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Pay closer attention: Boys are struggling academically
USATODAY ^ | 12/3/2004 | op/ed

Posted on 12/03/2004 11:25:41 PM PST by atari

Girls are taking the nation's colleges by storm. They're streaming to campuses in greater numbers, earning better grades and graduating more often. The same phenomenal success shows in high schools, where girls dominate honor rolls, hold more student government spots and rake in most of the academic awards.

(Excerpt) Read more at story.news.yahoo.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: boys; boysrights; campusbias; education; educrats; equality; feminazi; feminism; malestudents; mensrights; savethemales; schoolbias
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1 posted on 12/03/2004 11:25:42 PM PST by atari
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To: atari
The War Against Boys: How Misguided Feminism Is Harming Our Young Men
2 posted on 12/03/2004 11:30:51 PM PST by SteveH
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To: atari

The problem is, once again, the one size fits all approach of our socialistic school system. Get the state out of the education business! With the internet and computing power getting better every day it should be much cheaper to educate a kid than ever, if only we'd let the market work its magic!


3 posted on 12/03/2004 11:40:19 PM PST by Nateman (The enemies of reason are allies of evil.)
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To: atari

Well this will hurt women eventually. How many women want to marry a man that is a high school dropout or not college educated?

Oh well, works for me. I graduate college in 3 weeks.


4 posted on 12/03/2004 11:41:46 PM PST by Mike1973
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To: SteveH
Christina Hoff Somers has been great on this issue!

She's the epitome of what an "equity feminist" should aspire to accomplish.

5 posted on 12/03/2004 11:45:19 PM PST by Do not dub me shapka broham
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To: Mike1973
Lionel Tiger is another person who's explored this issue at some length.

However, you won't hear much about his perspective, since it doesn't neatly dovetail with the prevailing, radical feminist orthodoxy.

6 posted on 12/03/2004 11:47:13 PM PST by Do not dub me shapka broham
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To: kristinn
Boys are doing miserably, and nobody knows quite why. On measures ranging from writing ability to the likelihood of needing special education, boys are flat-lining - or worse.

One of the things I like most about freeping/campaigning is listening to the people on the street. After having spent some time recently at Ohio State and Ohio U., This is the issue of the next few years. The young ladies have the look of success and are republican. The young men have the look of outcasts and are leaning democrat.

Conventional wisdom has been the opposite of this. I hope the conservative powers get this message and do something for our young men.

7 posted on 12/03/2004 11:48:04 PM PST by staytrue
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To: atari

Two tampons are travelling 3.8 m/s along the x axis with a uniform accell...


8 posted on 12/03/2004 11:56:48 PM PST by SpaceBar
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To: atari

Maybe girls are being graded easier, somehow? There is certainly no natural reason girls should significantly outperform boys on academic matters, and no reason boys should significantly outperform girls on academic matters, either. Maybe the teachers are a bit 'easy' on the girls? :-)


9 posted on 12/04/2004 12:00:54 AM PST by HitmanLV (HitmanNY has a brand new Blog!! Please Visit! - http://www.goldust.com/weblog -)
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To: PatriotsVoice; GunsareOK

Please read this article and my post #7.


10 posted on 12/04/2004 12:15:46 AM PST by staytrue
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To: HitmanNY

>Maybe girls are being graded easier, somehow?

Beautiful girls get better grades for the same quality material.


11 posted on 12/04/2004 12:42:51 AM PST by ROTB
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To: atari
[As for] my people, children [are] their oppressors, and women rule over them. O my people, they which lead thee cause [thee] to err, and destroy the way of thy paths.

Isaiah 3:12

This is a symptom of a Christless society.

12 posted on 12/04/2004 12:47:23 AM PST by ROTB
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Hah, that made me realize how my Honors classes really ARE predominantly female...


