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I’m
wondering what the college professors on the list have to add about this topic.
One explanation for the decline in male academic achievement might be found in
these excerpts: The New
Gender Divide Series: Boys who ‘coast’ At College, Women Are Leaving Men In The
Dust A quarter-century
after women became the majority on campuses, men are trailing in more than just
enrollment. By Tamar Lewin, New York Times, July 9, 2006 It is not that men
are in a downward spiral: they are going to college in greater numbers and are
more likely to graduate than two decades ago. Still, men now make up only 42%
of the nation's college students. And with sex discrimination fading and their
job opportunities widening, women are coming on much stronger, often
leapfrogging the men to the academic finish. "The boys are about where
they were 30 years ago, but the girls are just on a tear, doing much, much
better," said Tom Mortenson, a senior scholar at the Pell Institute for
the Study of Opportunity in Higher Education in Washington. Department of
Education statistics show that men, whatever their race or socioeconomic group,
are less likely than women to get bachelor's degrees — and among those who do,
fewer complete their degrees in 4 or 5 years. Men also get worse grades than
women. And in 2 national studies, college men reported that they studied less
and socialized more than their female classmates. The gender
differences are not uniform. In the highest-income families, men 24 and under
attend college as much as, or slightly more than, their sisters, according to
the American Council on Education, whose report on these issues is scheduled
for release this week. Young men from
low-income families, which are disproportionately black and Hispanic, are the
most underrepresented on campus, though in middle-income families too, more
daughters than sons attend college. In recent years the gender gap has been
widening, especially among low-income whites and Hispanics. When it comes to
earning bachelor's degrees, the gender gap is smaller than the gap between
whites and blacks or Hispanics, federal data shows. All of this has helped set off intense debate over whether
these trends show a worrisome achievement gap between men and women or whether
the concern should instead be directed toward the educational difficulties of
poor boys, black, white or Hispanic. In dozens of
interviews on 3 campuses — Dickinson College; American University; and the
University of North Carolina, Greensboro — male and female students alike
agreed that the slackers in their midst were mostly male, and that the fireballs were
mostly female. Almost all speculated that it had something to do with the
women's movement. On each campus, the young women
interviewed talked mostly about their drive to do well. "Most college
women want a high-powered career that they are passionate about," Ms.
Smyers said. "But they also want a family, and that probably means taking
time off, and making dinner. I'm rushing through here, taking the most credits
you can take without paying extra, because I want to do some amazing things,
and establish myself as a career woman, before I settle down." Her male classmates, she said, feel
less pressure. "The men don't seem to hustle as much," Ms. Smyers
said. "I think it's a male entitlement thing. They think they can sit back and
relax and when they graduate, they'll still get a good job. They seem to think
that if they have a firm handshake and speak properly, they'll be fine." In the Dickinson
cafeteria on a spring afternoon, the byplay between 2 men and 2 women could
provide a text on gender differences. The men, Dennis Nelson and Victor
Johnson, African-American football players nearing the end of their junior year,
teased each other about never wanting to be seen in the library. They talked
about playing "Madden," a football video game, 6 hours a day, about
how they did not spend much time on homework. "A lot of women want a 4.0
average, and they'll work for it," Mr. Nelson said. "I never wanted
it because it's too much work to be worth it. And a lot of women, they have
everything planned out for the next 3 years." Mr. Johnson jumped
in: "Yeah, and it boggles my mind because I don't have my life planned for
the next 10 minutes. Women see the long-term benefits, they take their classes
seriously, and they're actively learning. We learn for tests. With us, if someone
calls the night before and says there's going to be a test, we study enough for
a C." His female friends offered their assessment. "They're really,
really smart, and they think they don't have to work," Glenda Cabral said. Since the process
of human development crosses all borders, it makes sense that Europe, too, now
has more women than men heading to college. The disengagement of young men,
though, takes different forms in different cultures. Japan, over the last decade,
has seen the emergence of "hikikomori" - young men withdrawing to
their rooms, eschewing social life for months or years on end. At Dickinson, some
professors and administrators have begun to notice a similar withdrawal among men who arrive on campus with deficient
social skills. Each year, there are several who mostly stay in their rooms,
talk to no one, play
video games into the wee hours and miss classes until they withdraw or flunk out. Of course, female behavior has its own
extremes. In freshman women, educators worry about eating disorders and
perfectionism. But among the
freshman men, the problems stem mostly from immaturity. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/09/education/09college.html Next: Football carries a special allure for
small colleges with overwhelming female populations. |
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