Let’s take this in another direction. Those of you that espouse a strict meritocracy, chew on this. Two thirds of the top 10% of HS classes are women. In order to help balance these numbers for college admissions it is easier for a young man to get admitted than a young woman. Affirmative action for the XY chromosome folks. Many Colleges Reject Women At Higher Rates Than For Men. Seeking gender balance, selective colleges are giving men an advantage in admission
It’s interesting to read the two articles written 16 years apart. I don’t believe the term “gender” or “identity” appears at all in the older of the two. Wonder how the trans-phenomenon has impacted the ratios … ie biological males identifying as female when applying.
The “trans phenomenon” has not impacted this at all. Those folks are a tiny fraction of the population. Young men in general need a bit of a step up to compete. There are reasons for this that could be explored in another thread. When you read about the need for “balance” there appears to be a sweet spot in terms of the number of males and females. Having said that, could you accept the need for balance in other areas such as race, ethnicity, or disability? It appears a strict meritocracy may not be what you want. Be careful what you wish for.
Interesting… OT from the OP and maybe deserves its own thread. Your post does raise some questions about masculinity and what place does men have in our modern society. Can you share your 2/3 of top 10% stat? That confirms my personal observations. Statistically, I would expect it to be closer to 50-50 in a merit only based school system where teaching and expectations for girls and boys was uniform and lacked any inherent bias resulting in dramatic success of one sex over the other. My bias has led me to believe there has been a deep shift in the educational system with a strong bias for girls for the last 20+ years. Not surprised that 2/3 of girls are in the top 10% of high school. Boys mature at a different pace, yet we have an age based school system and not an equitable based system for education. That might sound like an excuse, but it implies that all girls schools and all boys schools should be considered. Three books that I think parents of boys should read: 1. The War Against Boys 2. Of Boys and Men 3. The Boy Crisis Richard Reeves penned this article: “In every U.S. state, young women are more likelythan their male counterparts to have a bachelor’sdegree. The education gender gap emerges well before college, however: girls are more likely to graduate high school on time and performsubstantially better on standardized readingtests than boys (and about as well in math). In this piece, we dive into how these gaps differ — or stay the same — across the U.S.” Boys left behind: Education gender gaps across the US | Brookings
The two thirds stat came from an article in the Washington Post. I’d link it but it’s behind a paywall. There many reasons/theories about why this gap exists. Maturity is certainly a factor as I have had MANY parent/teacher conferences with the parents of boys who were at their wits end with their sons. I have always advised to give them some time, perhaps look to community college first to let them “grow up” a bit more. The truth is is that teenagers (male and female) are basically big toddlers, testing limits and boundaries. Girls seem to grow out of this more quickly. Another factor is laziness. I’ve had far more boys not turn in work, not study, and then complain about poor outcomes. It’s certainly not limited to boys as I’ve had plenty of lazy girls in my 41 year career but male students struggle more with this. As a matter of fact, I had a “come to Jesus” meeting with one of my neighbors’ sons. Very smart kid but just lazy. His mom came and knocked on my door to thank me. They’d been trying to get this through his head also. Sometimes you need to hear it from a different source. I also think that we are doing a disservice to ALL children in pushing curriculum that is not developmentally appropriate. Lots of unnecessary anxiety that affects student confidence and achievement. Don’t get me started on the lack of recess/free play. It’s absurd. Finally, there is a certain level of unspoken entitlement. Young men need to understand that their place is not as “guaranteed “ as it used to be because of their gender.
Arizona State professor sues university over DEI training, says he was asked to 'decolonize' his classroom
Reinforcing stereotypical language is a sure fire way to make progress on this issue (or any other for that matter). Excellent work sir.
Any thoughts to the mother and son relationship that moms might make their sons weaker because they dote on them more so than their daughters? Or do mothers care a little more for their sons because the boys are slower to mature and therefore need a bit more care? Mom sure do love their little dudes…
Thank you for taking the time to respond. My personal experience is that schools have gone off the rails on a support apparatus for girls and have really hurt boys in the process. Society has to decide on positive masculinity and what careens into toxic masculinity…
I think that there are different reasons for the “doting”, maybe more of it when there is a single mother? I will say that this “boy mom” nonsense isn’t helping. We’ve always talked about “momma’s boys” but these folks take it a whole new level. I will say that a lot of young women are not interested in dating these guys. Who wants to mother a grown ass man?
I’m curious where your experience comes from? I’m not sure that I buy that more support for girls necessarily means less for boys. My experience may be different as I’ve taught strictly at the HS level. I don’t see it as a zero sum game. For YEARS boys got the lion’s share of attention and support. Young women were told that an education wasn’t necessary. My own mother told me when I went to UF that I would have something to fall back on As an aside, I noticed last year in my classroom that I saw a lot of references to Andrew Tate and his ilk. That’s not good.
