It is time to bring attention and action to the needs of boys and young men. Across the political spectrum, from K-12 education through post-graduate education, in health care, in businesses, and everywhere, a strong consensus has emerged regarding the necessity of doing better in recognizing that boys and young men face serious challenges and need serious, compassionate support and an end to the gender empathy gap.
A Consensus About Our Young Men in College
Men are Becoming the Minority on College Campuses – why?
Anna Raley — The Saint Anselm Crier
“… male students are disappearing from college campuses. An analysis done by the National Student Clearinghouse …male enrollment in colleges, as well as actual completion towards a higher degree, has decreased 8.9 percent from spring 2020 to spring 2021. …in 2020, the Wall Street Journal reported that U.S. colleges enrolled 1.5 million fewer students … men accounted for more than 70 percent of this alarming decline.”
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Colleges Nationwide Face Rapid Decline in Male Enrollment, Although ASU Bucks the Trend
By Olivia McCann — Cronkite News
“We have these expectations that men cannot complain. Men cannot ask for help,” [Garcia] said…. “One of the biggest things is the societal pressure to be a man,” he said. “You have this responsibility and you don’t really have a lot of outlets or resources when you do fail.”… But the lack of national research could be preventing [the few available] programs from reaching their full potential, according to Kishia Brock, the associate vice Chancellor at the Maricopa Community College District…. “No extensive research has been conducted – at least from the Department of Education…” Brock said. “I think we just really need to dig in … and get a better understanding of what’s fueling this.”
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Men Without University Degrees Have Suffered the Biggest Hit to Employment Since COVID
Jeevun Sandher, PhD — The Conversation
“The decline in job opportunities … led to [college] non-graduate men dying in far greater numbers … Both in the UK and the US, many who couldn’t find work … turned to alcohol and drugs … take their own lives in greater numbers …. In the UK, the number of middle-aged men dying … doubled over the past 30 years. In the US, the number has increased so rapidly, it has actually led to falling overall life expectancy. …”
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https://theconversation.com/men-without-university- degrees -have – suffered-the -biggest-hit-to – employment- since – covid-170042
The Troubling Gender Gap in Higher Education
By Cathy Young — NewsDay
“Are America’s young men giving up on higher education? A recent Wall Street Journal report pointing out that college males now trail their female peers by ‘record levels’ – women made up nearly 60% of the student population in spring 2021 – has raised new concerns. Some blame male alienation and personal struggles, others campus politics. In fact, it’s a complicated issue, and it’s not always about males falling behind. But in many ways, this gender gap does point to the challenge of how to address disadvantage in a group our dominant discourse labels ‘privileged.’”
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https://www.newsday.com/opinion/columnists/cathy-young/higher- education- gender- gap -1.5037 1347
‘It’s Become Increasingly Hard for Them To Feel Good About Themselves’
By Thomas B. Edsall — New York Times
“Is there a whole class of men who no longer fit into the social order? There are a number of research projects that illuminate the ongoing controversy on the subject of men and their role in contemporary America. The bigger question is how the country should deal with the legions of left-behind men, often angry at the cataclysmic social changes, including family breakdown, that have obliterated much that was familiar…”
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https://www.ny times.com/2021/09/22/opinion/economy-education-women-men.html?smid=tw-share
Men Are Losing Their Grip in The New Economy
By Allison Schrager –Bloomberg
“It’s no longer a man’s world. Pundits have speculated for more than a decade about the end of men. After centuries of dominating the economy, most of the job growth is in industries where women traditionally work. And those jobs require more education. The latest piece of data is that women are dominating college enrollment. In a few years, two women will earn a degree for every one man… a large population of men falling behind doesn’t help anyone. Men with lower earnings prospects and less education are less likely to marry. And to make matters worse, coming from a single-parent household lowers the odds a boy will go to college…”
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Men are Skipping College. Here’s Why That Trend Could Have Devastating Consequences
The Editorial Board USA TODAY
“… women outnumber men on two-year and four-year college campuses by millions… 60% of students are women while only about 40% are men… an education gap that has been widening for decades… consequences for millions of men opting out of college and for their families…college graduates earn on average 56% more than high school grads…college grads on average are healthier, happier, have better marriages and live longer, too… Economic downturns are less likely to turn into job loss…[This issue] should be a national priority.”
