The war on boys: Have they been left behind? | FACTUAL FEMINIST

Many are content to dismiss the underachievement of boys in school as, "just the way things are." But the consequences of educational underachievement have never been more serious. The Factual Feminist explains why if we don't help boys close the education gap now, they may never catch up.
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The war on boys: have they been left behind?
Third-party photos, graphics, and video clips in this video may have been cropped or reframed. Music in this video may have been recut from its original arrangement and timing.
In the event this video uses Creative Commons assets: If not noted in the description, titles for Creative Commons assets used in this video can be found at the link provided after each asset.
The use of third-party photos, graphics, video clips, and/or music in this video does not constitute an endorsement from the artists and producers licensing those materials.
AEI operates independently of any political party and does not take institutional positions on any issues. AEI scholars, fellows, and their guests frequently take positions on policy and other issues. When they do, they speak for themselves and not for AEI or its trustees or other scholars or employees.
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[@obigalish]

Women care about other women. Men care about women. Men don't care about other men. Women & Men expect other men to "Man up". So nothing will happen.

[@Leto2ndAtreides]

Women specialize in evoking caring. Men don't do that naturally. Not sure what the point would be if they did... Better to make them want to compete instead of neutering that side of their development.

[@EksaStelmere]

Leto2ndAtreides Wow, that's incredibly sexist. D;

[@Leto2ndAtreides]

Eksa Stelmere Traits produced by human evolution: Meh. Sometimes, you just gotta accept that we're much like any other animal, and have our own brand of quirks - that contribute to our ability to survive in the natural / real world. Humans survive and thrive together. Some separation of roles / qualities, is an understandable evolutionary result since it allows specialization you wouldn't be able to otherwise have. Can a lion hunt for himself? Probably. Should he if the lionesses are already handling that? ... Wasted effort. All systems have their own strengths and weaknesses. Human males have always risked more, suffered more, died more - and they had to evolve to be somewhat more okay with that sort of lifestyle than women... The emotions of men, and people's emotions towards men, are a little different than their emotions towards women and the treatment of women (on average - obviously there are exceptions too). Mistreatment of men doesn't provoke the same kind of strong emotional response from most humans - including men themselves... Our cultures may have changed some, and we may be trying to force some new ideas on people, but the underlying emotional system can't exactly "evolve" fast... Because that would imply a long term historical advantage deriving from those changed behaviors and preferences.

[@EksaStelmere]

Leto2ndAtreides I beg to differ. Human women risked WAY more for most of our existence. Women straight up died from childbirth all the time. Pregnancy made them more vulnerable to predators. So I am more than certain women died off easier, considering that men don't have to worry about those things, just helping protect the women. That's just a tangent to match yours. Nothing you said though helps the fact that saying men don't nurture or care is sexist. I'm confident anyone, men and women, would help you if you fell and broke your leg.

[@lord0never0there]

Eksa Stelmere I actually think that men risk a lot in our history as well. It was the men that fought in the wars. It was the men who were expected to protect the women at all costs and if you failed to do so on your honor you were a coward. It is still the men that are expected to fight the wars by default with the draft. To put it simply not too long ago men's efforts were applauded, and that is because they were expected to fight and die FOR the women. Remember if women are viewed as lesser being here, I am not sure I understand why men of any period would be willing to fight for the family, as men are inclined to do. Look at WW1, and how many men died, you really think child birth over history chases up to the people that died in war? Both genders have been used and exploited, the men as solders who died in droves. The women treated as having lesser rights. Women were not known for making up entire armies. Look, also the idea of "siding with a gender" cause they have "risked more" is silly, governments, and society expected things from certain genders. We often times still do, and that is not always a bad thing persay, if people have the choice before them to go down that road or not.

[@hypnos2794]

What a beautiful and bright human being this woman is, if we only we had a lot more like her.

[@maverick5261]

Hypnos, there are. If you watch the documentary, "The Red Pill" by Cassie Jaye or watch the Red Pill Raw interviews on KZbin, you will see both more men and women like her advocating for men's and boys' issues.

[@homemademovies8364]

@@maverick5261 The Red Pill is one of my favorite documentaries

[@AEI]

Many are content to dismiss the underachievement of boys in school as, "just the way things are." But the consequences of educational underachievement have never been more serious. The Factual Feminist explains why if we don't help boys close the education gap now, they may never catch up.

[@VHelander]

***** that would just drive bigger wedge between boys and girls in future. Rather have few classes that are gender specific or better yet study style specific. More hands on things for most boys and girls that want similar education.

[@VHelander]

What I've read there is lot of empirical evidence to the contrary. Mainly I mean studies that have confirmed such effect. The more interaction there is between boys and girls the better it is.

[@RonAtor]

I would suggest you look at the coloration of the ADD epidemic and the use of drugs which is 5 to 1 or 6 to 1 boys being drugged vs girls depending on which studies you look at. I bet a timeline analysis will be quite shocking.

[@MrMessageWriter]

Being a member of a family with teachers back 4 generations, I've heard a number of times that boys are left to fend for themselves in their education. Mainly being told that boys just don't get the attention with their education at home, that girls do. Or at least not in the same way. Anyway I've heard that from many teachers over the years. It's not that boys are lazy any more than girls are, but they are just not given the attention (especially early on,) to their learning, as a result they don't get the habits which so readily apply to schooling, and schoolwork, that girls do. Granted this my opinion expressed here, but it does seem like something to look into.

[@Furluge]

Mrmessage Writer I am remind of a story where my mother fought with a 1st grade teacher in Florida in 1989 at Fairway Elementary that they had wanted to hold me back that year. Not for any grading reason, but that was just her policy with male students. Obviously, a quite old story remembered by a five year old is not evidence and only anecdotal, but after this fight with said teacher I got access to the advanced reading group in the class and my performance improved dramatically. (I had been listening to the advanced reading group instead of doing my own work you see. :) ) Since my family moved around a lot I got exposed to just how much where you are located can affect your schooling. For example I went from being a straight A student (Grades 2-4) in NH to a B, C student (Grades 5+) in VA partially due to the stricter grading curve used here instead of the standard 10 point scale. Though I admit I found the material more challenging here as well so I guess it all worked out.

[@misterabsurd]

We need male teachers in elementary schools.

[@TheChaosWithin]

Yes we all do. The problem is most men choose secondary schools instead because of the content area or the maturity of students.

[@bromoment5183]

@@greensalad134 i know!! My nicest teacher, is called creepy for looking at people (girls) for more than 3 seconds!

[@COVID--kf3tx]

@@TheChaosWithin yeah and because it pays way less.

[@COVID--kf3tx]

@@greensalad134 pretty much. It's a bit better than before but still not where we want it to be

[@nuzayerov]

@@TheChaosWithin , true, almost all the men teachers are teachers of secondary or high schools. Most tend to choose Higher classes to teach. Even I already made up my mind that IF I ever become a teacher (not that I am trying to become one, just saying if I do become one), I would like to teach higher class students over elementary ones. It comes to preferences, but we have to do something about it somehow.

[@RicaRoseHopeful_Voluntarist]

Mistaking public schooling for education may be part of the problem.

[@nathanrobinson1099]

Bingo.

[@jonathanhansen5208]

privatized education may not be any better look at catholic school where they at least use to hit kids and teach religion. Education being run by the community does not sound better because then you get knowledge of what is around you and what that group believes and their biases or by the people who have the most money make the most contributions to the school deiced the curriculum instead.

[@variabl3]

Athaaaank you!

[@allenblack3785]

Absolutely.

[@lancewalker2595]

Exactly

[@jamiejones7325]

It has only gotten far worse. Being married, I became a scientist to prove feminism, I ended up anti-feminist to be a good scientist, now teaching, law against teachers being married in same division(only men charged though). My husband, over 35 years great teacher/professor was FIRED, Alberta Teacher's Union(almost all women) did NOTHING. Same day Principle called to compliment him Schoolboard called that night to fire him, that he "no longer fit in." He had no right to ask why, no right to ask identity of anyone critical of him(therefore must be 'me too' law) nothing. 35 years, now i have to watch in fear he'll attempt suicide again. It destroys not only the man, but his family too. Someone DO something, please.

[@Gmoonw]

Unless we are the president, we can't do anything.

[@ArvelDreth]

Personally, college is difficult for me because you're just sedentary the whole time. I'm not being engaged in anything. It's just lectures, book work, smartboard slides, and boring hand-outs. I don't feel challenged in the way that I should; the only time it's hard is when the work-load is downright overwhelming and crushing! I think that education needs to involve more hands-on activities. Because honestly I can't get excited in an environment that involves purely taking notes and doing work from a textbook.

[@davidtimothy7319]

It's not just academia, It's the whole school system When I was in 5th grade; my school had a reward system called "Star tickets" Girls got star tickets for opening to doors, Boys weren't likely get star tickets for saving a life. Boys show every potentials as good caring babysitters, But my sister'd make a ton of money for doing practically nothing when she was 12! for babysitting!, Even in 1st-2nd grade, every time a girl had the slightest problem, It was a major crisis, They'd get the spotlight,They'd be brought up in front of the class to get sympathy. But You could throw me into the floor within the teacher's direct sight-line and nobody'd give a crap, Thank you " Patriarchy."

[@GemmaBee14]

Girls always seem to get away with anything at school...

[@briandrufftigsten8659]

Is this English?

[@coreyayers8575]

i was the antibully i liked a challange and sought out the strong to fight. i saw many times the teachers would punish the victim

[@Drudenfusz]

It seems to me like the things boys like are not encouraged in the modern education system. Competition is what many boys thrive in, but in schools that is seen as something negative. Boys with too much energy and slieght issues of focusing get treated with medications that have gone out of hand (I doubt that suddenly we have more ADHS children today than we had the past, but today nobody sees that this condition is not just a disadvantag, but has some positive traits to, but those positive aspects are not what society wants). Boys get treated like psychopath in the making, that every boy autmatically will become one day a amok runner or rapist or what have you, the rebel nature that many of the great minds in the past had is just not acceptable by our society today anymore, where we want our children to be drones and not capable of thinking outside the box... and that is a huge issue for boys, worse, girls get encouraged all the time, but boys get to hear how useless they are, and the feminists with their girl power ideas that girls can do everything that boys can but better is not helping either. It seems even accaptable when girls wear t-shirts on which it is written that it is okay to throw stones at boys since they are stupid.

[@bcsviewer1]

I remember my Experience at Middle School, when I began to doubt the school's narrative. During Battle of the Sex week, Us boys couldn't (Come as we sleep), wearing pink : Forget it, and my Boy Scout Cap didn't qualify as a HAT for wear your favorite Hat Day. We were dinged for having pealed our teams banana, even though there was still 2 girls to finish the relay race, We were additionally dinged for the stink bomb light under the girls Bleachers, even though a girl started it and the girls almost started a RIOT, because we had just 5 more points than them. After all they said about boys being poor sports, I expected them to more gracious losers. PS: Points were awarded in increments of 5.

[@firedragonproductions8035]

as a man I agree but the problem is that the school cares to much about your feelings. Hell, back in 5th grade one of my teachers taught me two things. One, you will never know everything, and two, that the teacher is in charge period. She taught me this when I challenge her on something and I lost. She didn't care if it hurt my self-esteem and put me in my place. Teachers now a days are afraid to do that. P.S. She did the same thing to a girl in my class once the next year.

