Reply #68: Well said. Very well said.

[lumberjack_jeff]

To what do boys aspire?

A very large proportion of boys are quite confident that they'll be sports professionals when they grow up. (If nothing else, it indicates that they need some help with the concept of statistical probability). I have three sons, and my family considered me borderline cruel when I pointed out to the eldest that he won't - so he'd better study.

(Replying "no" when asked by a bright-eyed 5th grader if I thought he could be a professional baseball player when he grew up was a hard thing to say.)

If boys find they lack the top 0.1% of athletic skill, what will they do? By the time boys have reached the age when they realize that they won't be a professional football player, they've passed the time at which they needed to begin taking their academics seriously. Even those who do have the natural athletic talent that would have enabled them to attain scholarships 30 years ago find them harder to attain today. This is one of the reasons that girls are 50% more likely to go to college than boys.

The realization that many here don't consider this a problem vexes me.