By William A. Draves and Julie Coates
Helen M. Todd saved the boys, and our economy. Her story can, and is likely to, be repeated today.
Today, young men are dying by around 50,000 a year from what the CDC terms “Death by Despair.” A primary result of all that death is that the American economy is falling behind the other advanced nations in the OECD in building the physical and human capital infrastructure for economic prosperity needed for the Knowledge Society of the 21st century.
With the death rate for young men skyrocketing in the last twenty years, the CDC finds that the majority of young men dying from despair are concentrated in their thirties, and that two-thirds lack a four year college degree.
The American economy, as a direct result of not educating enough of its boys, therefore lags behind in the percentage of citizens with a four year college degree. The most significant sign of this dearth is the lack of STEM graduates needed for the workforce of this century.
The same condition occurred in our nation 100 years ago, when boys ‘dropped out’ of school before finishing their studies. This created a workforce unprepared for the factory work of the blossoming Industrial Age of the last century that, when solved, made America the most economically prosperous country in the world. And that’s when the story of Helen M. Todd takes over.
Let’s take a look at how Miss Todd did it.
Helen M. Todd was a suffragette and workers rights activists in the first decades of the last century. Like today, the American economy was in the throes of an exciting transformation. Today we have just moved from the industrial age of manufacturing to the knowledge society where our most productive and important sector is that of knowledge workers creating intangible products like those literally stemming from STEM.
Back then society was moving from the agrarian age of farms to the industrial age of factories.
She began as an educator working at Hull House in Chicago with the famous Jane Addams. She became nationally-known as a suffragette, criss-crossing the nation with other women advocating and winning the vote for women. Around 1910 she became a state factory inspector in Chicago in the bustling and ill-regulated factories that included many child workers. Todd proceeded to interview 800 children who were working in factories.
She asked them, if their families did not need the money the children brought home, would they prefer the factory or school. She was astounded, as we should be today, that 80% of the children, two-thirds of whom were boys, preferred the lousy conditions and few cents an hour wages of the factory. When she asked why, one boy’s classic response about school later became part of the Congressional Record:
“They hits you if ye don’t learn, and they hits you if ye whisper, and they hits you if ye have string in yer pocket, and they hits you if yer seat squeaks, and they hits you if ye scrape yer feet, and they hits you if ye don’t stand up in time, and they hits you if yer late, and they hits you if ye forget the page.” The children then explained that in the factory they don’t get hit.
Like all women’s rights activists of her time, Todd was not anti-male. In fact, like Mother Jones and other women, she saw total consistency in supporting the rights of women and those of children, including the boys who were being denied a proper education.
A decade later, Helen M. Todd testified before the House Committee on the Judiciary, her testimony included in the resulting book Child Labor from the United States Congress, March 28, 1924, compiled by HW Wilson Company, New York.
Only a few months later Congress initiated legislation to limit and ultimately prevent child labor. At the same time, there was also begun a movement to ban the beating of children in school. The twin changes cost the taxpayers little or nothing, and involved little or no time on for teachers and schools. The changes brought all children, but especially the boys, back into school where they were able to complete high school and move successfully into the workforce.
Fast forward to today. Around 200,000 children are still being beaten legally in school every year; some 75% of them are boys.
But what is forcing boys out of school is not being hit, but being punished for a lifetime by being given significantly worse grades than girls in school, college and even graduate school. This even though the boys of today learn just as much overall as the girls, and test equally with girls at every level, from early elementary school right through graduate school.
Substitute the word ‘flunk’ for ‘hits’ in the boy’s description of school over 100 years ago. And there you have the basic cause of the problem of too few of our children getting a four year college degree, leading to a shortage of both STEM workers but also a shortage of all skilled workers necessary for economic prosperity today.
Why boys are given worse grades than schools is that students are graded in part – – too large a part – – on gender based biological behavior that has nothing to do with learning and knowledge. Like 100 years ago, the solution is simple and involves no cost to taxpayers and no additional work or time for teachers and schools. The solution is to grade all children solely on their learning and knowledge.
The OECD says the United States is one of the worst of the advanced nations in gender bias against males in education. The Educational Testing Service (ETS) analyzed millions of test scores and compared them with grades to substantiate that claim. Even the Department of Education admits boys are given worse grades in virtually every school district in the country, though the DOE refuses to say why. There is no college or university reporting gender equity in grades, retention or graduation. And Columbia University professor Richard Arum, author of Academically Adrift, found that a study of equally successful men and women in the workplace, the men were given significantly worse grades in college and graduate school. Julie Coates and William Draves found that even in the respected School of Engineering at the respected University of Kansas, the male graduate students – – constituting 80% of the students studying for a profession where males prosper – – receive worse grades than the female students.
Like 100 years ago, when teachers and schools defended their practice of hitting children with myth and denial, the vast majority of educators today defend with myth and denial the hormonal and neurological differences in the brain between females and males. But like 100 years ago, we can predict that gender equity will return to our schools and colleges. The only question is when, and how many valuable lives will be lost and economic damage done to our nation before we do.