[@bcsviewer1]

Yeah, I think that I see what you mean! During My first few months as an Assistant Weblos Leader, the mothers were concerned that I wasnt (Nurturing) enough. The Cubmaster, a mother of one of the Weblos, kept going to her sons excitement to return to the weekly Weblos den meeting to spend more time with me. YES, I was in charge of the Cub Scout activity during the monthly Pack Meeting, and failure to be a good sport (I stated was acting like a cub scout) resulted in being either sent or taken to their parents. The fathers liked it (Their sons will grow up.) even with the little brothers. The mothers didn't like it so much, but it didn't take long for the little brothers to get to stay in the activity as well. When the stick would slip from their hands once in a while, sometimes the other one would pull it into their own face. Of course, I made sure they were OKAY before bring them to their mom. The mothers were concerned at first about the blood around their sons noses from time to time, but it was rare that they didnt let them return to that activity after the Pack Meeting, if not before. After all, their husband would tell them that their son didnt really get hurt, and their son would be bagging to allowed to return: PRESSURED, perhaps but it was their sons choice to return as well. Besides, How safe must we make our children?

[@samuelparker4583]

bcsviewer1 I totally agree with you and your points. I very much so enjoyed your story. (:

[@bcsviewer1]

If you liked this. than read the following Web Pages! childmind.org/article/behavioral-treatment-kids-anxiety/ copingskillsforkids.com/calming-anxiety/ I always encouraged boys to face their anxieties, even if I had to place my arm across their shoulders. One boy went from practically running from his first pack meeting to enjoying the Cub Scout activity at his second Pack Meeting.

[@coleparker]

Years ago, I saw how differently the schools treated my nephew as compared to his twin sister niece which actually harmed her. My Nephew was constantly moving around the classroom while my niece sat their quietly. The schools diagnosed my nephew as having ADHD (sic) and as such wanted to put him on Ritalin. They told my brother and sister in law that their daughter was just fine. It turned out to be just the opposite, my nephew was bored having finished his homework early, while his sister was later diagnosed as dyslexic.

[@nickcox1408]

They put me on Ritalin and I got fat. Since when did public schools have the power to diagnose kids with disabilities? Wtf! American schools are prisons

[@bcsviewer1]

Boy, The teachers got that wrong. The School should have paid more attention to underlining problems rather then the acts. When I was a Cub Scout Leader, One Pack Meeting (Mostly during the Cub Scout Activity): I noticed that one of the 8-year old boys was acting oddly. So I demanded (In Front of his Single Mother) what was going on. It turned out that he was getting teased for his Mother saying good-bye in her typical manner. Naturally, I had a solution, and I had a role for his mother. As expected, A Female Teacher complained about it, but the Male Principal declared two things: 1) If Teachers don't do anything about a problem, then The School has to expect the Students to handle things themself; 2) If a fight wasn't bad enough for a Student to go to the Nurse's Office, then it wasn't bad enough for a student to be Suspended. Should a Noogie really be considered a Fight, especially when a 10 year-old and 8 year-old both agree that it's not a fight? (Yes, I had the 8 year-old practice the noogie on a 10 year-old.) The next Week (After Den meeting), The mother sought out the Den Meeting Room for the 10 year-olds. You see her son noticed that the rumors of what happened had spread thorough the school, and was curious as to what was happening. I identified that the Elementary School Football team was deciding whether or not to hang with him, so I shared some information about the Code of Conduct among Football Players. In 6 months, The Cub Scout and his family was invited to a Football Team get-together: The Families were friends outside of Football, too. The mother was very impressed, Her son (Yes, He was the only boy in a family of 5) had fun with the older and younger brothers of the Football players, while her daughters (She had 3 daughters) had fun with the Older and Younger Sisters of the Football players. The mother also enjoyed talking with the other Mothers (especially about them being nervous about the activities chosen by the Fathers for the boys, while expressing their surprise that only minor injuries occurred and that was rare). Yes, I could have demanded that the Cub Scout pay more attention to his surrounding to reduce the number of time other boys bumped into him, but It was clear to me that something was on his mind. Something that was much more than he know how to handle. I corrected the underlining problem, not the surface problem. Interestingly: Like the Female Teachers, His mother hadn't noticed that anything was wrong yet. However, to be fair, The Cub Scouts of Single Mothers often talked to me about problems. When corrections were needed: Of course, I included the mothers in on it, and most of the time their sons knew I included their mother.

[@elmirBDS]

I'm a male teacher. One thing that actually would get more men back into education, would be to address the low social stature that comes with being a teacher. In many Western countries, teachers are caricaturised as lazy underachievers who only do it for the extra vacation. Of course this puts men off... For a lot of men, selfworth and how your job is viewed is important. It directly increases your chance to find a good partner too. In Finland, teachers HAVE to have a masters degree and need to pass an examn AFTER graduation to even be allowed to teach. Only the best and brightest are allowed to stand in front of a classroom. The social admiration for the profession ranks up there with doctors, lawyers,etc. As a result, they still have a high number of male teachers as well. And if you are wondering if that's effective, check how well Finland does in SAT scores for math. ;)

[@TheChaosWithin]

Men were built to handle many social and office jobs. Women were built to support their man.

[@StorminMormin91]

Well said Walter! What you said about Finland is true! There is much we can learn from other cultures.

[@MrBopeel]

Well said sir. What you say makes perfect sense. I am not a teacher, but I was a substitute years ago after graduating college. I think what also needs to change is the openly hostile environment in the educational system toward men. It is much too easy for a male teacher to be suspected of, or accused of sexual assault against a female student. When I was a substitute teacher in a 2nd grade class back in 1995, before my first class I was given a long list of things to avoid, so as to protect myself from accusation, or even the appearance of impropriety. It's just my opinion, but I think a lot of men shy away from teaching because of the risk of being accused, and the fact that you can be treated as a potential abuser even when you've done nothing wrong. At least that's the way I felt. I've shied away from mentoring young kids for the same reasons.

[@kpjlflsknflksnflknsa]

+Walter Black Great point.

[@kpjlflsknflksnflknsa]

Note that in Finland there is also an emphasis on shared parenting. And active involvement of the father in his child's upbringing. A phenomenon that yields much better results for boys and is far more conducive to their educational attainment than single baby mommas getting fucked and chucked by bad boys who are estranged from their sons.

[@balduran.]

Even teenage boys understand that in todays society its useless to try hard. For what? Just do an easy job that will make you enough to live alone and play videogames lol...

[@piotrd.4850]

Yeap. Law of diminished returns strikes far too quickly...

[@DevaAshera]

I think what needs to be done, personally, is for the media (namely TV and Movies) to stop portraying smart boys are only nerds and social rejects while glorifying sports, violence, etc.. Just look at most TV shows now a days..they tend to portray males that are intelligent as socially awkward and uncool, characters like Timothy McGee from one of my favorite shows, NCIS. He's a great character and shows what being intelligent can accomplish, but he also is depicted as an uncool nerd, particularly when paired against Tony Dinozzo, who is depicted as the cool, college-mindset character that gets the girls (even if he's also shown to be wrong in those aspects often). To show my point more-so, look to the Big Bang Theory, every intelligent character in that show is depicted as ultimately negative stereotypes, they are all socially awkward, one lives with his mother into his adulthood, none of them seem able to get girlfriends, and their being intelligent is played for laughs in that old 'lol look at the nerd' mindset. On the other end, media tends to depict Intelligent Women as ultimately successful, something for girls to aspire to and want to emulate. I mean, its only obvious that males and females would follow whatever shows their gender as being the most positive outlook. In addition, its fairly obvious that the Media tends to portray it as common and okay for women to enjoy reading books, where as its a 'nerdy' thing for men, which seems to imply that men should be into sports and 'manly' things.

[@undead.rising]

AGREED! What we see of men in the media, is that men are either on or the other: smart and nerdy (and usually undesirable), contrasted with popular, good-looking and sporty. Any guy can be any combination of these things. It's like the world doesn't want to tell you that most people are a combination of these things. I was told "I must be smart" because I was seen reading a book by a truck driver recently - and I thought it was a ridiculously thing to say. As a smart person I find if very narrow-minded that a book alone must make a person smart. It also implies that this guy mustn't read himself because he doesn't think of himself as smart.

[@DevaAshera]

Hotqueekboi Rightnow Exactly. The media tends to stay with stereotypes. Not only that, but it tends to depict "Nerds" as rather unsuccessful (the whole living at home with their mother trope) while "Jocks" are shown as somehow successful business men with beautiful wives, large houses, etc. The world is exactly a combinations of things. For example, my best friend is a PC Gamer that built his own PC, loves Dungeons & Dragons, loves Warhammer 40k, AND loves Baseball & Football. Then there's me, I'm a Transgender (MtF) Lesbian Gamer Girl, all things that don't appear to be the 'norm' since Media tends to portray Transgirls as having a preference for men (always, I have never seen a Lesbian Trans in the Media) and Girls are usually portrayed as being adverse or disapproving of gaming.

[@tanaumaga1643]

But it's only art imitating life; intelligent people of both genders are generally regarded as nerds, uncool, socially awkward etc. That's just life.

[@SSJKamui]

Well. When I was 10 years old, I had a high knowledge of history, technology etc. and could understand complicated scientific theories far beyond my age. My teachers completely dismissed that. They almost never encouraged me to increase my skills there. (Except for my politics teacher who told my parents that I should read the newspaper everyday.) Instead. They forced me into a kind of special program, because I was bad in sports. So, even teachers regard jocks more highly than nerds.

[@undead.rising]

SSJKamui Wow, that's terrible. I hate the automatic adoration people always have for sportspeople. They don't even contribute that much to society really, anyway. On the field, they are just a performer.... nothing else.

[@HobbMuffin]

I'm in an interesting situation, I'm a high school drop out, I did very poorly because I had no interest in school. Now I'm in my 20s and I just finished a certificate with all A pluses, and am currently doing my bachelors, which I've gotten all A pluses on except for one A. I'm the top of my class now, so what's the deal? We're too quick to brush away under achieving students as stupid, when so much could be done to motivate them. Boys falling behind is going to be a real issue for countries around the world, as men are the movers and shakers of our world, they're the doctors and engineers, the programmers and scientists, in much higher numbers than women. That's not to say women aren't capable of those jobs, they are, but men and women are attracted to different professions.

[@TheChaosWithin]

It's a maturity issue. Some people don't realize how important or beneficial an education is (no matter how it is brought up to them), until they grow up. It's not always about boys just being stupid or incapable of learning unless they are motivated by someone else. That's actually a horrible thing to say about boys... some boys just suddenly have that maturity after high school and they make a huge difference than the boy in a plateau just doing decently throughout all the grade levels.

[@pierreblaise9433]

I wonder. if girl was doing significantly worst than boy at school would we change the way we teach or would we drug them with heavy medication ?

[@big_dro1713]

No doubt the former.

[@andyderbyshire519]

The UK had consistently better performances from boys than girls, so they changed the system. It has flipped dramatically, but they do not want to make any changes, except to further 'feminise' boys to be more like girls in the classroom.

[@kevindunne4271]

Andy Derbyshire The schools in the UK are now like the American ones, all geared towards the female.

[@AximusNetwork]

A good way to fix this would be to instead of making ads solely targeted at girls educations, instead make gender neutral ads to show that both boys and girls can achieve their goals and their ambitions. Targeting girls helps girls achieve at the moment but all it does to boys is show them that they aren't valued as much as girls do. This is why we desperately need more gender neutral ads.

