Daddy's suing school department for sex-discrimination because sonny has only a B-minus average:“'From the elementary level, they establish a philosophy that if you sit down, follow orders, and listen to what they say, you’ll do well and get good grades,' [Dad] told a journalist. 'Men naturally rebel against this.' [Dad's] proposed remedies [include] raising boys' grades retroactively….”Um, excuse me, but back in the days when 99% of college students were boys my grandfathers were glued into seats in elementary school .
“If boys are doing worse, whose fault is it? To many of the current critics, it’s women’s fault, either as feminists, as mothers, or as both.”So, um, when boys did better, were women praised? Were women showered with busloads of affection and high marks back in the 1800s and 1900s when ten times more boys than girls got into colleges? Um, why not?
Author Michael Kimmel says the problem lies not with women, but with Herr Bush:
“The net effect of ... No Child Left Behind: … school districts scramble to stretch inadequate funding, leaving them little choice but to cut noncurricular programs… This disadvantages ‘rambunctious’ boys, because many of these programs are after-school athletics, gym, and recess. And cutting “unnecessary” school counselors and other remedial programs also disadvantages boys, who compose the majority of children in behavioral and remedial educational programs.”
From the article “A War Against Boys?”
By Michael Kimmel
In Dissent Magazine, FALL 2006
All kinds of plummy thoughts are now dancing in my head.
Bush the mega-boy has succeeded in leveling the playing field for boys and girls – and girls are moving out ahead of boys.
Should we vote to give more money to schoolboys than to schoolgirls? Why? So boys can grow up and crowd women out of colleges, Congress, church leadership and CEO slots? So they can lead us into endless wars and fail to deliver us from unending lists of evils? Can anyone explain to me why we would want to do that?
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thnx to loveleah for the foto
The problem is neither women as feminists and mothers, nor the president. There are two problems:
ReplyDelete1) Foolish parents
2) Men who are slobs
(It's not surprising how often the two coincide). Parents have done a slipshod job of teaching strong character.
'Course there are some great kids with lousy parents, and some great parents with lousy kids.
If women were truly inferior, oppression would be unnecessary. Our own natural limits would hold us back. That's turning out not to be the case, however, and given a level playing field, women kick their asses. Men had to create a patriarchy to keep them in power by force because they didn't have to ability to rule without violence and intimidation.
ReplyDeleteI think they've had far too many advantages - let them struggle, and let the girls leave them in the dust.
But paxton, if the cause is foolish parents, what's the cause of the sudden rise in the number of foolish parents?
ReplyDeleteWhen women win, men win too. How could anyone say life's a bed of roses for either men or women, under the system we have now?
ReplyDelete"But paxton, if the cause is foolish parents, what's the cause of the sudden rise in the number of foolish parents?"
ReplyDeletePresident George W. Bush, obviously. ;)
Well, I have a lot of "theories" -- increasing trivialization and self-centering of sex, marginalization of marriage, easy divorce, length of time spent in education before getting real jobs, and low expectations for children in general. These lead to kids who gain the biological ability to become parents far earlier than the responsibility or strength of character and commitment required to be *good* parents. Decreased belief in absolute truth leading to lack of direction and definite lack of authority to discipline, teach, or even love as strongly.
But I lack much experience of the real world, I have known few parents personally, I do not know if there has been an increase or if I have only just begun to notice things, etc...
in short, I'm hesitant to say I can explain things at all. I'm just sick to death of people minimizing parental responsibility and sloughing it off on the school or the government. =\ (I'm not saying you do that! -- your subject matter and questions just put me in mind of it).
*sighs* No use pretending it's a simple problem. I retract my rhetoric and replace it with a simple exhortation to parents to be good parents and take love seriously. -_-