Schools hostile to boys?

Discussion in 'Off-Topic Discussions' started by RichC., Aug 19, 2013.

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  1. RichC.

    RichC. Member

    Christina Hoff Sommers: School Has Become Hostile to Boys | TIME.com



    I found this to be a very interesting article. Cliff notes version: young boys, in the article examples are age 7, are being suspended for throwing air grenades to kill the bad guys or "shooting" their friends with their pencil serving as the gun.

    I can forsee my son being subjected to this way of thinking.

    I don't like the renaming of tug-o-war to tug-o-peace either.

    In my opinion, most everything that is geared towards boys is of a violent nature. I grew up this way as did most every male I have ever met. Don't get me wrong, school violence is bad, mm'kay, but don't expect little boys who watch Spiderman and Batman breaking out cans of whoopass on the bad guys to not want to do the samething when they are with their friends at school.
     
  2. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    I think this sort of thing can happen when, other than janitors, there are no men working in elementary schools. In my eight year old's school I think there's one, and he looks like he's fairly close to retirement.
     
  3. 03310151

    03310151 Active Member

    Yes.

    Some research on grades and gender inequality in schools. Read the paper called: "Non-cognitive Skills and the Gender Disparities in Test Scores and Teacher Assessments: Evidence from Primary School". - Researchers noticed that overall girls were getting much better grades throughout school and then in the end boys were still scoring higher (on average) on placements tests. This research shows a clear bias against boys in the classroom when it comes to grades.

    Some more research: Boy-Girl Differences in Parental Time Investments: Evidence from Three Countries (Boy Girld Differences in Parental Time Investments).

    In the 70's we noticed our girls were not performing as well as the boys. They graduated from college at a lesser rate and were not as successful in high school. The book "Raising Ophelia" turned national attention to girls falling behind in the classroom. We've now done a 180, boys are dropping out at higher rates, not graduating from high school, and attending college at much lower rates that are girls. In the 18-34 age group females actually outearn males. We don't have a boys version of "Raising Ophelia" to sway things to a more balanced approach. Mostly what we get is shaming from people that there really is no problem or that somehow the little boys being raised now must pay for the sins of their fathers.

    Anyway, yes it's a problem and one I have witnessed firsthand on numerous occassions.
     
  4. AV8R

    AV8R Active Member

    Yes, I think it's a real problem. If I were a kid again, I'm not sure I would last long in today's schools. Just about every play activity I engaged in as a kid involved war, guns, or something of the sort. In other words, I was a typical boy. They would've locked my mini-me up and thrown away the key.
     
  5. 03310151

    03310151 Active Member

    "There is no such thing as violent play. Violence and aggression are intended to hurt somebody. Play is not intended to hurt somebody. Play, rougher in its themes and rougher physically, is a feature of boyhood in every society on Earth" - from psychologist Michael Thompson, co-author of “Raising Cain: Protecting the Emotional Life of Boys,”
     
  6. rebel100

    rebel100 New Member

    We'll pay for this nonsense one day...I'll be spending the afternoon teaching pistol shooting (real pistols, live ammo) to group of High School girls.
     
  7. ryoder

    ryoder New Member

    Yes the world in general has become hostile to males. Its the overly PC world we live in.
    I shot hundreds of animals and people with air guns as a kid. I carved a path of make believe destruction everywhere I went. Everybody did. If I did that now I'd be expelled for sure.
     
  8. Kizmet

    Kizmet Moderator

    I won't pretend to understand the nature of the problem but the behaviors described in this thread are pretty common and as far as I know, they're pretty harmless. Where I grew up the boys "played army" for endless hours, making various sorts of weapons from scrap wood with nails as triggers and sites. Paint was an added element and usually reflected the parents latest home decorating projects. When I was a kid I had a thing called a wrist rocket. It was a slingshot that clamped to your forearm and was made with sturdy aluminum and rubber medical tubing. I never tried to kill animals but I sure scared a whole bunch of squirrels (just giving them some acorns):sgrin:
     
  9. friendorfoe

    friendorfoe Active Member

    This may be a controversial way of thinking, but “violence” is not “evil” but rather necessary. Suppressing a “violent” or destructive tendency that almost all boys are inherently born with, places that instinct out of the influence and direction of those wiser and more mature than themselves. You cannot suppress the nature of boys (aside from drugs) but you can direct it towards good and constructive purposes and put emotional and psychological boundaries in place. Instead modern education (and seemingly psychology) attempts to suppress what is inherent in nature.

    My son is wired vastly different than my daughter. At only 2 years old he is MUCH more curious and destructive than she is and that’s natural (though expensive). I was the same way, I had toy guns, but if I didn’t I used sticks. When I didn’t have sticks I used my fingers. We played “army” and “cops and robbers” etc. The funny thing was, I remember as a kid, almost nobody ever wanted to be the “bad guy” because we understood the difference. We did not consider the act of violence itself evil, but rather the purpose, and I think that’s a notion that is lost in today’s society.
     

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