Posted on 06/25/2005 8:33:25 AM PDT by herst1240
Some researchers call them the "Lost Boys." They are young males students you don't see on college campuses. The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) tracks the enrollment in all degree-granting institutions by sex. From 1992 to 2000, the ratio of enrolled males to females fell from 82 to 78 boys for every 100 girls. The NCES projects that in 2007 the ratio will be 75 males for every 100 females; in 2012, 74 per 100. In short, your son is statistically more likely than your daughter to work a blue collar job.
Thomas Mortenson, senior scholar at the Pell Institute for the Study of Opportunity in Higher Education, argues that leaving a generation of boys behind hurts women as well. In a Business Week cover story, Mortenson observed, "My belief is that until women decide that the education of boys is a serious issue, nothing is going to happen."
He believes some women feel threatened by even admitting the problem because "it will take away from the progress of women...What everyone needs to realize is that if boys continue to slide, women will lose too."
That realization still seems distant among educational experts, who continue to downplay the NCES statistic as well as other data that indicate schools are hurting boys.
Jacqueline King -- author of the influential study "Gender Equity in Higher Education: Are Male Students at a Disadvantage?" -- is an example. She found that 68 percent of college enrollees from low-income families were female; only 31 percent were male.
Yet King insists there is no "boy crisis" in education despite the fact that data from Upward Bound and Talent Search show a comparable gender gap. (These college-preparation programs operate in high schools and received $312.6 million $144.9 million in tax funding, respectively, in 2005.) Of the students who receive benefits from those college-preparation programs, approximately 61 percent are girls; 39 percent are boys.
King's quoted explanation of the gender gaps: "women make up a disproportionate share of low-income students" who go on to college. Since low-income families presumably give birth to boys in the same ratio as the general population-- worldwide the ratio is between 103 to 107 boys for every 100 girls -- why are so few boys applying for assistance? A higher drop-out rate might be partly responsible, or boys may have no interest in higher education.
King comments on the latter explanation: "male low-income students have some ability in this strong economy to make a decent living with just a high-school diploma." In particular, she points to the construction industry.
King may be correct. The fact that low-income boys gravitate toward manual labor may account for some of the educational gender disparity. What is striking, however, is her apparent dismissal of that disparity as important. She seems to accept the reality that far fewer men than women enroll in college and that poor boys enter "the trades" while poor girls become professionals.
Imagine the gender ratio being reversed, with 78 girls for every 100 boys entering college. Imagine a generation of poor girls being relegated to low social status labor while tax funding assists poor boys. It is difficult to believe King would be similarly unconcerned.
Nevertheless, merely by acknowledging the situation, King shows far more balance than prominent voices, like the American Association of University Women, which still maintains there is a "girl crisis."
Fortunately, researchers like Judith Kleinfeld of the University of Alaska see that boys are in distress.
Kleinfeld -- author of "The Myth That Schools Shortchange Girls" -- states, "In my own college classes, I see a sea change in the behavior of young men. In the 1980s, the young men talked in my classes about the same as young women. I know because each semester I measured male and female talk. Now so many young men are disengaged that the more articulate, ambitious women dominate the classroom ....and my office hours."
Kleinfeld tried to trace the problem backward by interviewing high school students on plans for their future. She states, "The young women almost always have a clear, realistic plan---go to college, have a career, often directed toward an idealistic goals about improving the environment."
This clarity of vision and was generally absent in young men.
Among those who acknowledge the "boy crisis," explanations are vary and may all be true. Some point to the "feminization" of education over the last decade, which occurred largely in response to a perceived need to encourage girls. But, if boys and girls learn differently, then the changes may be placing boys at a disadvantage.
Others point to explicitly anti-male attitudes -- that is, political correctness -- within education. The website Illinois Loop lists "22 School Practices That May Harm Boys." One of them: "'Modern' textbooks and recommended literature often go to extremes to remove male role models as lead characters and examples."
Kleinfeld points speculatively to the impact of increased divorce and fatherless homes on the self-image of boys who lack a positive male role-model.
Approximately 40 percent of American children now live in homes without their own biological father.
Ultimately, explanations of and solutions to the "boy crisis" will come from exploring a combination of factors. My solution: privatize education and place it under the control of parents or adult students.
The first step to any solution, however, is to acknowledge there is a problem. We are not quite there yet.
Good for you!! You son is the kind of guy I hope my daughters will marry eventually.
I was invited to, but never joined the AAUW when I graduated college. Even back then, in 1974, they were beginning to get way too liberal for me.
"our statistics aren't delineating skills-based training versus a standard high school training. Those students who have certifications with skills training (plumbing, electrician, AYES, etc..etc..) will do better than most college graduates."
Nor should they ... this article is about the fact that only 31% of low-income boys are going to college... It doesnt say that 69% of them are becoming plumbers. For every plumber, you've got a guy with a GED who's stuck behind a counter saying "you want fries with that?"
Moreover, the link I cited pointed out that beyond financial salary benefits, the college degree gives benefits of job mobility. The trades are narrow specialties. What if 5 years later the plumber decides to do something else? at 28, he'll be 10 years behind his peers in making a fresh start.
The point still stands: The average person with a HS degree has a little more than have the lifetime earnings expectations of someone with a college degree... we should be concerned that males are going to college at such drastically lower rates than women.
Thank you for mentioning the facts regarding engineers. If one is a good engineer, one will find a good-paying job here in the USA. My hubby is one. Hopefully, my son will follow in his dad's footsteps.
