Yes, absolutely, parents have most of the blame. It’s just very sad that we are now at the point where we have all-male classes, not so that men can fight and compete without the restraint that female presence brings, but as a protected environment, because being with women is somehow too scary.

That is astonishing. The purpose of all-male education is to compete with even greater ferocity, to win respect from peers and male authority, and to develop camaraderie. This turns everything upside-down – an all-male education as a way to avoid criticism, avoid competition, and avoid risk!

(Incidentally, an all-male education also does wonders for respect towards women. Women were goddesses to us back then.)

“Do college men have a paralyzing fear of public speaking before co-ed audiences? Do men perform better when women are not in the classroom?”

Hmm…aren’t these the exact arguments used to justify all-female educational environments? Not that I disagree…

That said, I also have a number of fine men in my classes. I have only five male students this term, and they’re all on the ball, are doing their work, and are toeing the line. They might turn out OK

It’s true here and it’s true everywhere – boys only become men when they are expected to. “Boy culture” (frat boys, slackers, beer commercials, etc…) is really the absence of adult male culture.

While I am not a paragon of male maturity, I knew from when I was about nine-years-old that I was expected to study in the US starting at age eighteen, and that I would only visit home every 12-24 months. Kids are amazingly resilient, and they adjust quickly to whatever reality is presented to them. If they have to grow up quickly, they will.

In the US, I feel that boys have no need to grow up quickly – all aspects of danger and risk have been removed. Parents are just a cell phone call away. Kids are never allowed to fail miserably, or be punished.

Take underage drinking for example. A few of my HS-buddies and I got caught skipping class with alcohol, and we were punished with half-squats and laps at midday. The school discipline officer watched us from the shade with a bamboo practice sword. We were finally stopped when one of us vomited due to heat exhaustion. I just can’t imagine that happening here. Underage drinking is a joke on college campuses, and respect for adult authority, and adulthood suffers as a result. If you can get away with breaking real laws, what else can you get away with?

The answer is simple – let people fail, and let them suffer the consequences. Hand out Fs. No deadline extensions.

Men nor women need special attention. What we need is objective, quantitative assessment of skill by blind testing.

As to male under-performance in school – well, women have outnumbered men in college since 1980 (source: US Census Bureau, Stat. Abs. of the US, pg. 183), to no apparent ill effect, and to the considerable advantage of the proportionally fewer college males. Sociological studies show that males generally prefer high-risk/high-reward games, and so males are not necessarily averse to the current arrangement of awarding fewer males greater social reward.

Thanks, Kelly–you’ve confirmed my suspicions based on the book descriptions and reviews at Amazon.com. She’s another Christina Hoff Summers, it sounds like.

I will say this: I think that the focus on teaching to the test, and the concomitant reduction of time for recess and P.E. is a relatively new historical development, and that it’s been bad for all children. Girls need to run around and get their ya-yas out, too. They’re not “naturally” quiet and submissive because of their sex.