Monday, December 05, 2005

The Trouble With Boys

An article this week in the Washington Post reiterated some familiar concepts and statistics concerning a growing problem: boys (and men) are falling behind, first at school and then (naturally) in work and life. Some grim statistics: men are no more than 43% of the population of university students and boys and young men are 80% of high school dropouts. Some possible reasons for the decline include an emphasis on girls' success, a style of learning in school that's ill-suited to the way boys actually learn (it turns out that boys' and girls' brains are actually different when viewed by a brain scan), and a lack of active father roles. Much of these problems and some solutions are discussed in Real Boys. Having parented a boy for lo these many years, Chaos highly recommends this book for fellow travelers. A stoutly written work, the author nonetheless has deep empathy for boys and many useful suggestions for raising and teaching successful happy boys.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

That puts more pressure on me doesn't it? Well if I can do better in school than, say, my suitemates, then I'll be satisfied. If nothing else at least I'll never have to subject myself to throwing up in our flippin' SHOWER!! (Yeah, it actually happened)

Chaos said...

You are already exceptional, in the gender statistical sense (and other senses too), so no worries. Sorry about the shower...

Anonymous said...

they could be falling behind because of the multitude of laws that are created against their favor. i pity your son, please don't castrate him.