Reply #3: When I was in high school

[lumberjack_jeff]

There was a strong voc-ed program. A student could take horticulture, carpentry, shop, metalshop, electronics, reporting, graphic arts (offset printing), mechanical drawing, "office" (typing - what can I say, I'm old), or nursing.

For students who didn't feel like they fit in grade school, there was bound to be something to hold their interest well enough to get them through high school and perhaps beyond. In those days, nearly half of grade school teachers were men.

Now, new teachers don't have any direct knowledge of boys, nor are there any other teachers at the school who can give them that perspective. When boys get to high school, all of the activities which might hold a young man's interest have been eliminated because they are too expensive, interfere with state mandated activities or pose too much of a liability risk.

In my experience, 80% of teachers are well intentioned but ignorant of what makes boys tick, and 20% are openly hostile. They are on a mission to fix the world. The fact that their male students are failing is, at best, their own damn fault for being such slackers, or worse; justice.

My district's last male grade school teacher retires this year.