Debbie Schlussel says that only 43% of college students are male these days.
It’s kind of obvious why. Women are pushed to succeed–with discriminatory, sexist scholarships, affirmative action, and any number of other programs deeming them an “under-represented” minority, when with 57% of the student body, they are anything but. Then, there are the cultural attacks on men and boys throughout the media, entertainment, and every other arena.
Follow her link to Kansas.com – it’s interesting. Apparently we’re not teaching boys things that interest them in ways that keep their attention. Bored out of their minds, young males drop out of school or just skate through a school system that’s really not teaching anything except how to meet a minimum standard on a multiple-choice test. We’re not teaching boys how to do the things they really want to do, if this slant is correct. It is, I think, partially correct. But it’s not quite as simple as that.
Later in Debbie’s post:
It’s difficult to have the zest for life and hard work, when you are being told that scholarships are not open to you and you are not the “preferred” minority merely because of your sex organs and internal plumbing.
Feminists would argue that turnabout is fair play after centuries of repression at the hands of burly, uncouth males. “We’re all equal,” they say, “but women are more equal than men right now.”
While there’s a certain amount of logic to this, the fact is that men are still responsible for bringing home the bacon in the the vast majority of American households. Women are just as capable as men at performing most non-physical jobs. But women have to deal with “those pesky kids”, first by carrying them to term, then by stunting their careers when they quite their jobs to raise them. How can women ever hope to compete at the top end of the job market?
For feminists this is a travesty of justice rather than a natural outcome of biology. But should women even want to compete? At the risk of generalizing, women are better at raising children than men. In most families it’s natural for them to take on this responsibility. In a way, this genetic obligation puts women at risk, often lacking job skills, afraid of their man’s departure, and of their own lack of marketability.
(Tangent: perhaps this is why feminists are so passionately in favor of abortion “rights”. Or wrongs. It’s their nuclear option.)
Feminists abhor this dependency that “forces women into slavery” and would do anything to remove it, even from women who say they are perfectly happy in their family situation. Some blame children for forcing subservience on the female gender. Male children in particular.
One profession that is dominated by women is that of education. Walk into any elementary or middle school and look around. How many men do you see teaching in classrooms? Not very damn many.
Is it any wonder than males perform poorly in an educational environment crafted by and for females? Absolutely not.
By the time that boys get into an environment where male teachers are proportionately represented as educators they are 14 years old. The best years of their lives, in terms of education and socialization, have been wasted. Even in high school, classes are not particularly interesting to young boys. Couple the lack of interesting material with a lack reconciliation to the process of education and you’ve got a problem.
Here’s another. High schools are getting larger and larger every year. This means less opportunities for boys to participate in sports programs at school. Without an active interest in athletics or scholastics, what’s a boy to do in school?
The truth is that schools offer males very little of interest besides girls. But does it have to be this way?
It doesn’t get any better in college, as ScottyDog, one of Debbie’s commenters, pointed out:
I first went to college in the 1970’s. I returned in the mid 1990 to get another degree. Boy was I in for a shock, college is nothing like it used to be.
College today is outright hostile to men. They treat men as second class citizens and utter contempt. The classes for the most part are being taught by Feminists and class discussions inevitably center on how women are being discriminated against by the evil men who run this country.
IMHO-College has turned into re-education camps teaching young women they are entitled to every thing on a silver platter without teaching hard work and merit matter.
Any man that can put up with 4 years of what they call college deserves an award for just completing the tortuous climate on campus.
I’m not quite convinced that it’s as bad as all that. However, it’s a fact that college instructors are overwhelmingly liberal. This is a demographic that has a demonstrable tendency to pander to minorities of all stripes, whether the extra help is needed or not. Debbie’s numbers indicate that females no longer need the special privileges they’ve been given. But try to take them away…
Colleges are also actively working to shut down the right to free speech on campus, particularly when said speech conflicts with their liberal perspective and agenda. State U. is no place to be a white male unless you’re willing to be the butt of every joke. Being conservative and expressing your views is a crime on many campuses. Laughing at someone who’s been placed in a “protected” category is the fastest way to get expelled there is.
Every level in the morass that is public education discriminates against the male. Right?
Yes.
Should we be surprised when they rebel, lose interest, and drop out?
Well, yes. I think so.
Regardless of a tilted playing field, males still must compete and win in order to take their place in life after school is over. This competition is unlike sports in that it is often drudgery, scut work that is utterly unenjoyable. Nevertheless it must be done.
This, it seems to me, is what is lacking – the determination to do what has to be done whether there’s an immediate sense of satisfaction or not. To do this in the long run requires an understanding that short-term pleasures must often be denied for a long-term objective to be achieved.
I think the Wichita article is correct in saying that fathers must pass this on to their sons. Who else is going to do it? Not teachers. And certainly not college professors, a rather self-indulgent lot if ever I saw one.
This is why it’s imperative that families stick together and that children, all children but especially boys, have a real father who sets a benchmark for behavior. With that a boy has a chance to understand that the way this society is run is a long way from optimal but that he must achieve anyway and be part of the solution.
What is that solution? Why, to take back the education system, obviously.