Wednesday, May 21, 2008

No Crisis for Boys in School

Hey, great news! Read our headline! Problem solved!

Actually, it's not our headline. It's a condensed version of the headline for an A-1 above-the-fold story that ran in the Washington Post yesterday. The actual headline reads:

No Crisis for Boys in School, Study Says

Now being the natural born skeptic that he is, Wonker immediately smelled a rat. Who did the "study?" Why, none other than the American Association of University Women, that's who. And since you read this in the Washington Post, well, it must be true.

To make a long story short, the "study" claims that there is no crisis facing our school system due to the fact that boys are significantly underperforming girls. In typical leftist fashion, the "study" alleges that there is no problem and the study proves it. And furthermore, if there WERE a problem (note the hedge), it would be racially and/or economically oriented, and wouldn't be affecting nice white boys.

This is the typical Marxist whitewash that flies in the face of numerous other studies conclusively illustrating that, after several decades of gender-feminized education, boys are underperforming girls in school by a significant margin. Further, fewer boys are going to college. Worse, fewer still are actually graduating.

This is what you get when you forcefully apply class-struggle doctrine to practically anything without giving the consequences much thought. In this case, "privileged" boys were "deprivileged" in order to "privilege" girls. The effect is easily predictable. Let me elaborate.

Back when Wonk was enjoying his short, happy career as an English professor (without benefit of rank or tenure), girls indeed were called on less often and taken less seriously by a great many instructors. This was clearly wrong and held many of them back, proving an impediment to higher achievement. Obviously there was a social interaction that had to be fixed.

But in typical leftist fashion, rather than fix the problem by leveling the playing field, it was transformed into class struggle, pitting the proletariat--in this case women--vs. the capitalists or the bourgeoisie (take your pick) as represented by male instructors and students. The leftist solution to this issue was standard-issue Marx: reverse polarity and elevate the women while putting down the men.

It's been pretty effective, too, as the majority of studies of this issue have proved over the years. Leftists aren't really interested in solving the problem. They're basically fascists at heart. Rather than create equal opportunity to solve a once-legitimate issue, they simply wish to change places with the alleged oppressors and become the oppressors themselves. Anyone who questions their motives gets denounced publicly and often.

The bogus AAUW "study" trumpeted in the Post is an attempt to belittle and dismiss a major threat to the current status quo of female leftist educational hegemony. Which, in the educational establishment at least, has swapped alleged male dominance with its very real opposite. The problem for AAUW, like all leftist organizations, is maintaining this dominance once the truth has come out. They can obviously depend on the usual media shills, like the Washington Post, to help them out. Once the left has seized yet another cultural and social beach head, it has no intent of letting go.

BTW, AAUW, we're not the only ones who noticed this collusional sham science. PowerLine comments on it here.

2 comments:

The Interface said...

Just another reason to homeschool your boys!

Wonker said...

Dear Interface,

Couldn't agree with you more!

W