The Trouble With Boys

Newsweek Society - MSNBC.com: "Boys are biologically, developmentally and psychologically different from girls—and teachers need to learn how to bring out the best in every one. 'Very well-meaning people,' says Dr. Bruce Perry, a Houston neurologist who advocates for troubled kids, 'have created a biologically disrespectful model of education.'"

The trouble with Universities more like. It is very interesting to me that Newsweek would assume something in this article that is rejected with horror at Harvard.

Of course the question is, if the differences between boys and girls demand changing the learning environment, doesn't that imply that the differences between men and women demand the same concessions in the work environment. I'm sure this question would make some at Harvard black out but it's either a valid question or not. I imagine this has implications for industry, society and the military. Trying to ignore this question is foolish.

For example, the Newsweek article points out that classes that are segregated by sex to better than those that are not. I'm willing to bet the same is true for students in college dorms. But I expect it would take quite a bit for college administrators to implement this idea.

It's not just boys who are in trouble but men also:

Washington Post: Statistics show that a young man who doesn't finish school or go to college in 2005 will likely earn less than half what a college graduate earns. He'll be three times more likely to be unemployed and more likely to be homeless. He'll be more likely to get divorced, more likely to engage in violence against women and more likely to engage in crime. He'll be more likely to develop substance abuse problems and to be a greater burden on the economy, statistically, since men who don't attend college pay less in Social Security and other taxes, depend more on government welfare, are more likely to father children out of wedlock and are more likely not to pay child support.

Yet ironically it is school that often creates a hostile environment for men, which is what the Newsweek article is all about. And of course things like Promise Keepers have long been dismissed as archaic and dangerous by the denizens of the University culture.

Wisdom is known by her children.