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Colleges Have a Guy Problem
By Derek Thompson — The Atlantic
“American colleges and universities now enroll roughly six women for every four men. This is the largest female-male gender gap in the history of higher education, and it’s getting wider. Last year, U.S. colleges enrolled 1.5 million fewer students than five years ago, The Wall Street Journal recently reported. Men accounted for more than 70 percent of the decline…The U.S. education gender gap isn’t just a college phenomenon…‘For decades, guys have been less likely to graduate from high school, less likely to enroll in college immediately, and less likely to finish college and earn a diploma,’ Reeves told me.
‘There is a linear educational trajectory for girls and women. Boys and men tend to zigzag their way through adolescence.’
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A Generation of American Men Give Up on College: ‘I Just Feel Lost’
By Douglas Belkin — The Wall Street Journal
“Men are abandoning higher education in such numbers that they now trail female college students by record levels. At the close of the 2020-21 academic year, women made up 59.5% of college students, an all-time high, and men 40.5%, according to enrollment data from the National Student Clearinghouse, a nonprofit research group. U.S. colleges and universities had 1.5 million fewer students compared with five years ago, and men accounted for 71% of the decline.”
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A Consensus About Our Boys in Grade School
The Blue Collar Bookseller Review: Getting Boys to Read
Kevin Coolidge– North Central PA
“Boys need to be allowed a lot of options. Boys tend to choose stories full of action, gross stuff and silly humor, because that’s what boys like. … The first way to get a boy to read is not to force him … Offer …selection of books after you ask him [about] his interests. The worst mistake is to assume that all boys will take to the same book. …Every boy is different. Let him feel like it’s his decision. …”
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No More Extra Credit? Schools Rethink Approaches to Grades
By Terry Tang Associated Press — US News
“For years, advocates have advanced the concept of “equitable grading,” arguing grades should reflect students’ mastery of course material and not homework, behavior or extra credit. A growing number of schools … eliminating bias from grading systems… Others are allowing students to retake tests and turn work in late… Some teachers have pushed back, arguing the changes amount to lowering expectations. …”
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What About the Boys? Addressing Educational Underachievement of Boys and Men During and Beyond the COVID Pandemic
Jaime Saavedra, Hana Brixi, Michel Welmond, and Laura Gregory — World Bank Blogs – February 23, 2022
“In every region of the world, and in almost every country, boys are more likely than girls to experience learning poverty, being unable to read and comprehend a simple text by the age of 10. …the learning poverty rate for boys is 56 percent, compared to 47 percent for girls. …there are more than 100 countries in which fewer boys/men than girls/women are enrolled in and complete secondary and higher education. Of the 152 countries with data, 116 (76%) have lower tertiary education enrollment ratios among men compared to women. … less likely to finish their programs of study…”
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Study Calls Benefits of Pre-K Into Question Expert Says Not So Fast
Tara Santora — Fatherly
“The kids who attended preschool scored higher on school readiness, but in the long-run, they actually had worse outcomes. These kids had lower state achievement test scores from third to sixth grade and were also more likely to have disciplinary infractions and lower attendance, and they were more likely to receive so-called special education. …”
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https://www.fatherly.com/health- science/study-pre -k- question-benefits/
Boys in Crisis: Schools are Failing Young Males. Here’s What Needs to Change in Classrooms
By Christopher Brueningsen — USA Today
“… growing gender gap in high school graduation rates. According to the Brooking Institution, in 2018, about 88% of girls graduated on time, compared with 82% of boys… major 2015 study… concluded that school environments may be more attuned to feminine-typed personalities…[which makes it] easier for girls to achieve better grades in school…teachers might approach male students with certain unconscious biases, which may translate into self-fulfilling outcomes…A structured learning environment is very important for boys, but this can be achieved in concert with using teaching techniques that work especially well for boys….[making] our classrooms more boy-friendly is an important step in resolving the crisis young men face in our country.”
