wrote a well-received book titled “Boys Adrift.” The
doctor tried to answer the question, why have so many
young males fallen into passivity and indifference?
Dr. Sax had heard more and more parents complain that
their boys stayed indoors most of the time, spent hours
on video games, and in general seemed to lack the
confidence and esprit de corps that had characterized
boys throughout history.
“Something scary is happening to boys today,” Sax
concluded. “From kindergarten to college, American boys
are, on average, less resilient and less ambitious than
they were a mere twenty years ago. The gender gap in
college attendance and graduation rates has widened
dramatically.”
The book’s full title is, “Boys Adrift: The Five
Factors Driving the Growing Epidemic of Unmotivated
Boys and Underachieving Young Men.” Sax lists the five
factors right on the cover: “video games, teaching
methods, prescription drugs, environmental toxins,
devaluation of masculinity.”
It’s worrisome that he seems to like them all. That
might be a clue that he has not solved this mystery.
Indeed, let’s consider the possibility that none of
these theories is the deep answer we want. Let’s start
from scratch and consider the things we know for sure.
First of all, critics have often noted that schools
seem organized more for girls than for boys. Most boys
do not want to be confined to a desk; they would rather
be outside playing and competing. Second, not only are
boys kept passively inside, they are forced to deal
almost the entire day with reading, writing, and
arithmetic, probably not their own first choices.
But these factors are historically common. Boys have
always been restless at their desks. They have often
stared out the window and daydreamed. Furthermore, in
many other cultures and ages, discipline was greater;
serious academic work was demanded. So it’s not as if
there were some golden age when boys had it better. No,
they have it worse today, and for reasons that are new.
We are now arriving at the heart of darkness.
Consider that all school activity revolves around two
basic skills, reading and arithmetic. Students spend a
lot of each day on these and must learn them in order
to advance to any other subjects. Failure in these two
subjects virtually guarantees failure in all subjects,
and in all of life.
Perversely, our public schools, for more than 50 years,
have used dysfunctional methods that virtually
guarantee failure for the ordinary boy (that is, a boy
who will struggle to a degree but finally says, screw
this.)
To learn to read, he is told he must memorize English
words as graphic designs. He fails for all the reasons
that Rudolf Flesch explained in his 1955 bestseller,
“Why Johnny Can’t Read.” Almost as devastating, the boy
must learn arithmetic using one of the dozen curricula
collectively called Reform Math. These are
exceptionally cumbersome and frustrating for children,
as has been amply documented.
Now imagine a boy, restless and impatient, locked in a
situation he doesn’t really like, engaged in activities
he might prefer to avoid. He senses that instruction is
gratuitously difficult and tedious. Increasingly, he
rebels. Already he glimpses a future hopeless and
horrible, where he will never be allowed to succeed.
He comes to school every day depressed and is told to
memorize sight-words, which is very difficult to do. If
he actually does master 100, the next 100 will
overwhelm his brain. Simultaneously, he is made to
learn arithmetic in ways that he can’t understand. Even
his parents can’t explain to him the techniques he is
supposed to learn.
So every day, every week, every month, the ordinary boy
stares at a sign flashing in the air: ACCESS: DENIED.
Whatever it is he is supposed to do, he can’t do it. He
wants to, he really, really wants to. What else does a
boy have but cockiness and confidence? Boys rule! Or
they once did. But their sense of being master of any
situation is no match for the dark genius of our
Education Establishment.
He becomes sullen, then angry. He hears his parents
whispering about him. He goes to conferences where his
teacher talks about remediation and dyslexia. He’s told
he has ADHD. He might need Ritalin.
Imagine when he is seven and failing. Imagine when he
is eight and still failing. Imagine when he is nine and
more blatantly failing. Imagine how many discussions he
has had with his teacher and parents about his
inability to do the simplest things. Imagine the
interior collapse of confidence. If his parents and all
adults in his world think, to put it bluntly, that he
is retarded, then he must be.
The signs flash everywhere: SUCCESS: IMPOSSIBLE.
DREAMS: CRUSHED.
Dr. Sax put a lot of emphasis on video games but
perhaps he has it backwards. Consider that the school
world makes boys feel helpless. But the virtual world
lets many boys be the smart, extremely capable people
they actually are. Which world would you choose to
remain in all day?
Dr. Sax puts a lot of emphasis on early literacy
instruction, as if this is a strain. Why would it be a
strain if boys actually did learn to read? Reading is
fun. It’s the con that is the strain. It’s adults
pretending to teach children to read but not letting
them learn to read that is the killer.
Dr. Sax speaks of masculinity being undervalued. Maybe
it’s more directly a case of masculinity hemmed in and,
as the school years pass, neutralized.
Finally. one can never escape the impression that there
is premeditation in all of this. Does the Education
Establishment use these methods to induce a loss of
confidence? Then they are evil people. If they don’t
know any better, then they are incompetent people.
Bruce Deitrick Price is an author and education
reformer. He deconstructs education theories and
methods on his site Improve-Education.org.
For more on bad MATH instruction, see "Innumeracy by
Design" (on this site).
For more on bad READING instruction, see "Imagine
making children illiterate" (on this site).
Improve-Education.org has a dozen articles about
reading. "Leading Boys To Reading" is especially
appropriate.
Article Source:
http://www.edarticle.com/articles/42801/what-really-
happened-to-boys.php
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