13 posted on 12/04/2004 12:52:32 AM PST by Utmost Certainty
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To: atari

I think the reason that girls do better is because classes seem to be more group project oriented now. Girls communicate ideas with their peers and micromanage their assignments much better than boys. Boys do better on competitive based learning. Classes that encourage independent competition are ones that boys really take pride in.


14 posted on 12/04/2004 1:03:37 AM PST by TinmanTrey (DUMP THE IRS PLEASE!)
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To: ROTB

Heaven knows, I am always a lot easier on women, especially ones I find attractive. :-)


15 posted on 12/04/2004 1:41:53 AM PST by HitmanLV (HitmanNY has a brand new Blog!! Please Visit! - http://www.goldust.com/weblog -)
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To: TinmanTrey

BUMP! I think you've got it nailed.


16 posted on 12/04/2004 3:11:20 AM PST by newzjunkey (Demand Mexico Turnover Fugitive Murderers: http://www.escapingjustice.com)
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To: TinmanTrey

You are 100% correct! Schools have been watered down. Makes it easier for EVERYBODY to graduate. Education is a right you know(rolls eyes). I learn far better when I need and got to know them subject.


17 posted on 12/04/2004 3:43:13 AM PST by neb52
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To: neb52

"I learn far better when I need and got to know them subject."

Thats= got to know the subject.(where did that stupid m come from).


18 posted on 12/04/2004 3:44:31 AM PST by neb52
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To: ROTB
"[As for] my people, children [are] their oppressors, and women rule over them. O my people, they which lead thee cause [thee] to err, and destroy the way of thy paths.
Isaiah 3:12

This is a symptom of a Christless society."

Let us back up a couple of verses and put this "women" in its proper context.

9. The shew of the countenance doth witness against them; and they declare their sin as SODOM, they hide it not. Woe unto their soul! for they have rewarded evil unto themselves.

You might want to see why the usage of "women" is used not cause of what you are inferring.
19 posted on 12/04/2004 3:55:08 AM PST by Just mythoughts
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To: HitmanNY

Here's my take.

My son is 16 and in his 2nd year of college...he is not a genius, but an average teenage boy. He was homeschooled starting in the third grade.

If he had not been homeschooled, who knows how he would have done in school, because when he was young he was a mover (probably would have been labeled ADD). He did much better reciting and learning math facts if he was up moving around while we were drilling.

He was an awful speller, would have flunked out of a spelling class in school, but I didn't pay it too much mind, and encouraged him to read.

He became an avid reader and about the time he hit 7th grade, he also became a better speller (I figure seeing the words in print, over and over finally paid off, whereas learning a spelling word by rote didn't work.)

And as far as encouraging a young boy to read, we found that if we picked a book we thought would interest him, and then read him the first chapter or so, he'd get hooked and then read the rest of the book himself...that worked like a charm when he was younger. Then as he got older, it wasn't necessary, he'd bring a book home and "devour" it on his own.

He hated to write, I didn't push it. When he was in 6th grade the less he had to write the better, as far as he was concerned. One day I asked him why he hated to write, and he told me it hurt his hand, so I bought a typing program, he learned to type and his writing improved dramatically (I wonder if boys sometimes hate to write because it's a small motor skill that is later to develop in some boys.)

His grade point in college is above 3.5, and after the spring term, he will have met his 60 hours of general requirements. He accomplishes all the work on his own, even though when he was younger he was the biggest procrastinator. I can almost guarantee that in a regular school setting he would have had problems.

I think my kid was an average boy. When he was younger, the teaching method had to be adapted to fit a "boy's" perspective and interests (he wouldn't read a book unless it was a "boy book").

As a boy matures, if the foundation has been laid, they can go back to the "usual" method of instruction, but at present, the "usual" education methods in schools are many times not effective for boys. Allow boys to be boys and they might see the trend they mention in this article turn around.

IMHO, the damage is being done in the early years.


20 posted on 12/04/2004 4:11:23 AM PST by dawn53
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