[@Leto2ndAtreides]

Maybe, but those ads are being funded by groups that have won that money for the cause of women, and not necessarily by more general or government sanctioned groups. Often, if you act like you're being mistreated, people will try to help you out - but that's not something most male oriented groups can really pull off. Maybe we need more women like this fighting for us, since mankind doesn't really care to listen to other men (leaders maybe, but not guys who are just asking for help for others)

[@juggernautk.captain5845]

*It is primarily a male issue. It is evidently due to:* 1. *Feminism* (in general): It greatly discourages males by gaining the notions that males are inherently bad and oppressive monsters. That everything wrong is because of _patriarchy_. It doesn't help when teachers are also likely feminists due to its over influences. 2. *Feminization in education* (due to feminism, but not exactly feminism itself): Schools are being more geared in the favor of females, even at the expense of males. Schools are primarily catering to the development and favoring of young girls while in disregard for males. Rather than trying to fix this, feminists believe that males must adapt to the changes, despite it evidently being very negative towards males. 3. *Sexist bias towards males*: Males are always the viewed as bad, despite females also showing the same kinds of bad acts at very close amounts. 4. *Cutting slack for females* (a different form of sexism): In many occasions, teachers tend to be more forgiving and apologetic towards females than males. In many cases, a male may receive a grade lower than what he actually deserved, while a female peer may get an inflation. Whenever males and females do the same acts, it is almost always lighter on the females when negative and overly praised when positive. This especially makes males generally doubt themselves while females get a sense of entitlement and compensation for half the work. 4. *Major lack of male teachers*: In general, there is an epidemic of fathers being separated from their children due to women. Nowadays, men have virtually zero parental rights and the only ties they truly have is financial; the reason why so many children are being born on wedlock. Right now, 1/5-1/3 children will be raised without their fathers and only getting worse. By having more male teachers, they may be more inspired; better for males than a matriarchal setting. 5. *Media's betrayal of males*: Feminism always rants how women are being sexualized. Personally, there isn't anything truly wrong with it; _sex sells_. However, they fail to understand how *males are betrayed as general troglodyte idiots*. In just about all commercials pertaining to a man/women couple of any kind, it is usually the male who is a fumbling idiot who messes up everything and could not do anything without a female to manipulate him into the _right path_... This is *especially true with the betrayal of men and fathers in cartoons and family shows* in general; male(s) idiots whom _fuckup_, while female(s) are always good, intelligent and are _superior_ to _toxicity_ that is men. Developing males (especially those without male role models) absorb the subtle and even blatant misandry which confuses them. 6. *_Male disposability_** notions*: Despite of the overtly obvious and ever so worsening academic gap of males to females, societies just seem to not care at all. In fact, despite this, governments are actually investing into more benefits for women and taking more away from males, such as gym or an opinion on female leaders.

[@MordethKai]

You are the only feminist speaker I've heard with something good to say about men. I grew up in a feminist environment constantly hearing how horrible men are, that they are all pigs or dogs, that we are horrible disgusting creatures incapable of anything good, and I grew up hating myself and thinking men were horrible. It restores my faith in humanity to see this, and if feminists would embrace what you have to say instead of calling you a traitor, it would restore my faith in them as well. Thank you for your careful research and intellectual work on the various subjects.

[@GemmaBee14]

Pretty sure the feminazis want you to think you're a disgusting creature capable of no good.

[@truthhurts8312]

Well, when you use words like "feminazis," what can you expect? I mean, really? Comparing one who wants equal rights with Hitler's murderous clan? 😒 Maybe women are fighting so hard and pushing back because of years of oppression. We fix nothing when you fail to admit how long girls have been pushed to only get their basic educations and then to hurry up and get married. How many females weren't valued in the school systems all those years? Those women grew up and wanted better. Maybe it seems over the top to a male, maybe even aggressive, but we sure as hell aren't going back where we came from and are still trying to catch up. Just read the horrible comments on here about women and you will understand how far we still have to go and why some are mad as hell. I personally feel we need more father figures for these boys. So many are raised by single women and struggling to figure out their maleness. Step up, be a father and try being a better man. It will do wonders for future generations. And public schools and their want of medicating kids is failing all around.

[@kevindunne4271]

Truth Hurts You're aren't going back too the the old days, but it's okay too put the old days on boys today, because that's exactly it.

[@Englishsea24]

Most men aren't bad at all its just their frustration (completely understandable) that makes them look that way

[@maverick5261]

@@truthhurts8312 Have you seen the documentary, "The Red Pill" by Cassie Jaye? It is made by a feminist who sets out to expose Men's Rights Activists, and realizes the truth of men's and boys' issue. I think it will open your eyes to what is really going on.

[@sammario11]

I mean. something I'd like to say is that schools do not encourage overachivement, they despise it, if you put more than is necessary in a project, you don't get any reward, sometimes you're even penalized. There's lots of support for underachivers and mediocre children, but next to NONE for anyone who is an overachiver, so what ends up happening is children who were very passionate about learning and very intelligent (speaking from experience) lost that compassion for education they one have, and just grow bored of school altogether, having to pursue their own ventures on their own time. Also, if you want to say that men are generally smarter than women, look at my gifted class, it's a literal 3/12 ratio (3 being boys, 12 being girls.) There's one hell of a gap, and you know why that is? Because most guys in gifted dropped out because there was little to no incentive to be IN IT. I wish they would reward us for going the extra mile instead of disregarding it or even scolding us for it!

[@bonehead711]

Boys are under attack everywhere. School was a safe haven when I was growing up. Thank you for shedding light on this problem.

[@Gurfi28]

to be honest I have only met one girl in my whole school time I would consider to be more intelligent than I am. But nearly every girl has better marks than I got. So why is that? Because school focuses too much on learning facts by heart than actually using your knowledge to achieve a goal or solve a problem. Instead of learning when what event happened we should start to discuss what could have been done to avoid a certain event or how to handle the consequences.. but no: Just learning by heart.

[@butcher568]

Thats right. When I was in highschool almost all my female classmates had better grades than me but none of them knew when were the world wars (one of them said 1817) None of them ever heard about Stephen Hawking Oscar Wild or Nero but they aced history somehow though they couldnt hold a conversation about that subject because it was just a few numbers and notes about the core what makes it a dry undesirable shit subject which is really sad.

[@kpjlflsknflksnflknsa]

School is an exercise in regurgitation. That is not how boys learn.

[@50centpb7]

I'm starting to think Christina Hoff Sommers is just pulling a Camille Pagila when she wears the label of 'feminist'; she 1-ups the new wave feminists and calls them out on their shit every chance she gets. She's that one feminist all other feminists absolutely hate. Just calling herself a feminist is essentially a big ol' fuck you in the eyes of most modern feminists, and I think miss. Sommers knows it :)

[@truthstings3925]

Well some would argue that modern feminists have hijacked the term, nonetheless the problem is most people hear "feminist" and think that automatically means that a feminist is doing something to help women's causes and looking for equality. They don't realize it's become for the most part, an agenda driven ideology and an industry that perpetuates eternal victim-hood.

[@retheisen]

Well the definition of feminism, as we have been told for so long, is a movement that advocates for gender equality. Sounds like Ms Sommers fits that definition to a tee. :-) And I agree that the mainstream, talking head, sound bite, feminists are a bit ruffled.

[@XDVikeyevXD]

Actually in another video she address the reason she uses the term feminist. According to her own accounts, she was apart of real feminism when she was younger, hence the monicker, her lack of dropping it is in an attempt to inject some rationality into it.

[@Uroboro_Djinn]

SHE IS THE TRUE FEMINIST IN THIS SCENARIO! Those 3rd wave prostitutes deserve nothing. They completely destroyed the pure meaning of feminism and turned it into a man-hating cult. Sommers spreads facts and the truth.

[@wotmot223]

She was part of the feminist movement literally before most of these social justice warriors were born. Hers was a generation that gave things up and took risks (personal) to change the laws in ways that gave women equal standing. The third wave feminists don't take those risks, or give much up. Instead the insist it is the responsibility of others to do so, that those others have some kind of privilege (while ignoring their own privileges), in short most of them are lazy, whinny and manipulative haters.

[@chifour66]

I was born in 1966, my children in the 80s, and my young grandchildren in 06,& 08,. I have watched as young boys have been systematically become marginalized and made to feel all of their natural instincts and characteristics are undesirable traits. Boys are now more feminized and basically are just "lesser": girls. HOW CAN PEOPLE NOT SEE THIS?? I remember it starting even when I was in elementary school with the focus on emotions and dealing with those as males, how boys were encouraged to cry and be more vulnerable, emphasis was also placed on rewarding their more quieter pursuits and behaviors, punishing or weeding out those seen as too masculine or rough and loud. Fast forward to substituting and assisting in my children's classrooms, and I was doling out Ritalin to 6-7 boys in the classroom out of 25. Boys no longer can be boisterous or have any natural "warrior" type instincts. Young men are heralding for beta male characteristics in pop culture. While sensitivity to others and added empathy is a positive change, I see so many things that I frankly find disturbing. Males and females just are different, and that should be a good thing. If you ask me why boys commit mass shootings and commit suicide at higher rates, and even have animosity at those disparaging them as brutish pigs, as outcasts and misogynistic rapists, well, that's the end product of really bad ideas.

[@serggla924]

People do see this they just don't care about it.

[@fkerpants]

What's frustrating about these issues is the collective eye-roll that goes with bringing up problems that affect men. Seemingly reasonable people don't (or won't) acknowledge ANY sort of problem that affects males of any age because they've been absorbed by this anti-male cloud of culture-induced hatred for years. Programs and shelters and grants and scholarships and set-asides for women outstrip anything that could be exploited by men and boys by a factor of ten, if not more. Yet, when it's pointed out, the shouting and indignation appears because women are considered to be weaker. It's bloody obvious and sickening.

[@jdalfonso4341]

This is an issue I discuss at my university on a regular basis. I feel that there is a cultural issue that has to be addressed. Western society, despite the development of stay at home fathers, still teaches young men that they must be the providers. We are taught that this our role in society, while women are still given the option to choose to work or be stay at home mothers and are not begrudged for either decision. Ive asked feminists on campus if they would ever date a man who did not have a job, I've yet to find one that replied yes, while men don't care if the girl they date has a job or not. This puts a ridiculous amount of stress on men to find gainful employment as soon as possible or they will not be successful in attracting a partner, which results in men giving up college for full time work. Families also reinforce this double standard. Women are often alowed to remain living at home with their parents rent free until they either marry or decided they no loner want to live at home, while boys are often made to pay their parents rent and encouraged to find their own homes as soon as possible... to make them more attractive to the opposite sex. The first step in fixing this problem is get society as a whole to stop viewing us as the primary bread winners and to shift the expectation to everyone regardless of gender as needing to gain employment, to enter egalitarian relationships, rather than relationships that ultimately fall into the patriarchal structures these third wave feminists claim to be oppressed by.

[@Shamanniac1]

OOOOh I see, males are so tolerant and women only care about gold and success.... You are pathetic dude, your speech (sorry your cliché collection) come directly from the previous century.

[@Asaver001]

You misunderstood him greatly, what he is saying is that men are expected to get a stable job by age 18-19, which leaves no time to get degrees and education, he does not bash on women or men, he is just saying we have progressed past the last few thousand years where men did all the work and women were expected to stay at home, and not only do women need the freedom to work and be free, men too should be allowed to study and not provide for the family until they can get a degree or a good job.

