It’s time to worry about our boys

For decades, I’ve been screaming about our educational system’s lack of concern for its male students.

Now comes a national report that says that men are entering higher education at the lowest levels ever, and that women make up more than 60 percent of all college students.  In some career fields, women make up 70 percent of the student body.   Men who do enter college often drop out at higher rates than women.

Over the last five years there has been a 71 percent decline in men applying for admission to colleges.

The higher educational community seems perplexed about why men are avoiding higher education and women are streaming into the ivy halls.  They throw around ideas like males are too busy playing video games to concentrate on their studies or that they have to earn money to help make ends meet.

The answers are all over the place.   But, I’ve been saying for decades.  Our primary educational system is stacked against boys.  The schools are run by women, for women, with little thought given to the needs of boys. Most of the teachers in primary education are women and the female way of learning is preferred over the needs of males.  It’s been pointed out that in our nation’s colleges, there are 500 Women Centers and not a single one for men.

I also want to point out, since the beginning of the “Me Too” movement, males in college settings have been demonized as predators.

There is a lot of other issues as to why males are dropping out of the country’s educational system.  Lack of fathers in the home.  Women teachers who can’t understand the differences in male and female thinking, and other social impacts.

The first step is for our primary educational system to recognize there’s a problem.  We need to have community conversation on how we can meet the needs of our boys.

When are we going to start?