Not all engineering jobs can be outsourced. Agilent Technologies is finding the caliber and output of its Malaysian workforce is no where near the caliber of what is right here in the states. They actually are hiring American engineers in California to replace a slew of incompetent--but cheap--foreign engineers whose work was full of bugs, miscalculations and wound up costing the company more than it thought it was going to save by outsourcing.
Good, American-trained engineering is not easily outsourced.
"Yet women are still considered minorities in college applications ."
That is part of the problem. Bias in academia is de-motivating the males.
"Thank you for mentioning the facts regarding engineers. If one is a good engineer, one will find a good-paying job here in the USA. My hubby is one. Hopefully, my son will follow in his dad's footsteps."
That's great.
I'm on the front line (with a PhD in CS) and know whereof I speak.
There are plenty of good opportunities if you are capable enough.
"Not all engineering jobs can be outsourced. Agilent Technologies is finding the caliber and output of its Malaysian workforce is no where near the caliber of what is right here in the states. They actually are hiring American engineers in California to replace a slew of incompetent--but cheap--foreign engineers whose work was full of bugs, miscalculations and wound up costing the company more than it thought it was going to save by outsourcing."
LOL ... seen that happen too. Heard Dell had to do something similar wrt their helpdesk.
'Course, that was BEFORE she got married! (smirk!)
I agree with the concerns. However, I also agree that a college education "ain't what it used to be". My older daughter has a liberal arts degree in graphic design. In order to be hirable, she is getting her master's in information systems with emphasis on database administration. We have kids in our technology high school coming out of our graphic design program knowing the software necessary to get a job making $20-25/hour at the minimum. Now, they are going to make more money in the short-term than she who has a college degree. However, she will make more in the long run with the M.S. degree. But she won't with the B.A. degree. In order to make decent money/get a good job with a college degree, it often takes more learning/degrees. What our colleges/universities used to teach within the confines of a bachelor's degree has been watered down so much, business and industry have demanded more learning/training. I know, I used to work there. I work with employers in my locality all the time.
I hope and pray that my son will meet an educated (or intelligent) young woman who finds no shame in putting her young family first and doesn't view my son as competition or as a despicable, woman-demeaning male because he wants to be a (gasp) major breadwinner!
Well, in my book, he's a "catch". And my daughters will agree. They were raised to respect a young man like your son. Kudos to you and your spouse!
Those working lives started working in 1960 and may not reflect current trends, including the proliferation of Bachelor's degrees and the current demand for competent construction personnel.
They also do not account for the increase in tuition, etc.
When I graduated, it was not unusual for students to have acumulated a debt of two or even five thousand dollars in the course of getting their education, but many graduated with all of the bills paid in full. Now I meet grads with a debt of 60+ thousand, just to get a bachelor's degree.
If you are a competent tradesman, you will likely end up owning a business by the time the other guy pays off his/her student loans.
I have a Bachelor of Science in Geology, but unless they were planning on taking up engineering, science, medicine or law, I could not reccommend that any of my grandchildren shell out the bucks and spend four years to get a BA or BS.
Wow! My niece is also a graphic designer and her employer told her she should get another degree, too. She makes pretty good money and doesn't really want to spend anymore time or funds on schooling. (That could have given her employer the excuse not to give her a raise--who knows?) She stays on top of the latest developments and loves being able to work at home much of the time.
My daughters' pictures are on the Tax-chick page :-).
College is a waste of time and money. Many of my college educated friends don't make the money I make with my pipe wrenches and welding torches. Vocational High Schools and trade schools are much better. The best part is I can do work that Uncle Sam will never find out about.
Anyway I'm already rich without some college degree
(I wonder if someone without a sense of humor will blow a gasket)
I would say, "College is a waste of time and money for many people." Especially for those who don't have a specific goal that they know they need the college degree to accomplish.
My husband has a master's degree in electrical engineering, but he spent 10 years in the Air Force growing up before he started college. The digital design skills he learned in grad school in the late '90s didn't even exist in the 1980's, so he'd have had a totally different career if he'd gone to college straight from high school.
That sounds better than it is Joe. Truth be known, there are dozens of guys who never do anything but work for someone else for every guy that steps up to own his own business. Worse, the majority of startups fail and wind up back on someone else's payroll. Entrepreneurship is great, but it's almost as sure a thing as going to the dog track.
Pray for W and Our Troops
I suggest you check into lifetime earning potentials for such mundane degrees as accounting and business. They far surpass the trades.
According to the census Bureau the breakdown is thus:
Average annual earnings by education level*
Professional Degree $109,600
Doctoral Degree $89,400
Master's Degree $62,300
Bachelor's Degree $52,200
Associate's Degree $38,200
Some college $36,800
High school graduate $30,400
* Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Surveys, March 1998, 1999, and 2000. Tabulations reflect the average annual earnings of full-time, year-round workers 25 to 64 years old.
"Your statistics aren't delineating skills-based training versus a standard high school training. Those students who have certifications with skills training (plumbing, electrician, AYES, etc..etc..) will do better than most college graduates."
Not to mention his stats are based on the past, not projections of the future. I have an associates and technical certifications and work in technology and make more than many people I know with BAs and BSs who work in other fields. A lot of it depends on the field of pursuit, not the education level. My buddy has a Masters in Psychology and works as a locksmith because the money is better. My eyes tell me a completely different story than that gentleman's (or lady's?) stats.
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