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Boys Are Falling Farther and Farther Behind Their Sisters: Should We Care?
Dr. Leonard Sax, MD, PhD — Institute for Family Studies
“At every level … young women seeking a man to marry are looking for men who are at least as competent and hard-working as they are…since the 1980s, boys’ academic achievement in high school has declined relative to girls, not primarily because girls are doing better but because boys are doing worse …Parents need to find schools where teachers and administrators know how to create an environment that is friendly to boys without being unfriendly to girls.”
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A Consensus About Our Boys’ Physical and Mental Health
Strength in Storytime: Reading Aloud to Young Children Triples their Resilience
By Jocelyn Solis-Moreira — Study Finds
“Results showed boys exposed to abuse or neglect had more developmental issues than girls. … educational system …[need to] better support boys in early learning environments…especially those who are victims of child maltreatment ….nus is on the education sector to identify other mechanisms to support boys,’ …include recruiting more male educators into early childhood settings and ensuring learning approaches are sensitive to the specific needs of boys. …’”
Read the full article: https://w w w.studyfinds.org/reading- out-loud-resilience/
New Research Shows Sports-Based Resilience Training Improves Mental Health in Teen Boys
Mirage News
“The study from Movember, published in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, demonstrates that Movember’s Ahead of the Game program has been proven to increase wellbeing and resilience among the adolescent boys who took part… Teenage boys who took part in the Australian-led study – the biggest of its kind in the world – demonstrated a better understanding of what mental health is, had greater intentions to help others who have a mental health problem and were more confident about seeking help themselves if they needed to. …”
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https://www.miragenews.com/new-research- shows – sports -based-resilience -5 12080/
A Consensus About Our Boys Needing Fathers
and Male Mentors
Ladies, It’s Time To Help Our Boys
Brenda Hafera — Heritage
“The absence of fathers…is the primary driver of the boy crisis. Both mothers and fathers are indispensable and contribute uniquely to raising children. With 40 percent of children born out of wedlock and custody laws favoring mothers, more children are missing Dad’s, rather than Mom’s, influence. …effects of dad deprivation include higher rates of suicide, drug use, violence, hypertension, poverty, lack of empathy, and ADHD. The sexual revolution is partially responsible for this crisis. …”
Read the full article:
https://www.heritage.org/gender/commentar y/ladies -its -time -help – our-boys
Senate Appropriations Committee Signs Off on Fatherhood Bill
Jason Delgado — Florida Politics
“… children raised in fatherless homes are twice as likely to drop out of school, while fatherless boys are three times more likely to go to jail. …children with father figures are twice as likely to attend college and hold a job. … 80% less likely to spend time in jail. The bill … awarding grants to fatherhood programs and nonprofits serving at-risk boys …”
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Seattle Times Piece on Big Brothers Big Sisters Shows Impressive Concern for Boys
Equality for Boys and Men
“…dad absence hurts boys, but …did not find that girls and boys were equitably impacted by a lack of regular involvement with their fathers. …As for adolescent girls, the researchers said their behavior was independent of the presence or absence of their fathers. …girls are affected when their dads are absent … impact on boys… more severe…”
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The Difference a Father Makes
Mona Charen — Chicago Sun Times
“… Black kids raised by single moms, about 14% [have been] incarcerated. For those raised with two parents, only 8% have. … outcomes for African American children from two-parent homes are better across a range of measures than are those for white children raised by single moms. …ways that dads contribute to their kids’ well-being…in my 2018 book “Sex Matters.” …Boys who grow up with their dads are more likely to be employed as adults, less likely to abuse drugs and alcohol, and less likely to act out at school. …”
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https://chicago.suntimes.com/columnists/2021/6/24/225 4959 1/fathers -importance – single – parents -mona- charen