[@TOM-op2cp]

Disagree with his point or writing style, but don't make stuff up. Clueless sarcasm adds nothing to any discussion.

[@brettvv7475]

This new dislike option is long overdue, but it feels good to use.

[@robinchwan]

one thing i noticed when i was in school was.. that most female teachers i had ( had alot of them) they could never stay on one topic. it branched out to 20 different other problems to solve and in not the same way! we guys take the more direct approach and don't stop with those problems untill we know them by heart! when i had male teachers i learned alot but when i had female teachers i could not follow at all! when i had male teachers i got better grades but with female teachers i got low scores! see the problem here ?

[@robinchwan]

just saying i have nothing against female teachers but i think they teach in a way that girls can follow easier then men can!

[@salientking7336]

robinchwan Agreed, i have a hard time following female teachers. Male student need presentations with impact. With physical presention methods. I remember i had a male english teacher that would let us get up and act out scenes in a book we were reading. I remember a male history teacher throwing a book against the wall and saying "All you know, and all history will know, is that i threw a book against the way. No one will ever know why." Female teachers, all i remember are the time they gave me detentions or time outs. They weren't there to teach, they were there to thought police.

[@davidmay4612]

It's simple, teach boys/girls that the free market is a struggle and jobs are limited so be competitive and learn as many skills possible while your young. Affirmative action only does damage.. regardless of which side it's pulling.

[@Asp81able]

I have a young son who loves schools does very well, when they will teach him. However, the public school will not do it. He has been tested as gifted in math but Public education would not teach him at his level. In addition, the schools allow the bullies to beat the other kids and do nothing about them. I was a former public school teacher as well as my brother and father. When I taught we stood up to the bullies so that the rest of the kids could get an education. However, they don't do this anymore. My son was attacked in first grade twice by students the teacher and principal knew were violent bullies. They told me it is alright for my son to be punched in the stomach so hard it hurts to eat two days later, he was also grabbed around the neck from behind and thrown to the ground. I called my friends who were still teaching and they had the same story if they had a son. I called the district, Jefferson County Colorado, and they said nobody is doing anything for violence and they won't teach him at his level even with an ALP. At that point, I put him in a Charter school where he is doing very well. Jefferson County Colorado might sound familiar to you and that is because that was the district that had the Columbine Shooting. We are making kids violent, at least here in Colorado. The schools know this and will do nothing. I never thought I would support Vouchers but I see no other way for kids to get an education. As a former teacher, you can't teach very much to a student that fears for their safety.

[@yeetmilky478]

Men work to pay for women's degrees in college.

[@MatthewFordVictoria]

Employment is really hard if you're a Male! Go into a Shopping Mall and you'll find nearly all of the stores have young women running them. The only places you'll find Men is in Electronics stores, or the Janitor of the Mall.

[@Slarti]

As someone who graduated with a computer science degree at the beginning on the 90's, I think what has happened is that society has become much more feminised. You only have to look at what is being pushed in IT - web design, pretty interfaces - at the expense of a solid understanding of the science of algorithms or analytical skills. Skills that men tend to excel at are being dumbed out of IT so that we are left with some rather flaccid IT related degrees that are useless when it comes to actually working in IT.

[@chriscross7494]

Mike Rowe says that we need to promote trade schools more. There are to many people with college degrees in fields where there isn't enough jobs for all of them.

[@jdcguitar]

So if women are achieving more, if I date one am I still expected to pay for dinner?

[@stansmith981]

jdcguitar Funny!

[@StihlShadow]

Can I go so far as to suggest that the solution has more to do with prospects than with salesmanship? Maybe I'm just butthurt about the job market, but I don't think we're going to fix much by "encouraging" young men to do anything until employment options justify that persuasion. Driving more young men to seek degrees doesn't itself create jobs, it just inflates education such that employers will prefer even more highly educated candidates.

[@davidd.8534]

Then why are there so many advertisings encouraging girls to study science etc?

[@StihlShadow]

David D. Probably because the women's lobby is loud and is committed to gender parity in STEM fields, regardless of what consequences accompany this pressure. Which might be needed for all I know. I'm not satisfied, however, to drive a generation of young people to burden themselves with student debt if their degrees amount to little more than paper-weights.

[@matt309]

U were right

[@Crabmaster]

I'm loving your content so far from what I have seen, you present and talk about problems from all sides of the social spectrum with plenty of facts and interesting thoughts to back what you say instead of just blindly pushing and agreeing with what is hyped up around the media. The internet needs more people like you!

[@Moztream]

In my last year of High School i wrote this paper on something i can't remember anymore but the interesting part was that the teacher (Female) when printing it had printed an extra copy of it, unknowingly she put this extra copy of my work into the work of some girl in my class. What then happened was that i was called in for a talk with her about plagiarism and she came on to me with a very angry demeanor about what i had done. Obviously i had no idea what she was talking about at the time because this was a personally written paper about my own experiences on a subject (Pshychology class). So after getting my head chewed off for a better part of a quarter of an hour she let me go not knowing what to do with me (i was ardent about not admitting to plagiarising this girl). Obviously i told her she had made some kind of mistake but she didn't listen to me. a week later i got a Email where the teacher in question simply stated the matter had been resolved. Why did she not check with the girl if the extra text was even hers before doubling down on me? Why did i not get the benefit of the doubt? I was relieved obviously and didn't think more of the matter (i had tons of sh*t on my plate in school).Now being all grown up and exposed to some hard truths about women in education and the mindset they bring to it with the modern day feminism i've come to the conclusion that i was being targeted by her unbridled bias towards men. It's over 10 years ago but it's still with me. Thank you Christina Hoff Sommers! what you are doing is important to all of us! Keep fighting the good fight for Boys and men.

[@Sean-fu3mn]

When I was in school (only a year or two ago) and just from observations as I went through school. Personally I think because teachers see female students as the better behaved, more likely to do work gender then I honestly believe they plan lessons targeted towards interesting females. For instance in English when we would read it would always seem to be something that highly correlates with girls interests, such as romance, or princesses (stereotypical I know but that's them not me lol) or things that as a middle school boy I never had any interest in whatsoever and so I (we) sought entertainment from elsewhere (each other, or being a nuisance). They would also make us act out the books to try and get us more into it, but instead of making us more interested it just made us feel embarrassed and insecure, but the girls all loved it. Whereas when we read Skellig by David Almond all the boys joined in and loved it, because it wasn't directly interesting for the girls of the class, it seemed to bring interest out in all of us. I also believe that (again just an observation) boys seem to like practical work more. Things such as science experiments, making goop and testing its properties in science, building little toy boxes and picture frames in woodwork, getting really into sports and working as a team in Physical Ed (when all the girls would stand around and talk), even in Cooking classes the boys always seemed to love cooking and making things (not to say the girls didn't too) but as soon as we had to write about how and why we chose certain ingredients, or why certain food groups are good for keeping you healthy etc most of us tuned out again. So it is my personal opinion that if we are going to keep gender mixed schools, then something needs to change. Because It gets to the point where if you were caught getting involved in a lesson and answering questions you were ridiculed for being a 'nerd' or 'loser'. Whereas I think if it was something we could get the boys attention in as well they would all try and be the best (as boys are extremely competitive in my experience) and not ridicule each other for working hard, because honestly doing work was seen as a feminine thing, the word 'gay' got thrown around a lot for anyone getting really into their work, but that was our way of calling them 'soft' or 'pansies' not homosexual. So either we cant meet in the middle and satisfy both groups and just become gender separate schools from now on, or we start to understand that boys simply just don't learn in the same ways girls do. And its not a flaw, its not something wrong, its just different. I've seen boys be way way more into lessons than girls but its all to do with the subject material and its delivery. You wouldn't train a dog the same way you would a cat, because both have different needs and both learn differently in the first place. But unfortunately for me, and I think this is becoming a very common trend now, I do not read for pleasure. I will not sit down and read a book happily, but I could sit and read a Guinness book of world record for days and tell you facts none stop, or read an article about something that interests me. But from growing up, having no interests in any of the books I've been taught I simply have no interest in buying a book and reading it. Which seems almost a none existent trend in my female friends, they all read, but I don't know one of my male friends that reads or would ever admit to reading.

[@zacharym.530]

I feel like school should be about what YOU want to learn, in order to prepare yourself for the job you want to have in life. Boy or girl, there should be a choice to rid of uninterested students.

[@khajiithadwares2263]

Read this to make an opinion on how the genders each study and are taught differently, or they lose interest in learning, fall asleep during class, find boring based on style of teaching, which is more and more political correct, passive and disengaging, focused on being friendly rather than direct and factual: Leonard Sax - Boysadrift.c --- Six Degrees of Difference (Educational Horizons): files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ750623.pdf

[@metalwolfforjesus412]

1. Stop hating men because they are born differently than women. 2. Treat men an boys as an adults and not just a resource.

[@brendan594]

When I was in 3rd grade, this kid got in trouble for drawing pictures of weapons in art class. Normal boy behavior is seen as bad which is a big problem

[@olfens]

My theory is lack of motivation. What motivates a young man to get a degree? What does a degree mean to a young man in the face of being a priveledged lowlive cis-man scum of the earth? If a man get's a degree, it's because he's priveledged. Will a degree help the man find a good job and what good is that job when the earnings he makes will most likely end up in some selfish womans hand after marrying only to get divorced because the woman got bored or found a "better" man? Getting a good woman used to be the motivation and now there's not many good women to be found.

[@XXXXXALEXJONESXXXXX]

Thank you for addressing this topic. It has been an issue I have focused on since my freshman year in college. I can totally respect you as a feminist because you seem to be aware of the reality we are living in and don't just go along with the mainstream feminist agenda.

[@QBG]

"How do we get boys interested in education?" Well, your statistics state that this is a recent trend, which would suggest that 'feminism' and the demonizing of masculinity probably have something to do with it. I grew up with all the same ambitions and dreams of success that any other child is taught to strive for, but when it came time to apply for colleges and scholarships, I received the stinging slap of "white male privilege". More accurately, it was assumed that because my skin is white and I have testicles and a penis, that I was perfectly well off as is and needed no scholarships or grants or aid for college. So I couldn't go. My family was too poor to pay for college, but not poor enough for me to qualify for any reasonable amount of aid. Were my skin color or gender different, I would have been eligible for all manner of scholarships, grants and aid money. My solution was to attend my local community college, which taught me another painful lesson. The majority of professors there were also teaching at private 4-year universities, which means that not only was my curriculum the same, but the same PEOPLE were providing that education. In short, I am equally, if not far more, as educated as any student with a degree from a "prestigious" school, but since I couldn't PAY for the name-recognition, no employer will see "Northampton Community College" and assume that I'm an educated, capable individual. They'll simply see me as a failure, because after all, I'm a white male, and therefore going to a community college proves that I'm a lazy underachiever who didn't take advantage of his "privilege". The eradication of such sexist, racist notions as "white male privilege" is my suggestion for the "boy gap".

[@PrimeSonic]

Christina looked and sounded positively heartbroken in this entry. And honestly, I feel much of the same way. It doesn't help either that the US college system seems to be doing nothing but putting more and more kids into debt with the empty promise of a well-paying career. I think it's about time we look beyond formal education in regards to the productive future of the nation's children, for both boys and girls alike. If we allow them to really discover their talents and build up their skills for the future in what they're good at, then they'll have far more chances of actually making it than a college degree could offer them. I say this as a college dropout who has been comfortably working in software development for years. Each time I've been higher for my adaptability and skill, and not for the degree I did or didn't have.

