Sat 14 Jan 2006
I saw a PBS documentary last night called ‘Raising Cain’. The show presented the leading edges of research on child psychology relating to boys and the place of boys and masculine values in American society. It commented on the feminisation of schools and the growing overrepresentation of girls in the ranks of the successful student, the college applicant, graduates, new doctors and other professionals. On the other hand boys are dropping out and tuning out in greater numbers than ever.
I worry about this and I saw it in my own elementary experience and then later in university (in an all-boys high school the boy isn’t the anathema he is in a co-ed elementary school). My own son Solomon’s temperment is flexible enough (I hope) to pass through a system that is biased against boyhood but I do think it may lead him to suppress healthy aspects of his ‘whole self’. I see aspects of this in so much of our culture and in nieces and nephews in our family. The simple statistics that less than 1 in 10 elementary school teachers are male and 40% of American kids have no father in their lives really took me aback.
I found myelf feeling thankful for Dr. Michael Thompson’s work. I hope any of you who are interested in this subject will not let me have the last word but link through to other sites discussing this topic. I welcome a dialogue in the comment field.
I actually used to wonder this when I was younger; whether there was a great difference in the ratio of males to females in post-secondary schools, and employed in the more elite professional careers. I figured the ratio would be around half, seeing that since the fifties the world and its views on masculine and feminine positions has changed drastically, what with the stay-at-home father and working mother family no longer out of the norm. I gather that that is no longer the case, if it ever was, and women are slowly taking over the world. I mean, we already rule everything, but now it’s official!