Bridging the Male Education Gap (LAT OpEd)

Parent Cafe
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<p>"Bridging the male education gap American women are making gains; men aren't. Why?" Los Angeles Times (June 11, 2013), by Thomas A. DiPrete and Claudia Buchmann: Bridging</a> the male education gap - latimes.com</p>

<p>Short quote: "The educational shortfall of men has two important components. First, men are less likely to enroll in colleges and universities. Second, even when they do enroll, they are less likely to obtain a degree or certificate.</p>

<p>Why? One prime reason is young men's poorer grades in middle and high school (despite performance similar to women's on standardized tests). A second factor is that young men are more likely than women to prioritize work over college when their short-term job opportunities are relatively good or their educational debt is relatively high...."</p>

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<p>I think there’s also too much admiration given to young male athletic performance, so young males put their efforts towards making First String rather than Top 10%.</p>

<p>I think dads are also guilty about contributing to this. They’ll brag about their boys athletic achievements, spend a gazillion hours coaching their teams from age 4 on up, yet how many hours do these dads spend tutoring their kids, reading to their kids, checking their homework, helping kids prepare for tests???</p>

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<p>The article gives short shrift to the why of poor performance of boys in middle and high schools. In many places, middle schools are bastions of busy work, pretty projects and other nonsense that teach compliance above all. It also doesn’t help that most teachers are women and relate to girls more easily, and that some of what is normal, appropriate boy behavior is pathologized in schools.</p>

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In some communities, upwards of 70% of boys don’t have a father to contribute anything to his life at all and when they go to school, what do they find? Yep. More women. Women are the greatest thing ever. I know that because I am one, was born to one and birthed two, but we are not male role models for boys and we are doing them and ourselves no favors by having women succeed at the expense of men.</p>

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<p>I agree with zoosermom (based on my experience with my own children), that boys are just not as interested in school work as it is set up right now. Sitting still in a classroom most of the day, listening to women teach, with behavioral codes that do not come as naturally to them, all contribute to a lesser desire to continue with education when it becomes optional.</p>

<p>I disagree with mom2collegekids 100% about sports. If there is one thing that keeps boys wanting to get up and go to school everyday, it is the prospect of playing/practicing with the team after school.</p>

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<p>This quote was interesting:

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<p>There are more women in college because more female-dominated work domains (teaching, nursing, etc.) require a college degree. Even to be an administrative assistant in an office (another female-dominated area), you often need a college degree. The white-collar administrator is increasingly a woman. Many young men don’t see themselves in these roles and most are not going to become engineers, lawyers or doctors. </p>

<p>On another thread it was suggested that most young people wouldn’t go to college if they could get good work without it. Perhaps many young men don’t value college as a goal in itself and would rather work if they can. Is that really a problem? Maybe we should stop telling kids that college is the be-all and end-all.</p>

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<p>Every time a thread like this starts, there is a mass defense of boys who can’t bear to be organized, do their homework, etc.</p>

<p>But in many other countries with diverse educational systems, even with single competitive university admission tests, girls are doing better than boys.</p>

<p>For example:</p>

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<p>[China</a> college admissions bias is testing girls’ patience - Los Angeles Times](<a href=“http://articles.latimes.com/2013/feb/20/world/la-fg-china-female-students-20130221]China”>China college admissions bias is testing girls' patience)</p>

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<p>Public single-sex education would be a option to consider</p>

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<p>I think this is true. I think boys see themselves “doing” jobs such as doctor, lawyer, etc., but cannot manage X more years of sitting in a classroom and studying to get there.</p>

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<p>This is happening, as sorghum said, in most countries, including those who have different education models <a href=“http://www.oecd.org/education/skills-beyond-school/48630687.pdf[/url]”>http://www.oecd.org/education/skills-beyond-school/48630687.pdf&lt;/a&gt;
I think public single sex education sounds good in practice, but in reality it could increase the differences in outcomes (girls could advance even faster if they are not slowed down by boys).</p>

<p>I have talked about this with some young men who wanted to drop out of college (I teach at that level) and their view was that their grandpa, or an uncle, or their dad, had a middle class lifestyle with a high school diploma, so they think they are “owed” that so to speak, that it will always be the case that you can have that lifestyle and not get a college degree.</p>

<p>Sadly, that is not the case anymore, in the US or in most other countries. Times have changed a lot. Look at the unemployment rates, and wages according to educational attainment. I usually show this graphs to students who tell me that they want to drop out of college: [Earnings</a> and unemployment rates by educational attainment](<a href=“http://www.bls.gov/emp/ep_chart_001.htm]Earnings”>http://www.bls.gov/emp/ep_chart_001.htm) </p>

<p>This quote from the article is spot-on with my experience: </p>

<p>“For many boys and young men, the changing world is a conundrum. They want better jobs than their fathers have, but their attitudes toward school and work are misaligned with the opportunities and requirements in today’s labor market. Many boys seem to think they will be successful — career-wise and financially — without having any idea about how they’ll achieve that success.”</p>

<p>I don’t know for sure why women don’t often have this point of view, maybe because as NJSue said many of the typical female professions do require a degree, or maybe because up until a few generations ago, women were not fully in the labor force.</p>

<p>This is just my experience, I am sure there is a lot of variation. But I think it’s important for boys to know that they are not going to be able to have the same lifestyle their grandfathers had in the 1950s and 1960s without at least an associate degree.</p>

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<p>I think these are true; plus, girls look at and value school as a major social opportunity, to meet friends, meet guys, wear outfits they’ve put together, decorate a dorm room, etc. I don’t think boys care as much about those things.</p>