Helen M. Todd saved the boys, and our economy. Her story can, and is likely to, be repeated today.
Today, young men are dying by around 50,000 a year from what the CDC terms “Death by Despair.” A primary result of all that death is that the American economy is falling behind the other advanced nations in the OECD in building the physical and human capital infrastructure for economic prosperity needed for the Knowledge Society of the 21st century.
With the death rate for young men skyrocketing in the last twenty years, the CDC finds that the majority of young men dying from despair are concentrated in their thirties, and that two-thirds lack a four year college degree.
The American economy, as a direct result of not educating enough of its boys, therefore lags behind in the percentage of citizens with a four year college degree. The most significant sign of this dearth is the lack of STEM graduates needed for the workforce of this century.
The same condition occurred in our nation 100 years ago, when boys ‘dropped out’ of school before finishing their studies. This created a workforce unprepared for the factory work of the blossoming Industrial Age of the last century that, when solved, made America the most economically prosperous country in the world. And that’s when the story of Helen M. Todd takes over.
Let’s take a look at how Miss Todd did it.
Helen M. Todd was a suffragette and workers rights activists in the first decades of the last century. Like today, the American economy was in the throes of an exciting transformation. Today we have just moved from the industrial age of manufacturing to the knowledge society where our most productive and important sector is that of knowledge workers creating intangible products like those literally stemming from STEM.
Back then society was moving from the agrarian age of farms to the industrial age of factories.
She began as an educator working at Hull House in Chicago with the famous Jane Addams. She became nationally-known as a suffragette, criss-crossing the nation with other women advocating and winning the vote for women. Around 1910 she became a state factory inspector in Chicago in the bustling and ill-regulated factories that included many child workers. Todd proceeded to interview 800 children who were working in factories.
She asked them, if their families did not need the money the children brought home, would they prefer the factory or school. She was astounded, as we should be today, that 80% of the children, two-thirds of whom were boys, preferred the lousy conditions and few cents an hour wages of the factory. When she asked why, one boy’s classic response about school later became part of the Congressional Record:
“They hits you if ye don’t learn, and they hits you if ye whisper, and they hits you if ye have string in yer pocket, and they hits you if yer seat squeaks, and they hits you if ye scrape yer feet, and they hits you if ye don’t stand up in time, and they hits you if yer late, and they hits you if ye forget the page.” The children then explained that in the factory they don’t get hit.
Like all women’s rights activists of her time, Todd was not anti-male. In fact, like Mother Jones and other women, she saw total consistency in supporting the rights of women and those of children, including the boys who were being denied a proper education.
A decade later, Helen M. Todd testified before the House Committee on the Judiciary, her testimony included in the resulting book Child Labor from the United States Congress, March 28, 1924, compiled by HW Wilson Company, New York.
Only a few months later Congress initiated legislation to limit and ultimately prevent child labor. At the same time, there was also begun a movement to ban the beating of children in school. The twin changes cost the taxpayers little or nothing, and involved little or no time on for teachers and schools. The changes brought all children, but especially the boys, back into school where they were able to complete high school and move successfully into the workforce.
Fast forward to today. Around 200,000 children are still being beaten legally in school every year; some 75% of them are boys.
But what is forcing boys out of school is not being hit, but being punished for a lifetime by being given significantly worse grades than girls in school, college and even graduate school. This even though the boys of today learn just as much overall as the girls, and test equally with girls at every level, from early elementary school right through graduate school.
Substitute the word ‘flunk’ for ‘hits’ in the boy’s description of school over 100 years ago. And there you have the basic cause of the problem of too few of our children getting a four year college degree, leading to a shortage of both STEM workers but also a shortage of all skilled workers necessary for economic prosperity today.
Why boys are given worse grades than schools is that students are graded in part – – too large a part – – on gender based biological behavior that has nothing to do with learning and knowledge. Like 100 years ago, the solution is simple and involves no cost to taxpayers and no additional work or time for teachers and schools. The solution is to grade all children solely on their learning and knowledge.
The OECD says the United States is one of the worst of the advanced nations in gender bias against males in education. The Educational Testing Service (ETS) analyzed millions of test scores and compared them with grades to substantiate that claim. Even the Department of Education admits boys are given worse grades in virtually every school district in the country, though the DOE refuses to say why. There is no college or university reporting gender equity in grades, retention or graduation. And Columbia University professor Richard Arum, author of Academically Adrift, found that a study of equally successful men and women in the workplace, the men were given significantly worse grades in college and graduate school. Julie Coates and William Draves found that even in the respected School of Engineering at the respected University of Kansas, the male graduate students – – constituting 80% of the students studying for a profession where males prosper – – receive worse grades than the female students.
Like 100 years ago, when teachers and schools defended their practice of hitting children with myth and denial, the vast majority of educators today defend with myth and denial the hormonal and neurological differences in the brain between females and males. But like 100 years ago, we can predict that gender equity will return to our schools and colleges. The only question is when, and how many valuable lives will be lost and economic damage done to our nation before we do.
