Richard Reeves has been on the podcast circuit recently talking about his book Of Boys and Men. Reeves researches inequality and social mobility, with a particular focus on men and boys. I've heard several interviews with him but the most thorough was on the Ezra Klein Podcast where the discussion dipped well into the statistical weeds. Some of the most compelling stats from this discussion included:
When Title IX was passed in 1972, men earned bachelor's degrees at a rate 13 points higher than women. The statistic today is almost exactly inverted: women outpace men by 15 points.
During COVID (2020), college enrollment for men fell at seven times the rate as it did for women. About twice as many middle age men died of COVID than middle aged women.
There are meaningful differences among high schools in the U.S. due to income distribution. But in a typical school district, girls tend to be 3/4 of a grade level ahead of boys in English and even in math. In poorer districts, they are about a full year ahead in English and 1/3 a grade level ahead in math. Two-thirds of the top 10% of students by GPA are girls and the bottom decile is two-thirds boys. Boys and girls do about equally well on standardized tests.
There is evidence that boys are less resilient than girls in the face of poverty, challenging home environments, poor supervision.
Some interventions, such as state college scholarship programs for high achieving high school students, disproportionately benefit girls.
Approximately 70% of opioid-related deaths are male, with men being four times more likely to commit suicide than women.
The high school and college statistics weren't surprising to me. On average, boys seem to develop executive skills that allow them to be successful in school earlier than girls. I teach more "remedial" math classes but even there, girls seem more open to going to college than boys.
I'd like to read this book to get a better handle on some of the solutions that Reeves proposes. One of the more extreme ideas, increasing the default age of kindergarten for boys ("red-shirting"), is already common practice among parents sending their boys to elite private schools. Reeves supports growing and celebrating spaces where boys can be among boys with guidance from adult males (Reeves laments Boy Scouts of America's change to "Scouting America" as it opens its programming to girls). He also advocates continuing funding for STEM and vocational training but also promoting male entry into HEAL vocations (health, education, administration, and literacy) where male participation has cratered.
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