Give the Boys A Chance? Not in Public Schools

The war on boys continues:

Something is going on and something is going wrong with many boys. Parents and teachers know it. So why is there so much resistance inside the Beltway to doing something to help this generation of boys? Why isn’t there a task force on boys’ needs like the Department of Education’s task force on girls’ needs?

The September 12, 2006, debate at the National Press Club on the topic “Are Boys Really in Crisis?” reveals the source of this resistance.

The moderator, Ruth Wattenberg, editor of the American Educator, opened the discussion with a statement from a time warp, “I promise no matter how aggressive or disruptive [the two male panelists] get, I will not neglect Sara [the author of a report dismissing the problems of boys].”

Sara Mead testily replied, “I hope I’m not being called on first because you don’t think I can hold my own!”

There you have it. It’s still all about women. It’s still about men oppressing women. They just don’t get it. “Change blindness” — that’s what psychologists call this dangerous cognitive error.

With all the evidence showing that male suicide rates have rocketed, that boys are more likely to drop out of high school, that just 42 percent of college students are male, how can these women argue with a straight face that boys don’t need help?

Let me be unkind for a moment and posit that this attitude on behalf of female educators may be linked to a tendency to punish boys for perceived injustices foisted upon hapless women by men.

Since these people are all about beancounting, may I recommend that this problem might be solved in part by enforcing a strict quota to increase the ratio of male to female teachers?

If sufficient quantities of male teachers can't be found in a given area, we can always bus them in....