (browser), when looking at the HB, it only appears on the home page, upper right hand corner. So, where you see it depends on how you’re getting to the HB.
Does that help?
BTW, is the answer to fix schools for boys or fix society for the male gender? Hypothetically, if we engage boys in school to make them more productive citizens, won’t they quickly figure out that there’s an entire divorce industry standing ready to confiscate their pay and children if they should end up divorced? If they succeed at work, what will HR busybodies and government lawyers do when they realize men are pulling back ahead of women in fields in which men have natural aptitude?
The problem isn’t just schools, it’s that the entire society has made “acting like a man” a hazard.
Girls are not “soaring academically” in the sense that they are creating a flurry of new scientific advances. Some are moving into medicine, but most of the engineers and scientists are men. Even when they do major in “STEM,” they tend to move into technical sales or mgmt.
The fact that boys’ natural abilities are being squelched academically means that scientific progress will slow further.
Maleness is attacked in public schools while ‘gender equality’ – as if such a thing were possible when their are 2 different genders with different qualities and aptitudes – is promoted. Actually, in California you can pick your gender as long as it’s not male.
I’m eager to hear how some secular alternative to public school exists where natural behavior is encouraged based on gender aptitudes. Surely, it doesn’t exist only in Christian schools or homeschool.
Excellent article, this weekend I sent it to my three daughters each of whom have little boys. A must read…
Amazing that we need to argue the case. It shows how disconnected we are from nature.
It is an uphill battle given the cultural drift. I talked with Carrie yesterday. She put her son on the phone and he told me he was learning to make different kinds of knots. I asked how he was learning to do that. He replied it’s in a book of his: The Dangerous Book For Boys. I recommend it to help counter the drift.