The War Against Boys: How Misguided Policies are Harming Our Young Men
Language: English
Pages: 288
ISBN: 1501125427
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
An updated and revised edition of the controversial classic--now more relevant than ever--argues that boys are the ones languishing socially and academically, resulting in staggering social and economic costs.
Girls and women were once second-class citizens in the nation's schools. Americans responded w ith concerted efforts to give girls and women the attention and assistance that was long overdue. Now, after two major waves of feminism and decades of policy reform, women have made massive strides in education. Today they outperform men in nearly every measure of social, academic, and vocational well-being.
Christina Hoff Sommers contends that it's time to take a hard look at present-day realities and recognize that boys need help. Called "provocative and controversial . . . impassioned and articulate" ("The Christian Science M"onitor), this edition of "The War Against Boys" offers a new preface and six radically revised chapters, plus updates on the current status of boys throughout the book.
Sommers argues that the problem of male underachievement is persistent and worsening. Among the new topics Sommers tackles: how the war against boys is harming our economic future, and how boy-averse trends such as the decline of recess and zero-tolerance disciplinary policies have turned our schools into hostile environments for boys. As our schools become more feelings-centered, risk-averse, competition-free, and sedentary, they move further and further from the characteristic needs of boys. She offers realistic, achievable solutions to these problems that include boy-friendly pedagogy, character and vocational education, and the choice of single-sex classrooms.
"The War Against Boys" is an incisive, rigorous, and heartfelt argument in favor of recognizing and confronting a new reality: boys are languishing in education and the price of continued neglect is economically and socially prohibitive.
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promoting, 82, 83, 84, 86–87 vocational schools criticized for promoting, 10, 27, 162–63 see also masculine identity Georgia, University of (UGA), 18, 36, 37 Georgia Tech, 166 gifted-and-talented programs, 167, 168, 169–70 Gilligan, Carol, 12, 70, 91–97, 98, 99, 100, 101, 103, 109–14, 134, 142, 143, 228n, 233n adolescent “girl crisis” claimed by, 91–97, 98, 99, 101, 103, 106, 112, 114, 115, 126, 128, 129, 136, 138 Chodorow’s influence on, 116–18 critics of, 91, 108–13, 114 on emotional
completion rates peaked in 1977 . . . and then barely changed over the next 30 years. This slowdown in educational attainment for men is puzzling because attainment among women has continued to rise, and higher education is richly rewarded in the labor market.”75 These rewards are already in evidence. In major cities across the United States, single women ages twenty-two to thirty with no children now earn 8 percent more than their male counterparts (Figure 7). According to the latest Census
Safety, US Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2009. The Bureau of Justice Statistics reports that in 2010, “One percent [of students] reported violent victimization, and less than half of a percent reported a serious violent victimization.”58 School shootings are ghastly, mortifying events and extremely rare. Dewey Cornell, in his study of school violence cited earlier, considered the number of school murders between 1994 and 2004 and did the math: “The average school can
write about the plight of boys are “uncomfortable with the advances of girls.” The AAUW gives no evidence for it. The same charge was made by two professors, Rosalind Chait Barnett, a senior scientist at the Women’s Studies Research Center at Brandeis University, and Caryl Rivers of Boston University, in their 2011 book, The Truth About Girls and Boys: “The fact that girls are succeeding academically touches a wellspring of psychic fear in some people.” They called the boys’ crisis
http://schools.nyc.gov/SchoolPortals/24/Q610/AboutUs/Statistics/register.htm (accessed July 6, 2012). 5. Marcia C. Greenberger, Leslie T. Annexstein, and Kathleen M. Keller to Chancellor Harold O. Levy, New York City Board of Education, August 16, 2001, in the possession of the author. 6. Ibid. 7. Betsy Gotbaum, Public Advocate for the City of New York, Blue School, Pink School: Gender Imbalance in New York City CTE High Schools, January 2008, p. 7. 8. Whitehouse, Title IX at the White House,