Boys Are Falling Behind — Overschooling Is the Reason

This post is a talk I gave earlier this week — Boys Are Falling Behind: Overschooling Is the Reason.  Here’s a LINK to the slides.

Below is a brief overview of the argument, but I recommend looking at the slides to get the full story.

• Males are increasingly falling behind in our educational system
• Compared to females, males:
  • Get worse grades and lower test scores
  • Graduate high school at lower rates
  • Are less likely to attend and graduate from college
  • Have higher rates of mental illness
  • Are much more likely to suffer deaths of despair
  • Experience more social isolation

• The most common HS grade for girls is A; for boys it’s B
• 88% of girls graduated from high school on time (i.e., 4 years after enrolling), compared to 82% of boys
• The male graduation rate is only a little higher than the 80% among poor students
• Boys make up 65% of students in special education
• They are 4 times as likely to be diagnosed with ADHD
• 70% of high school valedictorians are girls.

• Women account for:
  • 60% of college undergraduates
  • 60% of graduate students
  • 80% of vet school students
  • The majority of students in dental, medical, and law school
• College admissions officers routinely admit boys with lower academic records than girls in order to keep a roughly even sex ratio

Maybe this is a SCHOOL problem

• Schools are all about control
• The biggest fear teachers have, especially newbies, is losing control
• Other professionals work with voluntary clients
• Teachers work with conscripts, compelled to be in the classroom
• By law, by parents, and by the job market
• They work alone
• They’re vastly outnumbered

And, oh yes, students don’t like all this control, and for good reason

Testosterone is anathema to school control

• Boys are inherently more prone to aggression and physical activity
• Schools have no tolerance for either
• Teacher wants you to
  • Sit still at your desk
  • Keep quiet until you’re called on
  • Ask permission for anything you want to do – and expect no for the answer
• This is not natural for any young person, and especially boys

We’re overschooling our young people

• No one would ever say that Americans are overeducated, but perhaps we are overschooled
• School devours a huge portion of our lives, when we’re constantly preparing for a future that is continually being deferred
• It sharply constrains personal development during our long years in the little seats
• It’s teaching kids to keep out of trouble and avoid taking risks

• Social and economic progress depends on a population that is willing to take risks and rebound from failure
• Exactly the kinds of actions that schools teach students to avoid
• If we inflict less schooling on children, we may be more effective at ensuring that they will become better educated