Boys to Men...

Okay, now I am ticked. A recent article on the education of boys reveals a startling surprise, boys are now lagging substantially in educational achievement! The posts at Ann Althouse’s site reflect a striking reality. The educational process is slanted to favor success based upon verbal skills, a decidedly female trait.

I had the good fortune to attend an all male high school. It was religious, disciplined and perfect. Students from that school had their pick of colleges and careers. I am now convinced that the secure environment of that school allowed me to grow and develop in a way a mixed educational style would not have. We interacted with our sister school on social and philanthropic issues, but remained separate in academic pursuits. My example of how successful this was could be seen in the inter school debate competitions. Our all male school typically produced capable and very competitive speakers. It came from a group of dedicated teachers and a selection of students who would later go on to become well regarded professors, lawyers and authors.

There have been a host of books on the subject of educating males in our society. A good essay on the challenges of boys is detailed here. I worry about my own sons. They are in a premiere (for Georgia) public elementary school. But the school is almost 100% staffed by women. It clearly values the sort of socialized approach to learning. They do have recess and a superb physical education program. I am pleased that there is a high degree of parental involvement and that fathers are present in some numbers to provide a complementary view.

There is, I believe, a real issue with the abandonment of the male side of our collective psyche. I think that blacks in the United States have already borne out the problems of a single gender society. While we struggle to reconnect a race with all their disparate members, we risk further splintering the remainder of our population.

As my father would say, all things in moderation.