Ed, Just for now:
At 14:13 21/10/02 -0400, you wrote: <<<< What can men still do that women can't? Well, they can still play football. >>>> Don't you believe it! It's my triplet grand-daughters' 9th birthday in a few days. I had no idea what to give them as presents, of course, but under advice from my daughter, I have now bought them (a) a dressing gown for Julia; (b) a set of "How to Draw" books for Kate; (c) a football and a pair of football boots for Helen. (They are, needless to say, non-identical twins with entirely different sets of genes -- otherwise it might easily have been three pairs of boots.) Keith >As a male member of the species, I must admit that I've felt myself to be in >a long retreat during the past half century. When I attended university in >the 1950s, there were plenty of women there, but almost all of them were >taking home ec or nursing. There were a few oddballs. A few were taking >law, and one was actually taking engineering! From what I've read about >universities recently, there may indeed be more women taking professional >courses than men. Ads for business schools offering MBAs typically show a >bright and shiny young woman who is obviously going to make it. > >I attend the odd meeting at the local high school because I have a 17 year >old daughter who is about to graduate. I'm one of the few males there. >School council is about 90% female, and student council, this year, is all >young women. The Principal is a woman, as is one of the two VPs and most of >the teachers. Before high school, my daughter attended an "alternative" >school which encouraged parental participation in school policy and the >classroom. About 90% of parents who participated were women. > >Women have become at least equal if not dominant in fields other than >education. During the course of my career as civil servant, I saw them move >out of the steno pool and into some really high-powered executive offices, >including those of Deputy and Assistant Deputy Minister. A few months ago, >I attended a mining conference in Canada's high Arctic. Some of the most >formidable mining executives and bureaucrats in attendance were women. > >What can men still do that women can't? Well, they can still play football. >And there are some crazy channels on TV that feature things like riding a >bicycle up a ramp and doing several loops on it before it hits the ground. >I don't think I've seen a woman do that yet. But, maybe soon? > >Is there a message in all of this? Perhaps we were meant to be matriarchal, >but got it wrong to begin with. Some societies may have got it right. >Northern Athapaskan (Dene) Indians are matriarchal. To quote a Dene woman I >once talked to in the Mackenzie Valley: "We let men be boys till they're >forty. Then we make them get serious!" That may be the natural order of >things. > >Ed > >PS: I've only been to Japan once, but I remember seeing a lot of students in >dark uniforms. Above their feet, they all looked alike. But their feet >were something else. Every colour of running shoe imaginable! Ah...., self >expression! > >Ed Weick >577 Melbourne Ave. >Ottawa, ON, K2A 1W7 >Canada >Phone (613) 728 4630 >Fax (613) 728 9382 > > >> Ed, I agree that rapid social change could be a factor in the "hikikomori" >> phenomenon of Japanese males. Economic conditions are bringing about >other >> social changes reflective of current polls showing fewer Japanese adhere >to >> traditional gender roles, such as housewives entering the labor market to >> sustain the household as husbands' hours, bonuses and expense accounts >were >> slashed. We are not talking about the lower class or lower middle class >of >> shop keepers, but the class of women who graduated from college and then >> became lifetime homemakers. These women mostly like their new >> accomplishments, even when minor and at minimum wage: they like earning >> their own money, not being bored at home and new power in the house. >> Shortly, we should be reading about how these recent developments are >> affecting latch key kids in already more rambunctious Japanese classrooms >> but will not be surprised that the Japanese husband has not picked up the >> pace of shared housework at home. You can see how the male in Japan might >> be stressed. >> >> I wonder if the demographic trend in American schools that has teachers >and >> sociologists so concerned has anything to do with "hikikomori"? >> Educators are increasingly noticing that girls are outperforming boys in >US >> schools in all age groups, even through grad school. I'd read something >> (and maybe posted) about it previously, but saw a story on 60 minutes last >> night that hit the basic outline: boys are dropping out, not reading as >> well, not competitive in the classroom, not scoring on tests as well as >> before, finding jobs without pursuing higher ed and even though there are >> more graduating from grad programs now, if this trend continues unabated, >> they project that women will be performing white collar jobs and men the >> blue collar jobs by midcentury