Sunday, April 13, 2008
In Our Schools - Unintended Consequences
Now, look what we've done!...
In the New York Post, Marty Nemko wonders:
"Why the lack of male college graduates? One main reason is that K-12 education has been made girl-friendly at the expense of boys:
*Competition, a prime motivator for boys, has largely been replaced by "cooperative learning."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 arewomen, the highest level on record. The main male role model most boys see in school is the custodian.
So it shouldn't surprise us that a University of Michigan study found that the number of boys who say they don't like school rose 71 percent from 1980 to 2001.
When boys get home, the lack of positive male role models and the assault on their self-esteem continues: TV portrays most men as buffoons or sleaze bags shown up by wise, confident women.
So is it any surprise that boys, more active than girls from birth, misbehave more in class? In decades past, they were simply called "active" and allowed to work off energy as the blackboard monitor or sent on an errand. Today, they're more likely to be put on Ritalin. Over the last 20 years, the number of boys drugged with stimulants to control "hyperactivity" has risen 3,000 percent."