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<p>The problem I have with a statement like this is that first it is stated that 70% of fathers are not stepping up to make sure their own sons succeed and then we are saying that women are succeeding “at the expense of men.”</p>

<p>In my opinion, it’s awful that the men who father these children do not take responsibility for creating responsible young men. It’s a lose lose. It’s not as if young women want to be wandering through a rubble waste land of useless men for potential life partners.</p>

<p>OTOH, I completely agree with the fact that the curriculum now consists of required projects which used to be the extra credit projects for the kids who couldn’t do the tests or write the papers. I suspect this is because many of the people who chose the teaching profession didn’t understand they were being offered “extra points” and the rest of us were just taking the tests and handing in the papers.</p>

<p>I don’t think one should “require” busy work in a classroom. I think mastery of the subject is all that should be required.</p>

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<p>full disclosure: I hate project work with a passion. </p>

<p>But, TBF, everyone has different learning styles, and some students learn better by making a map of the US with flour and water than by just memorizing states and relative locations.</p>

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<p>There is another reason for the disparity as well.</p>

<p>As a professor, I notice a fairly large maturity gap between male and female students of the same age. The difference in organization, social skills, and self-discipline between the average 18-year-old girl and the average 18-year-old boy is pretty significant. There are exceptions to every generality, and I’m not saying that all 18-year-old boys are knuckle dragging late-bloomers. But the aggregate difference is real and as our society requires people to make decisions at that age that affect life trajectory, the maturity gap has an impact.</p>

<p>Another possible factor: 18-year-old boys tend to like, and seek out, hierarchical male social organizations that provide a structure and sense of purpose (i.e. fraternities, sports teams, unions, the military, and even gangs). Girls do not need that external structure to the same extent and seem better at navigating things alone at an earlier age.</p>

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I’m not following why it’s a bad thing for girls to advance even faster, if boy advance too.</p>

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I agree completely. If the student gets a good grade on an exam assessing the material covered, but has an ugly showboard, which should be considered success? I know from my experience witih three kids over a pretty wide range of time and schools, in middle school there is a ridiculous emphasis on the pretty and the social in terms of things that should be strictly academic (here).
Boys do very well on standardized tests but less so on the busy work. Here is a personal example (anecdote does not equal data, yada, yada). My son was in an honors program in middle school. One particular academic class graded homework in chunks (like September 15 to September 30) and the top grade was 100 for the whole chunk. But points were deducted for lateness (appropriate), earliness (questionable), and such things as “presentation” which could include decorations and the like, which to me is completely ridiculous. But if the kid was less artistic or (as someone pointed out on another thread) doesn’t have the resources for things like glitter, colored paper, etc., they were always marked down. This happens a lot and I think it is a way that boys suffer even if the homework is done well and on time. Also, the group project garbage which encourages holding hands and skipping for credit also discourages boys. But if the same boy completes a final that shows total mastery of the material, that should be good enough. But it isn’t. It isn’t an accident that all the vals and sals in my area are girls and it is not because boys are lazy. Although some are, and some girls are lazy.</p>

<p>I don’t get the hate on boys, I really don’t. We all benefit when everyone succeeds and life is not a zero sum game. Neither are males and females natural enemies. No one minds accommodations or consideration for girls, but to heck with boys, right?</p>

<p>Also, athletes of both genders tend to be some of the most accomplished students anywhere. Athletics can be very good for many kids of both genders.</p>

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<p>GMTplus7:</p>

<p>If the starting point favors girls (they are starting 10 meters ahead in a 100 meters race). And they advance faster than boys (they run faster in this analogy), they will outplace men even more in college (they will reach the end line sooner).</p>

<p>It’s great for girls, but it won’t solve the disparity issue. I like the idea of single sex education (I went to an all girls HS and middle school), but it doesn’t solve this particular problem.</p>

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<p>The girls might still be ahead, but the boys will be running faster than they were before. It doesn’t have to be a zero-sum race.</p>

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<p>Well, I have only daughters, but I have no hate for the boys. My daughters have been very good friends with, or involved with romantically, some really great guys. I think there are many really great guys out there.</p>

<p>I think what we really need to do is to figure out what works for the young men and factor this in.</p>

<p>My oldest daughter who just graduated college thought there should be grading options that a student (or parent at a younger age) could choose at the start of a class. Like option 1. grading tests and papers only. 2. equal tests, projects, homework, papers. 3. Projects, homework mainly for the grade, with tests lesser.</p>

<p>Then the student couldn’t change their mind, but would be working towards their strengths.</p>

<p>I know my girls both would choose option 1, even if it is a more “guy” oriented thing. Sometimes a person only needs to do one math problem to know the math. Sometimes homework is just a total waste of time for certain students.</p>

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I have always believed that kids should start school, not based on their birthdays in relation to an arbitrary cut-off date, but based on certain skills. If more girls start school a year before most boys, then so what? If they are both ready for kindergarted at the time they start, then they can be more successful. It drives me insane that for people like me who have late-birthday kids, there is no parental input in the decision to start or wait except to choose private school.</p>

<p>My son is now in a single-sex high school and for this particular child it is the best thing that ever happened to him. Everything is different from his sister’s co-ed schools and I am amazed at what he is learning and how well he is doing it. It’s a very rigorous school and I was quite worried about how he would do, but the school really knows how to teach boys and he is doing things I didn’t think possible, while playing a varsity sport and winning a national music award. However, his papers and projects are STILL not pretty. Although they are now well-researched and well-written, so I will take it.</p>