[@koreyford3322]

If the ratio between girls and boys in school is 95% girl students and 5% boy students, then there's nothing wrong. Then the ratio of female teachers to male teachers should also be 95% female and 5% male. In my school this was not the case though the ratio of students was more like 50/50. So in my opinion this is great place to start. As for boys between the ages of 5 and 12 its fairly important that we have a male presence and a male role modal at all times. This demand becomes ever more prevalent when we begin to mature and go thru puberty. There two reasons for this one, women can create a baby boy, but they really don't know how to make a man. Secondly boys learn this very quickly in teenage life and begin to resent and rebel from their female teachers attempts to, no not educate them but rather the teachers attempts to discipline them and repress their natural and instinctual self struggle to become a man, something these female teachers really knows nothing of. In movies in books in the work place in history, I as a man relate to men, I find it very hard to relate many women, this is not because I'm sexist this because I am a human male. So why would this be any different for boys and young men in school listening to and abiding by a female teacher for most of the time given to them in their young lives. And as young boys were not as blind or completely naïve as some adults would believe. We se in this establishment (the education system) that females rule and that females succeed. So by the time college is put on the table and we now have a choice were like heck no, I've been put down by school enough. I my self saw all this and saw it young. And its now hard to see the men around me struggling with low paying menial jobs because we don't even really a high school education most of us received a piece of paper yes, but not much of an education. In conclusion because of a disproportionate ratio of role modals (also known as teachers) and the unconscious bias towards the boy students from their female teachers- Boys are getting disciplined and girls are getting educated. In short us boys are getting F***ed

[@allie8442]

I love this video except I don’t believe that college is the ticket unless someone has the desire and aptitude to follow a specific career that requires a degree. You no longer can just grab a great paying job with an undergrad. Shot, not even a masters. It all depends on what the education is in. I believe gaining marketable skills through trade skill or something like that and entrepreneurship is where more people have potential.

[@classicalliberal4220]

You don't need degree to become great expect if you're planning to doctor or lawyer Example of some great people who didn't graduate from college and even high school Bill Gates Steve Jobs Henry Ford Enzo Ferrari Michael Faraday Abraham lincoln Ben franklin Thomas Edison Mark Zuck Larry Ellison Leonardo da vinci Richard branson Evan williams Michael Dell Ray Croc Wright brothers Harry Truman You don't learn to walk by reading about it You learn to walk by trying and falling again again Now, many great companies lik Tesla, Apple, IBM don't require degree

[@Nanaty0123]

I agree 100%

[@mxkhxi]

in 5th grade my teacher was very bias. one day a girl hit me and i told her off by swatting her hand and the teacher wrote me up. we also had to read a book called stargirl, which was about a girl of course. i finished the book and started reading a manga based off of kingdom hearts II. my teacher took the book away and told me "it was too violent and sexual". i snapped after that, telling her that i was fed up with her sexists favoritism bull crap. i would never go back to 5th grade if it would save my life.

[@allenblack3785]

I think the lady nailed it. IF education has been biased toward girls, "and its always been that way"....MAYBE we need a top to bottom reexamination of the "educational system."

[@nocturnaljoe9543]

@@Bitteryuan There have been changes to the worse and there will be more of them, untill the system collapses.

[@ssholum]

There's a TL;DR at the bottom... In my opinion, it's because half of primary school and the entirety of secondary education has become pure busy work. I've always loved learning new things, but when I got to 6th grade, I started disengaging at school (didn't help that I was on some nasty drugs for BPD), my grades dropped from child prodigy levels (my previous school only let me stay because I made the best grades) to average, then finally to 'poor student'. I absolutely hated going to school: it was boring, slow, and kept me from doing things I'd rather do, like reading, playing, or studying on my own; the only 'class' I liked was strings (even if it did take both of the local middle schools to have enough people for a performance). In eighth grade, my parents transferred me into a brand new internet based school, where the students were allowed to work at their own pace, and I thrived. I was able to spend most of the day on my own pursuits and progress in my subjects when I felt like it. I was sad that I couldn't play in the school orchestra anymore, but the relief I felt at not being effectively chained in a room for most of the day and five days a week made it worth it. This didn't last long, though, because the associated distance highschool was required by law to enforce regular deadlines and scheduled lectures. These lectures were on the same time frame as normal schools, which killed all my progress: I never made the lectures (too early), I never finished my work on time (and since it and the following section were deadlined, that meant I didn't do it at all), and I consequently failed everything. (I feel it mildly important to mention I was still taking heavy doses of lithium and was suffering from insomnia (probably because of my own bad habits, but I was incapable of caring about those much, because of the lithium). Eventually, I decided that I needed to quit taking it, which became a family challenge as well (not something you'd think would have withdrawal symptoms) and certainly didn't help my insomnia... Then I had to fix a melatonin dependency...). Soon after the beginning of my fourth year of highschool, or rather, after my third year of feeling like a failure and doing everything but my school work (including tons of self-reflection), I finally decided that enough was enough and dropped out. I didn't drop out to give up though, I did it to succeed; I was technically still a sophomore and knew that I didn't want to try forcing my way through a system I hated before moving on to college (which I had always wanted to do). So I dropped out, took the first GED available (January) through an amazing works center (it cost next to nothing and they provided excellent guidance; they also included a WorkKeys assessment in the program), and started at the local technical college in the summer. In the couple of years I spent there, I learned all the things I missed from highschool (I started with a basic college algebra class) plus more (up through multi-variable calculus and DE, two semesters of University Physics (calculus based, as opposed to the algebra based courses taken by people outside of physics or engineering programs), and the basic electrical engineering classes I needed to transfer through a program with one of the local colleges). While doing all of this, I still had time for myself; I got in shape, made a ton of progress in my extracurricular studies, even had time for some work (not very much, of course, since my main goal was (and still is) my education, but many of my peers worked full time and had families!) That's why I think our current school system is just busy work: excellent students can hardly excel (though, locally we've had some great college credit programs start, where highschool students can take classes at one of the local colleges), and everyone is really just there to be kept busy. I didn't even take classes as fast as I could, because I wanted to optimize my learning, and I learned more in two years or so than is taught in both middle and highschool. Though some might say I didn't take the same breadth of courses, I have to disagree; the college I'm in has high standards for history and English (I had to take two general English courses and two literature courses; a psychology class; and two history classes), even in their STEM programs. The only thing I didn't have to take was a foreign language, but I had that covered in my personal studies (I could rant on about how poorly foreign languages (especially Japanese) are taught in schools as well, but this is quite long as it is). I don't know how indicative this is of other men and boys, but I only excelled when I had a goal, even if that goal was just my entertainment. Large amounts of busy work in class killed school for me: I could study for a test fine, and I'd remember the information for later use, but being forced to do (arguably unnecessary) work against my desires for my grade made me hate school; it's even worse when given a time limit. Do I have assignments in college? Yes. They're few and relevant to the subject; most of them are projects (or papers, in the English classes); math only had class work beyond tests for the first couple courses (and wasn't a big factor). I engaged when I was interested. As I said, even at my worst, I still loved playing the violin in strings class. Student engagement is everything for standard education; most of them would rather be anywhere other than class, and making the learning environment intentionally boring isn't going to get anyone involved (I had teachers who tried to make things interesting while still following the curriculum, but they were few). I've read that girls generally prefer (group) class work while boys prefer tests, but I think the problem is much larger than that, considering the number of disengaged female students. In college, pretty much everyone is there of their own will; they may not like the individual classes, but they have a goal they want to achieve (whatever they majored in); those that don't will drop out or get a worthless degree that barely requires more than showing up. But many students won't even get this chance, because they convinced themselves that they just weren't meant to do well in school (I knew I was smart, which only made the pain of failure worse, but at least I knew I had the capability to achieve academic success). *We need a larger teacher to student ratio!* I'd suggest separating classes by ability as well, so that the students who are having trouble aren't being pulled along and the students that excel aren't held back, but this is considered 'wrong' for some reason (I've been told I want segregated schools by some, yet I fail to see the direct connection between 'struggling students' and 'black students'; even if, practically, that ended up being the case (which it wouldn't), I still say that all the students would benefit from such a system; you don't even have to stick them in different rooms, just have teachers dedicated to helping each student reach their potential; dividing them just helps determine what courses of action might be best for those students). We at least need to have smaller classes: more direct teaching has consistently been shown to improve student performance, yet we pack thirty or more kids in a room with one teacher and expect that teacher to be able to help all of the students towards success. Either way, for one reason or another, there aren't enough teachers in schools. This could be due to poor funding of public schools or just a plain lack of teachers; whatever the case, the teachers aren't there, and that's a problem (we can't go flooding the ranks with unqualified teachers or those that don't work well with children though; that's happened already, and predictably turned out badly). We need to quit drugging children for no reason! I touched on this earlier, but I was drugged up to prevent uncontrollable emotional outbursts as a kid (they fit the description of a disorder, because they adversely affected myself and other; even I wanted them gone, because a lot of adults just said I was a crybaby trying to get attention, when I didn't even want to be having them in the first place and knew there was no logical reason to have them), they tried all sorts of nasty things before deciding I must be bipolar and starting prescribing me lithium (now I think that that diagnosis was wrong, but I haven't been to a psychiatrist in years, and don't plan to go back anytime soon; the symptoms (the ones that were and still persist, anyway) seem more like high-functioning autism to me, or just a developmental quirk, but I'm an engineer, not a neurologist). These drugs are meant to treat severe disorders and many (especially those for ADHD, which was (is?) a common misdiagnosis in children) have harmful side-effects for those that don't need them (and some even for those that do); the long term affects of these drugs on children also isn't well known, which is why many of them say they aren't meant for children (maybe my current mental problems are from all the anti-depressants and other things I was given), but what is known is that they suppress or otherwise affect the emotions and mentality of the child, which certainly won't help them with anything, especially school (or even care about it, in my case). I'm not trying to say that drugs are bad in all cases, but the cases where they are necessary are far fewer than the number of young kids taking psychoactive drugs. They need to spend less time sitting. One thirty minute recess (and a thirty minute lunch) during the school day is nowhere near enough for children, and it certainly isn't healthy (it's not healthy for adults either)! Prolonged sitting causes a decrease in blood flow, so children that sit for a long time will be dulled during class. As much time gets wasted in teaching the classes, I'm sure it'd be possible to get a second recess in there, or at least a good walk once an hour or so. TL;DR -School shouldn't be busy work -There need to be more teachers, who can teach children on an individual basis instead of only having lectures. -Children shouldn't be given psychoactive drugs just because they're hyper -Kids don't get to move around enough

[@pigletjt]

Boys hate school now...I have several friends with sons of roughly the same age 12-14, all of them say it is a constant battle to get their son's to go to school, not so with their daughters who seem to thrive and look forward to their school day. One mother actually said that she can't hardly get her son to calm down and go to bed on Sunday night because he dreads going back to school on Monday, The more questions I ask the clearer the picture gets, the stay in your seat, quietly discuss, absolutely no physical stimulation, and "ZERO TOLERANCE" policies governing normal juvenile, predominantly male behavior, is choking the life out of these kids. A huge percentage of them have to wear a patch or take pills to medicate them enough to get through the day, drugs that aren't necessary during their summer breaks and they function just fine in the real world. Even their Phys-Ed time is so structured and "safe" they rarely are allowed to just be kids! One friend of mine a mother of 3 boys and 1 girl, and she is also a teacher...has 1 son who has eventually worked out most of his issues in High School, he is more cerebral and very musically talented, his twin brother and younger brother who are both much more physical and rambunctious, despise the sun rising on a school day, they aren't bad kids they aren't trouble makers they just need some sort of release. Their 15 year old sister thrives in the environment, she is depressed when she doesn't get to see her friends during summer breaks and even on weekends, school is just a big girl party for her, dress up days, event planning, even the football season creates many more opportunities for the females than for boys, there are dances to plan, special half time ceremonies, band functions that are predominantly female driven or at least more effeminate in nature. Maybe the answer could be what we called recess back in the 60's and 70's, 20 or 30 minutes to just run around and scream our heads off on the play ground and if the girls wanted to play Barbies or whatever they did so be it. Yeah a couple of people got hurt here and there, and a few girls got their feelings hurt because they just weren't good at 'red rover' but all in all when we came back to the classroom it was a lot easier to sit through that reading lesson, we had cleaned our palate so to speak and were ready for the next phase of the day.....just some food for thought from an older guy who experienced another way. Oh and by the way just to head off the negative comments...females dominated our top 10 in my graduating class 7 of 10 were females of those 7, 2 are medical doctors, 2 are at management levels in the medical/nursing field, 1 now retired teacher, 1 married well (and divorced even better!) after college and spends her days shopping, and the other married her high school sweetheart and happily raised babies. All got what they wanted from life, and without special programs, favoritist college admissions, or mandated hiring policies. Just my 2 pennies.....

