Feminists began taking over American education decades ago. They wanted to help females and largely viewed males as a problem. The result is an educational system that serves boys and men poorly.
In today’s Martin Center article, Professor Joseph Knippenberg reviews a new book making that argument. The book is by Richard Reeves of the Brookings Institution, so it will be hard for leftists to dismiss it as right-wing propaganda.
Knippenberg writes, “Reeves paints an alarming picture. Boys and men are falling behind in the classroom, are less engaged in the working world than ever before, and are often unsure of their role, if any, in the family and the lives of their children. The foundations of our so-called patriarchy seem to be crumbling. Reeves’s claims about these phenomena are amply buttressed by studies and data.”
The percentage of men graduating from college is a canary-in-the-coalmine indicator, and it shows a steady decline. Moreover, many schools have various programs aimed at helping women but nothing comparable for men.
So, what to do? Knippenberg is rather lukewarm about Reeves’s suggestions and argues that he misses some important possibilities.
He writes:
First of all, he says nothing about homeschooling as an alternative for the tailoring of education to meet the particular needs of young students. Since he embraces the “broader goal” of “opportunity pluralism,” Reeves should at least offer a few words on the subject. Perhaps there aren’t enough studies to give him confidence in making a recommendation, but my own experience, as a father who was persuaded by his wife that our first-grade son would flourish if he were brought home, leads me to think that Reeves should bring the ample resources of his employer to bear on studying that issue, recently made even more urgent by our Covid experience. Homeschooling is surely not for everyone, but neither is public school. And the available evidence, flawed though it may be, suggests that homeschoolers perform quite well in higher education.
Yes.
At least someone on the left dares to raise this important matter.