Reply #24: I don't agree with you there

[Yupster]

Having gone to the school in the Sixties and Seventies, I can say there have been major changes to the way students are taught.

One major change is the reduction in recess time and gym time.

Also the way gym is now taught is very different than the way it was taught 30 years ago. Thirty years ago gym was much more a place where boys would throw things at each other, chase each other, etc. Today it is much more a place where health concerns and sportsmanship are taught. These changes are fine, but it must be recognized that the chances for boys to run around are very much reduced from where they once were.

Also, zero tolerance policies make the normal games that we used to play on the schoolyard like pointing sticks at each other and saying bang, cause for suspension. In fact, just running on the schoolyard is now cause for discipline sometimes.

Another concern is the dissapearance of men from the elementary schools. As someone else above pointed out, minority boys are having particular troubles. I would say a partial reason for this is that you have a community with a 70 % or more illegitimate birth rate. So the boys have no dads at home. Then they go to school every day and the only men they see are the custodians. That's got to be a bad thing.

I would also point to the increased use of behavior modifying drugs as another problem with boys tody. Someday we'll find out all the side-effects of those drugs and we'll see all the damage we've been doing to our boys.

Thirty years ago, girls were lagging in the schools. Society stepped up and made many changes to the way girls were taught and the results today are very satisfying. But now boys are lagging more than the girls were. So is society going to step up again?

I guess we'll see.