Posted on 07/04/2008 4:44:18 PM PDT by Coffee200am
The idea that girls are the victims of “sex discrimination” in American schools is so preposterous, it is barely worth discussing. But it seems some people are still determined to believe it.
A few weeks ago, the American Association of University Women, a 127-year-old organization that in recent decades has evolved into a feminist advocacy group, released a report declaring that it had debunked the “myth” of the “boy crisis” — the troubling trend of American boys falling far behind girls academically at every level of education. The AAUW announced that the boy crisis was “a fabrication of people who are uncomfortable with the progress of girls and women,” as columnist Kathleen Parker put it.
No one should take a study by the AAUW at face value, especially because in the 1990s, it did a little fabricating of its own by concocting the myth of a “girl crisis.” In 1992, the AAUW released a report titled How Schools Shortchange Girls. Its charges of egregious sex discrimination were based on such findings as “in textbooks, one-seventh of all illustrations of children are of girls,” “girls read six times as many biographies of males as of females,” and “schools, for the most part, provide inadequate education on sexuality.”
The most sobering discoveries that the AAUW could come up with were that “differences between girls and boys in math achievement are small and declining .… The gender gap in science, however, is not decreasing and may, in fact, be increasing.”
That hardly sounds like a “crisis.” But from the media firestorm that followed its publication, you’d think we were living under the Taliban. The media leapt on the story, churning out more than 1,400 news reports on the study.
But scholars who went through the trouble of looking up the facts — such as census data and reports from the National Center for Education Statistics — quickly realized that How Schools Shortchange Girls was a crock. By 1991, the year before the AAUW report came out, girls were more proficient in reading and writing. As the AAUW admitted, they lagged slightly behind in math, but there was evidence that the gap was closing. Girls were neck-and-neck with boys in many measures of science proficiency. And although they had slightly lower scores on standardized tests, girls got better grades. In 1992, more girls took Advanced Placement examinations, through which students earn college credit. And girls were more likely to go to college.
Even worse, some researchers discovered that the AAUW had hid most of the research it conducted for the report, throwing out any evidence that didn’t fit their pre-determined conclusion that girls were victimized by the education system. One study the AAUW hid revealed that, if girls were indeed being “shortchanged,” they were totally unaware of it: Numerous surveys revealed that both male and female students believed teachers preferred girls, gave them more attention and praise and thought they were smarter.
But the report had made its impact, and politicians, educators and activists had already declared their dedication to ending sex discrimination in education. In 1994, feminist psychologist Mary Pipher’s book Reviving Ophelia, which posited that girls’ sense of self was being destroyed by the sexist school system, became a No. 1 New York Times bestseller. For the next 10 years, the schools became obsessed with trying to rectify the “girl crisis.”
This was done at the expense of boys, who were already behind academically before the AAUW’s fatuous report came out. And 16 years later, the gender gap has widened.
As former Clark University professor Christina Hoff Sommers put it, the education system is basically run “by women for girls, and boys’ presence is merely tolerated.” As official education statistics consistently show, boys are much more likely than girls to drop out of school, fail classes or be suspended or expelled. They make up the vast majority of students in special education classes, and for every 100 girls diagnosed with a learning disability, 217 boys are diagnosed. A survey of eighth graders published by the National Center for Education Statistics revealed that boys were less likely than girls to agree with the statements “teachers listen to what I have to say” and “teachers are interested in students.” On the other hand, they were far more likely than girls to agree with the statement “I often feel put down by my teachers.”
And, of course, there’s ever-growing gap in college enrollment. As of 2005, 60 percent of all college undergraduates were women. Some small liberal arts colleges, which have traditionally been more attractive to women, are well on their way to becoming all-girls’ schools — sometimes with gender ratios of two to one or even four to one. In 2006, The New York Times ran a story titled “At Colleges, Women are Leaving Men in the Dust,” which revealed that “Department of Education statistics show that men, whatever their race or socioeconomic group, are less likely than women to get bachelor’s degrees — and among those who do, fewer complete their degrees in four or five years. Men also get worse grades than women.”
Groups like the AAUW are right that there is bias in American education, but they’re not about to admit the truth: It is systematically biased in favor of girls. Instead, they’re still turning out reports with titles like “Failing at Fairness: How Our Schools Cheat Girls.”
As former Assistant Secretary of Education Diane Ravitch said a few years ago, “When will it be fair? When women are 60 percent or 75 percent of college enrollments? Perhaps it will be fair when there are no men at all.”
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
This article is a crock. It is not set up for girls; it is set up for the lowest common denominator, and they aren’t just girls!
I don't know what the trends are in humanities and arts programs, but engineering is about 75 percent men and nursing is almost 100 percent women. The hard sciences (mathematics, physics, chemistry) are a toss-up but mostly men.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
Is anyone really surprised?
I disagree in part. The schools are definitely catering to the lowest common denominator.
However, children are required to sit still for long periods of time, and movement is discouraged.
That is more suitable for young girls, in general, who do not seem to need to move as much as young boys do.
Young boys do tend to get into more trouble because of squirming, etc., and they are often put on meds to keep them sitting still.
Most elementary school teachers are female, and they often think little boys should behave as they did when they were young, and get annoyed or concerned when the little boys act like little boys.
The drugging up of boys in this country is hushed up, and there are long term, irreversible consequences involved.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
<”However, children are required to sit still for long periods of time, and movement is discouraged.”>
I attended a RC parochial school administered and taught by nuns. ALL children were expected to sit still. I was a real handful and Mother Superior always told Mom how much she admired my spirit BEFORE telling Mom I was difficult and a troublemaker! Those nuns, armed with rock maple rulers, could really catch your attention with a well-aimed smack.
Don’t kid yourself. It isn’t just the boys who have to “toe the line”.
Very good point.
One of the many advantages to home schooling is, I can teach my boys one way and my girls the other. And no ritalin!
I agree. Some colleges are now so desperate for boys that they’re giving them extra points in admissions.
I wonder how much you were allowed to play on the playground, play house, etc. Much of that imaginative play time is cut out of schools now for various reasons-especially to practice for tests.
In many colleges, most of the engineering students are foreigners.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
No, liberals will never do that. They took Alinsky’s advice, got inside the institutions, took over the institutions, and act as gatekeepers to make sure they keep control of the institutions. In the meantime, conservatives have run from those institutions, letting them take over.
Yet, I have read about some colleges that have developed strategies for attracting males to their campuses. Some of them justify it by using safety and gender balance as their reasoning.
I think conservatives need to return to the institutions, and challenge the liberals, using their own lingo against them.
Their Achilles’ heel is their arrogance. They actually believe they are smarter than us because that’s what they keep telling each other in their echo chambers. They are not that difficult to frazzle.
I had oodles of play time. Mother Superior was just annoyed with me as I kept beating up the boys and was most definitely hyperactive.
Yeah, I hear you on that one! That’s why I home taught our boy; he was borderline ADD.
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