[@SirPainsalot]

Honestly, this is sad. I watched Karen Straughn's videos, and I remember the fact that our education is quite damn biased towards women, as it is an industry dominated by women. If boys were challenged to do well at a young age, if they were taught with hands-on education, get their hands dirty, we'd see more ambitious men and less lazy and, to put it one way, feminized men. It's sad that indeed, men are treated as disposable in today's society, and the idea of the MRA is considered automatically misogynistic, perhaps evil, and often laughed at. Sad state of affairs we live in.

[@habibi...]

7 years later and nothing has changed 😞

[@keithroberts5869]

This video nailed it! A bit late, but then I just discovered your KZbin videos. A bit of background for demographic purposes; I was born in 1969, served in the military and didn't get interested in knowledge till much later in life. While my contemporaries were taking AP Calc, 2 Foreign Languages, Ethics, Humanities etc, I was struggling to get through basic math concepts as they bored me to no end and not one of my educators could answer the why of importance to my future. I loved to read. However, I hated English Lit, unless we had projects which challenged me creatively. When that happened I always received top grades. When I graduated, I left with a 2.0 GPA. Nothing to write home about. I ran through several dead end jobs that again bored me. Then I joined the military and my life changed. We lived hard back then, drank hard, and trained hard. We were not politically correct, but we were a proud lot. The thing is, in all the time of service I was constantly challenged, I was shown new ways of thinking and when I had good leaders, I wasn't told HOW to do things, only the end expectation (A + C x B = 42 and I had to figure out the A, C and B on my own). This was a good thing, it made me think. It made me refuse the first 5 NO's. I learned so much. But I also began to love knowledge for its own sake. I never wanted to pursue a degree which has hamstrung me economically. But I loved gaining knowledge and figuring out how to apply it. I also figured out I loved all things creative. Sadly the creativity was stymied in my formative years by being told that those things are great hobbies but won't earn a living. I hate the fact that a degree makes you more qualified though. I think certifications can do the same if given the chance. The statistics you have shown is based upon obtaining a degree. Yet, I can tell you there are several of my former subordinates that can outperform degree holders by experience alone. The military is trying to change that culture as well as work towards making sure it's new generation of soldiers are all college educated. But...what if my aspirations are not degree oriented? What if they are aspirations of the mind? Do I need a degree to become a writer? What about an artist of any medium? Since many colleges have become very costly for functional degrees creating long years of debt, I don't see that as a viable option financially at 47. Not that I am any less intelligent, I am pretty sure I can hold a conversation on numerous topics at a college level of knowledge. I just think we should open our minds to other avenues of excellence and success in the American Dream. My point is that yes, we must encourage both boys and girls today to exceed and excel in professional development. We have to come up with inventive ways to stimulate our youth by whatever means are effective to the individual to guide them to higher aspirations. With today's new generation, I find the youth to be more inquisitive, and extremely intelligent. The building blocks are there, but older generations need to stop telling them always about what they are wrong at, and guide them to see what they are good at. Not everyone is good at everything. Some things a person may love but they just will never be the best. Still, we can guide them to find excellence and high aspirations with the right approach. So far, I think you are showing that.

[@GamersBlogX]

I would've been a lot more ambitious in school if I actually did something worthwhile rather then the same thing every fucking year. I mean seriously, I would move up a grade and be taught the same thing as the "lower level" classes. Then another thing is maybe they should let people choose what they want to learn about, instead of forcing them to go through certain classes just to learn something that they will never use unless they choose to go into a certain profession.

[@ElySky95]

+GamersBlogX True, they force boys to learn stuff that is (boring for them) and (not that boring for girls), since it's (easier for girls to learn it [because they like it]),it may give them more *self esteem* to (keep having better grades) in other (harder subjects) like math (the reward), and pursuit to the future (college). Why don't they just teach (necessary things) like math, science, and technological subjects like electronics,make it (more interesting for boys), the area that they like, and give more (free time) to (important subjects), and more free time for they (enjoy) their youth , (think: if it will give you knowledge for you to [learn to do something with it] and [earn money from it], then [[its worth teaching]], if not, it's just unnecessary knowledge which (takes time) from other necessary subjects in a [overloaded schedule], from the (real necessary things), then stop teaching it, it makes schedules overloaded, makes kids more tense makes school boring, brings heath problems"stress", specially for boys, If they see that the most of subjects taught in school are boring for them, then their idea of school wil bee the wrong, because you know that girls prefer to be organized they prefer those little unnecessary knowledge which will pay less in the future compared to engineerings [gender degree] ) Make learning more towards boys specially after 4th grade, thats when they start to develop their tastes, their personality, their real thinking of the future, most of them are the future of engineers/scientists thus development whose give money to the country/develops society, unnecessary things like histories and social sciences which are the area that girls like the most and choose, they dont. I'm only trying to give an idea of how things are bad, Now to solve it as i said, teach only necessary stuff, give more freedom to let students/parents choose what they want their kids to learn, like French or English, History/ Geography... or Math and physics, if not sum things up and teach the main ideas, don't obligate boys master a subject that they dont like some studies show that girls tend to master the subject that they are studying, while boys tend to work to only have higher scores, well IF BOYS LIKE ONE THING THEY WILL MASTER IT thats why you dont force some one to learn something that they dont like and hope them to master it, it will affect the other subjects as well !! Stop this nonsense. Sorry if there is something wrong, not my mother tongue, and just trying to give the idea. PS: If you are a boy in this society which was strong enough to resist to the system, most of the things you will have to learn by yourself.

[@taywil64A]

Thank you for caring Christina. My view is the negation of boys' education means the educational courses will be filled by women especially the softer jobs in liberal arts, humanities and social sciences. Boys' and men other than the feminist endorsers will be forced to perform low status and demanding jobs women will simply not perform. As mens participation in education, especially in third level undergard and postgard education, the more manpower there is for the demanding low status jobs. This is, in my view, a policy of state in the US but also across some western European states. It is not happening by accident but my lowering boys primary education achievements and reducing high school and college academic success. This is a recipe for a societal disaster but the zeitgeist is happy to take such a gamble.

[@psychorodentstudios5441]

This is a feminist. Feminism was made for gender equality and not for female superiority. This is why I like feminist like this who care about the equality of both genders. While most of what we see are sexists, superiority complex snowflakes, this is what we should be looking at. Gender equality in both Male and Female and stop just looking at one because if you want to get rid of sexism than stop being sexist yourself first before you worry about others.

[@RogalloShaolin]

Step 1) Get male instructors back in. Step 2) Put in a Misandry rating per College, to warn off students from going to an Institution that will destroy their lives. 3) Eradicate Title 9, it is an unconstitutional regulation 4) If we are going to continue anti boy policies in the education system, allow boy only Colleges to be chartered.

[@RogalloShaolin]

***** The only ones I am aware of are Jewish. I would be surprised to find anything at all that is still men only in this country.

[@CerulianSamurai]

***** It's not because they want to meet women, its because its seen as "Sexist" to have a male only gym etc.

[@RogalloShaolin]

And yet, they are allowed to have women only gymns so they can feel comfortable working out. When do I get my male only Dojo. I despise pairing off against women when learning techniques. When you are trying to avoid anything resembling pain to her, you aren't learning the technique. But of course, men aren't allowed their own places to be men. How can you see anything but misandry in our society? As we drive down "Feminist Lane" all we see are signs that state "One way only"

[@CerulianSamurai]

Dre Zee I agree Dre Zee. A lot of male spaces are being either shut down or purposed for a different use. Sad really.

[@CerulianSamurai]

***** The reason why you don't see many around is because they have been shut down. There have been women filing complaints to the gyms because it's "Sexist" to have a male only gym. And the schools? It depends on the person, I would probably do better in a male only class room, than a co-ed school. Everyone is different, and learn differently. I'm not worried if there is girls in a school or not, i am not there to get "Digits" or what ever. I am there to learn, after school you can do what ever you want. "And same thing with the gym. Men do not want to go to male only gyms. Haha, what the hell.... half the reason men work out is to look attractive to women." Do you personally know every guy that goes to the gym? That's pretty pathetic of a reason to go to the gym. A person should go to the gym to improve themselves, to stay healthy and fit. Not for a shallow reason to attract, or hook up with girls. *shaking my head*

[@RonaldoFearsEboue]

I hate to sound dismissive, I am sure there are big problems, however, right now I think the biggest problem is that we are in a higher education bubble whereby degrees are over inflated. What we need to do is to reduce the numbers dramatically because its getting to the point where you need a degree in anything just to get an unrelated entry job.

[@warrenlauzon5315]

I think you are right in the sense that the idea that a degree - any degree at all, no matter how useless in the market place - is required. A lot of people - male and female - would be a lot better off in something like a 2 or 3 year trade school than in some 4 or 5 year degree in Mongolian Basket Art History.

[@omniarch4328]

I might be mistaken but wasn't it just a few years ago that there were stories saying in a decade or two every job is going to require a college degree as a minimum requirement? I mean, could you imagine a world where you NEED a real college degree to work at McDonald's? Come on down to Harvard to get your degree in Food Engineering (learn how to use a fryer and grill) or Inventory Management (specializing in stock rotation and dating), and we now offer a degree in Super Size Economics (Would you like fries with that?).

[@AngelofDeath_1369]

Degrees are pointless. I worked in law enforcement and only needed a license that took 4 months to obtain.

[@warrenlauzon5315]

crazyhorse1369 Depends on the degree. Some are pretty useless, but not all, such as most science degrees.

[@AngelofDeath_1369]

Warren Lauzon Advanced stuff, yes.

[@igordutra4171]

as of today, i'm 14 years old, and aspire to be a chemist, i'll take ANY courses and post-college education on the subject, because i dream big, and i want that to become reality, to have a highly paying job working with something i love, i hope that things get better when i start higher education, because currently, it is not looking good for me or for any other boy who deams big, like many of my friends.

