Sunday, February 19, 2006

2190 Girls Rule

While dropping off four shopping bags of magazines for the Friends of the Library book sale, I noticed "Literary Cavalcade," Vol. 55, no.5, published by Scholastic's Monthly, Feb. 2003. It is billed as a magazine of literature and writing. All the editors (associate, picture, production, media, copy, etc.) are females. But even so, I'm guessing if there were a cover "BOYS RULE" like the "GIRLS RULE" cover on this issue, they'd be out of a job. These ladies are victims of a time warp. They think girls still need to be encouraged at the expense of boys.

There have been significant academic and economic consequences (many unintended) from Title 9. The legislation was set up when college demographics were 43% female and 57% male. Now they are reversed, and in one state, Maine, college enrollment is 60% female. Aside from setting girls up for a lousy social life in college, it's going to make it tough for them to find educated male peers to marry. And marriage is the biggest predictor of how well off your children will be.

It doesn't bode well for our country either. Boys have traditionally been the largest pool for engineering and science, but that is shrinking. American businesses are turning to foreigners to fill technical jobs, because even as our young men avoid the tougher cognitive fields, women aren't choosing them either.

So wouldn't you think it is time to stop propping up the girls with fluff and nonsense like "girls rule" covers on Scholastic Magazine and holding back the boys with touchy-feely gibberish and Ritalin--you know, for the good of the country and your future grandchildren?

Mothers of sons, it may be time to storm the principal's office and demand equal time and effort for the boys.

1 comment:

Norma said...

And you're stuck now, because the other boys in fall kindergarten will be a full year older if you enroll him because they've been held back. The cut off in our community was I think September, so my children's Nov. birthdays helped them. That maturity does work to their advantage, at least in the early years. However, in 6th grade, my daughter looked like a high schooler.