Basics and Biases
Submitted by The Boys and Schools Blog
Getting into the “why” of the Boy Crisis is a complicated thing, with so many interwoven cultural changes and influences that it can be hard to separate them out to an actionable solution. And I’ll admit that this is one of the reasons that I don’t use this space to endlessly philosophize about how we’ve gotten to where we are–I’d like to focus on the cure, not the disease. But if we’re going to be serious about addressing the problem, we do need to take a good look at what has brought us to this point, so as to better understand the scope of the issue. So when I see someone with a particularly good or interesting take on the Boy Crisis, I do like to bring attention to it. Marty Nemko’s piece in the New York Post is a good example of an unflinching look at the Boy Crisis in education. For starters, consider his examples of how schools have become more girl-centric and less boy-friendly:
*Competition, a prime motivator for boys, has largely been replaced by “cooperative learning.”
*Readings about adventure and heroism are giving way to tales of relationships and heroines.
*Social studies now stress men’s ill-doings and women’s (and minorities’) contributions.
*Today, 91 percent of elementary-school teachers are women, the highest level on record. The main male role model most boys see in school is the custodian.
I really recommend reading the whole article for its insights on subtle and insidious examples of anti-boy feeling in our culture. I find it very upsetting that the very idea of anti-male bias is sos summarily dismissed by those who can’t imagine that boys or men could be the subject of prejudice or discrimination. Lots of groups like to lay claim to being, “the last acceptible prejudice,” but I think anti-male bias can rightfully claim to being the last popular and fashionable prejudice.
Visit 1800blogger to see all of our industry leading blogs.
Leave a Reply
