>From the Chronicle's daily report: A glance at the May 26 issue of "Business Week": Boys are falling behind
In the push to help girls succeed, says Michelle Conlin, an editor for the magazine, something important has been overlooked: boys. In recent years, females have overtaken males in almost all areas of scholastic achievement, Ms. Conlin says. That includes higher education. "There are 133 girls getting B.A.'s for every 100 guys -- a number that's projected to grow to 142 women per 100 men by 2010, according to the U.S. Education Department," she says. That's having an effect on the way colleges select their student bodies, too, Ms. Conlin says. "To keep their gender ratios 50-50, many Ivy League and other elite schools are secretly employing a kind of stealth affirmative action for boys," she writes. And while many people fear that focusing on improving boys' achievement could reverse gains for girls, Ms. Conlin says, the boys' educational decline is something to worry about. "Better educated men," she says, "are more likely to marry, stick by their children, and pay more in taxes." And that, she says, is better for society and for the happiness of those men as individuals. "A new world has opened up for girls," Ms. Conlin writes, "but unless a symmetrical effort is made to help boys find their footing, it may turn out that it's a lonely place to be." The article is available online at http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/toc/03_21/B3834magazine.htm Jim Maule Professor of Law, Villanova University School of Law Villanova PA 19085 [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://vls.law.vill.edu/prof/maule President, TaxJEM Inc (computer assisted tax law instruction) (www.taxjem.com) Publisher, JEMBook Publishing Co. (www.jembook.com) Owner/Developer, TaxCruncherPro (www.taxcruncherpro.com) Maule Family Archivist & Genealogist (www.maulefamily.com)