and everyone agrees this is bad news. Da >so >> des, in Japanese: so they say. >> >> US law schools this year will have more girls than boys, med and business >> schools are looking that way. There are still more boy geniuses but >> proportionately, girls are outperforming boys in school as valedictorians, >> math and science awards, leadership positions. The interviewer met a >> principal at one high school in Massachusetts where the girls completely >> dominated the graduation ceremonies and leadership positions, while the >boys >> seem to be focusing more and more on athletics as their arena for >> excellence. The point was made that this was not an isolated high school, >> apparently joined by a growing list of others. >> >> So of course, they went to outside experts for opinions, Daniel Kindlon, >> author of Raising Cain, a book about protecting the emotional life of >boys, >> and a female ex-teacher now policy guru at American Enterprise Institute >who >> blames feminists for over compensating with girls in schools (ie. Reviving >> Ophelia) at the very time that they were naturally overcoming boys in >> performance categories. She says that teachers, mostly female, are >favoring >> activities and class studies that favor girls, like sitting still in early >> years, and punishing boys for being boys. Kindlon instead blamed fathers, >> saying "Where are the men at Parent Teacher Assoc. meetings? If you only >> show up for the football and soccer games it doesn't take long for boys to >> get the message." >> >> The teaching profession has always been dominated by females. So why is >> that a factor now? If it is, wouldn't hiring more male teachers help? So >> the 60 Minute story profiled Jefferson school in LA, perhaps a charter >> school, because the kids wore polo shirts as uniforms, where the ratio of >> male and female teachers is 50-50 and the kids are separated at class >time. >> In the boy's classes, the teachers use more physical stimulation to keep >the >> boys alert and focused. The boys say it has helped them to be separated >and >> not worried about making mistakes in front of girls. It has also helped >to >> have the football coach at this small school also teach math, or in >another >> citing, poetry. Send the message. >> >> What do you think? Perhaps later today that story will be posted at the >CBS >> website: http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/60minutes/main3415.shtml >> >> Personally, I'd like to see Game Boys and Nintendo outlawed for everyone >> under 16 or perhaps medically restricted to 2 hours a week as a hazard to >> mental and physical health. >> >> By the way, I have some files saved on social/cultural change in Japan, if >> anyone is interested, including how social change is affecting burial >> customs, the classroom, and language. >> >> Karen Watters Cole >> Outgoing Mail Scanned by NAV 2002 >> Ed wrote: I must admit that I didn't read the original posting on >> Hikikomori, and what Pete's posting (below) says about it puts a different >> interpretation on it than the one I took. It is not simply "dropping out >to >> the labour market", which implies a certain amount of rationality, but a >> neurotic condition somewhat like, as Pete suggests, anorexia. The kid is >> simply overwhelmed by, and cannot face, the world beyond the walls of his >> room or his house. This is not rational and would not therefore involve >the >> intellect, except in a very screwed-up way. These kids, mostly boys, >could >> be overly sensitive and could be highly intelligent, but are unable to >> develop a realistic understanding of the world beyond their doors or come >to >> a compromise with it. >> >> Why does it happen? I'm sure that it's partly the psychology of the >> individual, but socio-cultural change would also play a role. Back in the >> late 1970s and early 1980s, there was a rash of teenage suicides in a >small, >> formerly isolated, northern Canadian Aboriginal community that was under >> tremendous pressure from oil and gas exploration. Some six boys killed >> themselves within a very short period. Some of it might have been >emulative >> (if he could do it, so can I), but very rapid social change in a very >> traditional community must have been a factor. It is typical that people >> who live in such communities have difficulty in coping with the outside >> world, and in the case of the community at issue, that world had intruded >> full-force into their lives. >> >> Perhaps what we are witnessing is a range of responses to change. Kids >who >> have had lots of experience with it can deal with it, but those who have >had >> much less have difficulty in doing so, and may react to it in a far less >> rational manner. >> >> >> > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------ Keith Hudson, General Editor, Handlo Music, http://www.handlo.com 6 Upper Camden Place, Bath BA1 5HX, England Tel: +44 1225 312622; Fax: +44 1225 447727; mailto:khudson@;handlo.com ________________________________________________________________________