[@supermanboy1255]

Igor Gomes Dutra I'm twelve and wish to be a scientist but I don't know what field I want to be In but I like robots and space and I hope to form a research facility that works with all kinds of fields I just want your opinion also I hate the book they have us reading In laugauage arts it sucks

[@ShawnRavenfire]

The real issue here is that we need to restore the United States to an industrial nation. Not everyone is cut out for college, and not everyone is cut out to work in a professional field. We need to make it once again okay to go directly into the workforce after high school. College will still be there for those who want to go, but it shouldn't be a requirement to live.

[@VeradanaGriffin]

I remember reading an article years ago that talked about how boys' grades and graduation rates were declining, and one of the possibilities it brought up was that boys don't see a reason to strive for things anymore because they're told they need to let girls and women do those things.

[@johnnonamegibbon3580]

I really don't know, honestly. But what I can tell you is that is that I'm in my early to mid 20's and one of my friend recently told me he didn't bother going to college because it's for women. I immediately thought of you. Maybe if we address that misconception?

[@KuhDoda]

I could be totally wrong here. just speaking from my own personal perspective from school. I am a male and I graduated high school in the state of Nevada. if you know about how the states school systems are rated, then you know Nevada is consistently in the bottom three. this might also play a part in my own experience, but that's not what my point is. I was never interested in school. most of my classes were, "here, read this, and then do this paper." its not an excuse for poor grades, which were common for me, but it was so boring. and I would love to say that this is a bad argument, but my classes that were mostly projects, or class interaction based at least, I would always do fantastic on these assignments, or in the more interactive classes in general. honestly, I think it would be safe to say that the way school is taught right now in some classes just may not appeal to men. and yes its very important and the rest of your life can be based off of how well you do, but at that age, boys don't think like that. I'll be the first to say that I thought I knew everything and I cared a lot more about having fun, rather than my grades. its sad but true, boys have a very coulees immature concept of what the real world actually is. and anyone that tells you that your grades do matter and it will impact you, simply goes in one ear and out the other. again, this is just from what I went thru, and what I've seen at my school. it wasn't that we (boys) lacked the knowledge, just the attention span. as far as posing a solution.. well that's tough. what's interesting for one person, could be like hell for others. maybe all boy schools, and all girl schools could be an attempt, but I could see people from both sides saying that its inequality. when actually, both genders are equal, just excelling in different fields. we're equal if we work together and do things that are better suited for us. people seem to think that different job titles means inequality, but I see it as a role in society. we might be doing different things, but its the importance of what we are doing that actually impacts our society. sorry if this sort of rambled. just typing thoughts on the matter.

[@jonathanhansen5208]

i was a student in new york state and i feel that the education i received was okay but in the end never prepared me for life. Alot of the time students asked "why are we learning this?" and teachers would reply is some form of "its to help you in life.", but how?i never felt helped. What would have helped would be to teach us about life and ideologies and opinonated debate which then says well where are your facts to support your opinion, then about the government systems how it works, how it got to be this way and different ideologies in depth, yes we learned a force fed curriculum of vocabulary and textbook stories but not one that interested us and brought out ideas and developed thoughts of the students. That is what is missing in the schools a relationship between students and teachers to help them search for anwsers and have opinions, it feels more like a sit down shut up here is what to know for the final. It was all based around this one test of memorable knowledge more or less. Now that was before common core curriculum now i dont know much about it but it sounds worse as described by every teacher i've asked as, "it doesnt help students get ahead it brings everyone back" is what i've heard about it.

[@faceshed]

I found a love of education late in life. I always viewed school was a place you go to have facts crammed into your head between the rest of life where the brain was actually used. Now I spend most of my time looking for work so I can pay for classes myself. In my free time I hurt down free classes and educational videos, even on things I don't find interesting or think will be useful. I blame my teachers for not working with me. I remember a time in class where I got some math problems to solve. After I finished everything without help I looked around the room for something to do then I got an idea I followed the steps and wrote in new math problems for myself to solve and solved those. I got worried that I would get in trouble for doodling on the paper. For whatever reason I had the impression that I should only do as told and nothing more or less. I erased the extra problems, but not well enough that they couldn't be seen and my teacher never said a word about it. I've thought a lot about this problem and I think the most important thing we can do is get teachers to teach some things kids are already interested in and show how skills we need like math relate to those things. Even pokemon has a lot of math to it.

[@brentnaritoku5340]

I imagine that MSNBC thought that boys were only thinking about the white male population when considering this. We should face a very real distinction that "leaving boys behind" will not be hurting the white, male population so much as the minority male population, (black, hispanic, etc.). Disregarding this problem seems like it will encourage more of a racial gap rather than any impact it has on increasing or decreasing the gender gap in education.

[@katty4682]

if something isn't done about this issue, we're gonna have a huge skills gap in the tech industry, which can cause the country to lose many of the few jobs that offer a decent paycheck.

[@TheChaosWithin]

For anyone to be interested in anything, it starts with themselves. In school, if you want to learn what you want when you want it, go to a Montessori school system. Pros: you learn what you want when you want it therefore you actually engage in the activities... Cons: You miss out on learning things that you may not ever learn yourself even in the future because you limit yourself to only what you want to learn and not what others have to share. It's a better system for boys.

[@Leto2ndAtreides]

The question is how to get someone to do what they don't want to do in a way that they put in effort? Offer them something they want, or alternatively, make not doing well something they don't want.

[@fructosecornsyrup5759]

This scares me so much... I don't want to deprive any little boys I may have in the future of the chance to socially interact with others their age, but geez, this really makes me consider homeschooling. I don't want my babies suffering at the hands of these people. They deserve better, to be themselves, to learn and look at life in a happier light rather than constantly be treated and feel like garbage that they aren't.

[@MothershipVideos]

It's all turning out, sadly, to be so true. Thanks for your work.

[@bigredracingdog466]

There needs to be a greater emphasis on vocational education and the trades. Mike Rowe has been talking about this for years. Not every kid is cut out for college, yet our public schools are conveyor belts for sending kids off to universities. Anyone who falls off gets at best a HS diploma and minimal job-specific skills. Funding for VoEd has fallen by 32% since 1985. Meanwhile we more, not fewer, welders, carpenters, masons, machinists, plumbers, electricians, and mechanics.

[@PLAYERSLAYER_22]

dude its just dyslexia dyscrimination. left handed males are screened out of school. read the paper "dyslexia in higher education"

[@RJF_Entertainment]

Let The Schools Know That Thay Can Be Friendly To Boys Without Being Hostile To Girls

[@fredrikalvsaker2879]

Next year, after my military service, I will be attending my civil engineer studies in Europe's most acknowledged technological university. Sadly, I was close to missing that opportunity, as our government still sees it necessary to fill a quota of female students. Yet, there are more women in my country who seek higher education and finish both Master's and Bachelor's degrees. As we use a numeral grade system from 1-6, I have an average of 5,6. A female applicant would have an equal shot with a 5,1 average. In my opinion, all it does is check out those best fit for the education.

[@americanexotics5919]

the issue is alot of the classes and courses and such that males enjoy shop and the like have been completely cut I was in a school where because I was hyper and was active and liked to daydream i was forced onto Ridalin which i hate to say still effects me to this day even though ive been off it along time I was told by teachers because of my being hyper I was stupid or i wasnt motivated Oh im motivated its just what im motivated about my passions where dismissed the things I wanted to do pushed aside which means its not easy for me to get anywhere now Im 28 cant afford to go to college for what i want I like working with animals but Im a straight white male so there really isnt anything to help me afford college I wanted to go for animal Husbandry but threw out school i was always put down people dont realize that thats detrimental physical scars heal but emotional and mental ones may never go away

[@filipesengofurtado7663]

The issue cannot be solved by the simple fact that it cannot be addressed. Stating that our education systems privilege girls, despite all the data proving it, is seen as politically incorrect and few (if any) politicians would ever have the courage to bring that up.

[@Hohohox]

i love this womans factual point of view. thank you. hope we can address this issue as well. its very sad and at times feels hopeless because how much effort the media puts into painting a very misleading picture of gender issues

[@drewga403]

Look at everything Disney has presented to our young boys for an entire generation. Every animated Disney movie since "the Little Mermaid" back in the 90's has been teaching young boys that *girls* are strong, independent, curious, adventurous, under-dogs who overcome, capable, risk-takers (all of which are good things...) who are fully capable of saving themselves when they get into trouble. The problem is not the message about girls. The problem is the simultaneous message being sent about boys. *Boys (& men)* are most often portrayed as either villains, crooks, creeps, nerds, un-trustworthy schemers, aloof, otherwise "damaged", or in the best cases maybe lovable goof-balls. [ ie.: Olaf, Aladdin, Prince Eric, the Beast, Wreck-It-Ralph, Moana, Gaston, Prince Hans, etc... ] Perish the thought of ever allowing a contemporary Disney "Princess" to actually be saved or helped in any significant way by a prince. Absent are almost any strong, courageous, honorable, valiant, substantive role models for a whole generation of boys who endured serving after serving of Disney's "modern perspective?" "agenda?" "misandry?" And parents had become so accustomed over years to blindly trusting Disney to present clean, universally positive messages (which maybe it used to), which inspired wonder and imagination and optimism in ALL children - that this trend went unnoticed largely even to the present day. But I am certain that it has not gone unnoticed in the subconscious, self-image development processes of young boys for more than a generation now. Boys need role models. They need heroes. They need to know that being male is not something to be ashamed of. It's not something you need to downplay or - as seems to be happening more and more in younger generations - wish/pretend was not the case. There is a role for masculinity in society. And it CAN be a positive one. When a man sees a woman slip on an icy sidewalk there is NOTHING WRONG with giving her a helping hand. Nothing wrong with stopping to help a lady change a tire on the side of the road. Maybe she doesn't NEED the help, maybe she does. Who knows? But there is nothing wrong with offering. And what woman - honestly - wouldn't at least appreciate the offer? Men raised on contemporary Disney may well be so confused and concerned about gender roles, and potentially offending someone, or so quick to assume no help is needed, that they never even offer. Is that really a better scenario? Is that really a better sort of man? Is that a better society? It is wonderful to empower and encourage and promote girls and their success. But there is NOTHING WRONG with doing the exact same thing for boys...*cough, cough*...Disney.

[@latronko3320]

Finally a feminist who is factual

[@johnfowler3125]

The patriarchy has always protected a minority of psychopathic men. Almost all of us suffer under this system.

[@AngryIntellectual]

I find it hilarious that if women are doing poorly, it's something that must be changed! But when men are doing poorly, it's simply "the way things are". And we are told that Feminism is all about equality, or something.

