Did I touch a nerve? Why the need to personalize an attack toward me? Further, I’ve not used the word crisis, which seems to be a major hang-up for the AAUW.

You conclude that only you (and the AAUW) know who has problems, “boys and girls from low income homes — black and white..” I think that exemplifies a “generic, …simplistic, and downright lazy analysis.” The situation is in fact, much more complex than that simple statement. This isn’t really about what’s right for you. It’s about a political viewpoint that research can not support. Some of the bloggers from the AAUW are writing now that they are happy that there is this “discussion” and “debate” on this topic, but I actually doubt that’s true. The AAUW went for a headline that summarizes its position and political aims, which is a sad commentary. There are any number of statements that could be made about the state of boys and girls in schools today. Among the least true of them is that boys are doing just fine, well except for SOME boys and girls.

I have worked in public schools for 25 years, from rural to urban and from poor to rich districts, and no matter what demographic you study, when you look at groups of students of similar ethnic and economic variables, girls are outperforming boys, and it’s even more pronounced the poorer the children are. This statement in no way implies that we shouldn’t help every child, as you assert. But, it acknowledges that there is a real gap between what is happening between girls and boys in public schools. We are in an information society and all kids should be doing better. The AAUW can’t have it both ways on the issues, selectively pointing to problems in the areas where girls are behind and calling for solutions, while unilaterally lumping any problems with boys into the same framework as girls in order to shift focus away from boys and more toward race and class.

The fundamental message that the AAUW sends with these types of reports is that only girls and women can be victims. Boys’ problems are part of a GROUP problem, and I’m not sure the AAUW is the best organization to speak to issues about which its mission may be opposed. Stick to fighting for causes for our daughters, sisters, wives, friends, and mothers. They still need help. If, as you claim, you are really interested in the welfare of boys too, then at least do no harm to the boys, because that is exactly what these headline grabbing political screeds do, and unless you have a son or brother struggling in school while confronting a system that is often hostile to him and how he learns, then you may likely never “get” the calculus on the topic. Unless, of course, you can get out of the way of political bias.

http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2008/05/our-view-on-gen.html
Our view on gender and education: Yes, university women, there is a boy problem
Males at all socioeconomic levels are falling behind in school.
Looking at the college graduation numbers — where women earn about three-fifths of all degrees — you’d think a higher-education group with the mission of “advancing equity for women and girls” would be celebrating.

Instead, the American Association of University Women (AAUW) seems intent on trying to debunk something that’s virtually irrefutable: that men are falling behind women at all levels of education, and that this is creating societal problems that need to be addressed.

In a highly publicized report released Tuesday, the AAUW asserts that:

* What have become known as the “boy troubles” are a myth.

In case they’re not a myth, the gap is limited to poor and minority children.

* Regardless, feminists are not responsible.

They’ve got the last one right, but the other two are simply nonsense.

The facts show that gender gaps start to emerge in elementary school and widen in middle school. Over the past 30 years of federal testing, girls’ advantages on verbal tests have widened while the boys’ advantages in math have narrowed. Girls end up graduating from high school at higher rates, earning far better grades and reaping most of the academic honors. This trend continues into college — the key to economic success in today’s economy — where women are earning 62% of associate’s degrees, 57% of bachelor’s and 59% of master’s.

As for the contention that the gaps are a function of race and income, not gender, that can’t be true when researchers in urban, predominantly black school districts such as Chicago are learning that girls outperform boys from the same families, same neighborhoods and same schools.

While the problem is particularly acute among low-income, minority males, it’s hardly limited to them. At colleges that draw heavily from white, working-class families, men often make up as little as 35% of the student body.

As for white boys from wealthier families, studies of high-income K-12 schools show that boys lag behind girls academically and yet enroll in college at about the same rates. Why is that? For one thing, wealthy parents can almost always find a willing college. For another, to maintain a gender balance, many colleges now resort to offering affirmative action admissions to males.

A typical second-tier private college is stocked with overachieving women and average or underachieving men. By remaining silent about admissions practices while pointing to the equal college-going rates, the AAUW undermines its credibility.

A dated, fringe accusation that feminists bear responsibility for boys’ troubles appears to be a genesis of the group’s latest report. Yet that charge is so obviously false that it hardly merits rebuttal: Boys are falling behind in parts of the world that never experienced a feminist movement.

True, plenty of boys are doing fine in American schools, and many are high-achievers. Unfortunately, as a whole too many are lagging, a trend that becomes obvious in the college-going rates.

The message here is pretty simple: Help the children. A generation ago, those most in need were girls. Today, they are boys.

The AAUW should relish the successes girls and women have achieved rather than trying to impede attempts to help boys.

I generally stay out of big media comments…far too gross in there!

Great job everyone!!!!