[@brendanmcmahan2368]

In the 1950s, imposition of Critical Theory upon naive students in the college classroom was called “shaking students out of their middle class complacency.” Shaking professors out of their comfortable complacency, however, was not an option. It was interpreted as an intolerable insult to an assumption of intellectual superiority or certified supremacy. It would result in failing grades, being thrown out of class, or being expelled from the college. Challenging an authority-based system of bloated professorial self evaluation could be lethal in the sense of depriving someone of university certification to pursue their later goals. On the other hand, students who bought into Critical Theory were told, and believed, they were learning something. They were told they were entering the intellectual big leagues by learning that something. They were. They were learning self doubt, selfn hatred, and hatred of the culture that enabled them to go to college and get brainwashed. Production of students who returned home as confused scrambled eggs with expanded arcane vocabularies and convoluted self referencing reasoning systems to defend their condition after their stern social(ist) classroom psychotherapy that awakened them to the total oppression inherent in the cultural/economic system was testimony that something important was going on there. Naive parents were discomforted by positions their children were arguing, but were influenced by a misguided faith in education and the reputation of its higher institutions, as well as by their children’s sudden intimidating verbal erudition, into believing good would eventually come of it. It would not. Excerpted from: The Viet Nam Series Part 2.5: The Rise and Power of the Radical Left in America Robert L. Kocher [e-mail]

[@salientking7336]

When I went to college, the women in engineering classes were given every possible advantage to succeed. More time to complete the project? sure. One on One time with the professor? sure. Higher scores for mediocre solutions? sure. Having the guys in class do the work for her in exchange for a flirt or two? sure. Whatever it took. One day I stood behind a female student to talk to the professor. I needed one more day to finish the assignment (i had been sick). The female student asked the female professor for more time, she gave her an extra week. In earshot of me btw, it comes to my turn and I ask for one more day, she gave me nothing. I had to turn in the project incomplete for an F. I got good grades on everything else, but thanks to her scoring methods I ended up with a D+ in the class and had to retake it. Needless to say, I was quite bitter from there on out. If I had known better at the time I would have went to the dean about it, but i was just a dumb freshman.

[@craigjacobs5858]

I'm really late to the part with my comments here. However, let me explain at least one reason both my brother and I experienced for the difference in boys' vs. girls' achievements in school. Similar to what we see in court sentencing, boys are treated far more harshly than girls for infractions and they don't receive the slack for academic laziness that girls receive. I can remember teachers who overtly hated boys and weren't afraid to show it. The educational system too often makes boys feel unwelcome, which is why, by the time they graduate they want nothing more (or at least the perceived necessary amount more needed to succeed) to do with school. In many ways, many boys feel that school is like a prison term. Ironically, I myself felt this way but am now a teacher. My perceptions on this matter aren't too different from when I was a student. Even male teachers are given far less support. I had once had a student twice give me death threats and he was only given a slap on the wrist and blamed for his ever-bolder behavior. I had a false allegation from a girl once and the girl was given a slap on the wrist. I could keep going with stories like these. Female teachers, however, if a kid so much as gives them a nasty look and they don't like, administrators treat it like a federal case.

[@RevoRob007]

We have similar problems in Australia. The root of the problem is that young men (in fact, pretty much all men) do not see that being a well-educated male is likely to lead to real benefit. Unlike women of my fathers generation (he was born in 1939) who were socially conditioned/restrained to pair up with intelligent, law-abiding men, modern women are attracted to the dregs of the male gender. On top of this, well-educated (and subsequently highly paid) men in the modern world are taxed at far too high a rate to pay for everyone else. This "everyone else" includes paying welfare for single mothers who have children by men whom are low value to society as well as prisons to house low-value men and their equally low-value offspring. None of this is of any benefit to a man who is highly educated so where is the motivation for a man to bother with education? As for myself (born 1966) I chose to become relatively well-educated to enter my chosen field. I was faced with the usual discrimination that all men face in the name of Affirmative Action policies. Basically, I had to work about twice as hard as women to get the same result. I lost count of the times when I saw much less qualified and experienced women get jobs and promotions ahead of me. At any time I dared to question this I was threatened with dismissal on the grounds of discrimination (the irony!). Despite being well-paid, law abiding and a highly productive member of society, I didn't get a lot from this in return. The amount of tax I paid on my earnings was staggering and it wasn't as though the government was spending any of it on things that I deemed to be worthwhile. At the same time, my rather thoughtful, considerate and quiet personality often got me labelled as a "creep" by any woman I tried to approach. So tell me - where was my motivation to keep being an ambitious, hard-working man who contributes to society? Around about a year ago, I decided I had had enough of society and the bullshit we men have to put up with. I decided to retire from my profession at the age of 51. Being single and having saved as much as I could, I live quite well. I do a couple of days a week labouring for cash-in-hand pay and I collect unemployment. I have never enjoyed life as much as I do now. The fact that my story (or one like it) is increasingly common in modern western society is the problem. Modern day men have little motivation to succeed as there are precious few rewards for making the effort. I am probably lucky I did not take the Red Pill until I was well into my thirties. Had I been Red Pilled at an earlier age, it is likely I would have chosen a less honourably (and probably less legal) line of income. After all, in the modern world, men who are dangerous and/or criminals seem to have plenty of money, don't pay taxes and manage to get plenty of women. I am not in any way at all surprised that men are turning their backs on their roles as contributors to society. Why would they not?

[@LukeLovesRose]

God. You guys are a SJW mess right now, thanks to bitches like Clementine Ford. I'm really sorry.

[@RevoRob007]

Not only Clementine Ford but Catherine Deveney, Tracy Spicer, Suzie O'Brien, Wendy Toohey, Elizabeth Broderick, Julia Gillard, Prue Goward and seemingly endless list of complete and utter f**king man-hating feminists who like nothing more than to find new and more cruel ways to punish men. There will a civil war in this country over this at some stage.

[@DevilfishFace]

Here in Australia it's been acknowledged that teaching in schools from almost the ground up favors the development of female children. Not in gender bias on the part of the teachers or staff. But in the methodology of teaching and how boys and girls of different ages respond to those methods. School learning in Australia and perhaps else where is almost 'unnatural' for boys.

[@SlyNine]

I like how you can show that guy the facts. He just dismisses them like they don't exist. I see this so much. For boys to get help, they have to be a threat to the national economy. For girls to get help, they just have to exist.

[@timothymacdonald484]

Ms. Sommers, I know this is an older post, but I hope you get to read this. In your opinion, would it be unfair of me to suggest that many on the more extreme side of feminism would regard a world where men are under-educated relative to their female counterparts as a desirable outcome? It has often seemed to me that many in this debate are exclusively interested in a balance of power, and regard education as a path to power. If this is the case, does it follow that a world where men are less educated than women is a necessary step toward a world in which the balance of power swings toward women? If this is true, might it explain the lack of acknowledgement of this problem?

[@kim621100]

Yup.you got it. Read my post and link above

[@jeffnauman5689]

For generations in this country we have taught girls to be good and boys to be great. We have also taught boys that greatness is not dependent upon higher education. Playing sports, pop music, starting a computer company in your basement, and of course sleeping with as many girls as possible is the road to greatness. Having manners, studying hard and giving back to the community is not. If you want boys to overpopulate our AP classes and become valedictorians teach them to be good first, greatness will follow.

[@noonereallymattersbutcats9674]

I love my son, and care about boys issues. Something must be done

[@oberg9577]

Brilliant woman, very impressed with your videos.

[@xNevikKx]

Porn, games, movies, dead end job? Who needs to succeed when the path of least resistance offers enough.

[@maxcrss2845]

The best book that school ever recommended was Enders Game. Almost everybody read it, even in the regular classes. More books like that and less books like Catcher in the Rye definitely help.

[@Vgy1592]

We can keep To Kill A Mockingbird and Fahrenheit 451, right? As little as people seemed to have read them, they're books that I find myself wishing more people had read for what they say about society. In TKAM's case, the point of a major arc of the story was racism- But it also makes a strong case for the dangers of false rape claims. And F451 gives a good example of why freedom of speech is important, and why all the censoring of "hate speech" is a problem. But, yeah. Reading books in school was always something that failed to engage everyone. Personally, I always had trouble reading books for classes in general. Not because I was disinterested, but because I had to read less frequently than I wanted to so I wouldn't get so far ahead in the books that I'd forget everything by the time tests rolled along.

[@Leto2ndAtreides]

I think it boils down to differences in male and female motivation. Like how in a work environment putting groups of women against others ruins productivity, whereas for groups of men it enhances their achievement. I remember a story about a simple way to get boys more engaged just being daring them to do something, but the emotional fear mongering leads to not wanting a kid to feel like a failure, even if that means not even really making them want to fight. There was some research done on monkeys on what a school like environment does to the human brain and the results weren't good. Too many psychological problems develop from being in too unnatural an environment. It may just be that the the increasingly sanitized environment growing up, and lack of role models boys can actually see themselves in, is the problem... What sane person would fight for something they don't want? Maybe replace cartoons like Sponge Bob with less depressing stuff, and we'll see improvement (You're hardly going to get kids these days to watch shows on business where they might see role models). I am actually quite interested to see what the long term implications of this feminized teaching style on boys and the culture in general will be... If it retains the ability to compete on the international landscape at all... Since as always, long term, real world success is defined by how much you achieve and how well you compete for the same opportunities and resources... Natural selection, be it of individuals or whole cultures, tends to be unforgiving over the passing of decades and centuries. Not that its as hopeless as all that, technology and freedom of access to information might fix for individuals what emotional and uninsightful government has broken.

[@Phills69]

Its been 7 years since this video came out? And still everyone is ignoring how far men born after 1981 have fallen behind…

[@VGmaniac104]

I can't speak for all men, but I can tell you MY story. As a kid, I was given high expectations, I was diagnosed with ASD and struggled to cohabitate with others. My father wouldn't have it, he was very condescending. One thing lead to another, and my parents got divorced. Never took SAT because tests gave my anxiety, so I went to community college. Because of my differences and lack of ability to read others, it became too stressful because people we're uncomfortable around me. I came off as creepy and was outcasted... so I left

[@TheMightyMad]

In my school they have a girls club where they do whatever they want for 4 periods it’s been shutdown because of COVID but still...

[@DadManJokes]

well, for starters, make school less boring. You do that by making it more practical, more interact-able, and the issue will be gone. Men learn by experimenting, by putting things in a more practical way. For example, if you want a man to learn physics, instead of just asking him to read and make countless exercises and so on, have a project to make a catapult, build a car engine, make a circuit board, draw a building, make biology experiments. Women are more verbal and tend to listen and pay more attention to words, and men just can't be bothered to listen for a full hour at a time to blablabla.

[@MrKen11589]

I've been considering the question you asked in your video. You're wondering why boys are getting left behind in school. Is there a father in the home? A father sets the example for his son, however, if he doesn't have an example then how does the boy know?

[@issakelly8071]

Enough with this father BS!!! I had a father in the home and he was the most abusive scum of the earth. Kids don't need the dick that sired them. They need a loving, nurturing parent

[@azazelgrigori9244]

Here's what I can say. Never in my life have I ever heard anyone, parent, teacher, authority figure in general, ever tell me that as a man I can, and should, do whatever I want. Manhood and masculinity was never about freedom, but responsibility. As a man, I have to do certain things, behave in certain ways, live certain lifestyles, do certain activities (sports), follow certain rules, and never ask for anything in return. Only to be bullied by my male peers, manipulated by my female peers, then neglected and villified by authority figures when I spoke out.

[@ericbaillie1098]

If you want boys to be interested in education, provide them with interesting education.

[@almosthonest42]

as a young boy, even here in NZ years ago..i could see the interests the teachers showed in girls and how we boys were just loud and unmanageable unless we were playing sports..!! my personal feelings is that the school system is designed too rigid and seems to benefit girls with the monotonous nature where as with boys(i can only use myself and friends as examples) we preferred hands on teaching..outside learning(bush walks, crafts etc) a good example would be maths class..give us numbers on a page..and we will get lost..give it to us in competitive utilizing geometry and we excelled...