Responses to Feminist Dismissal of Boy Crisis Printed in Wash Post

Marc A. writes "Last week, feminists Caryl Rivers and Rosalind Chait Barnett had printed an op ed in the Washington Post dismissing the boy crisis in education because it only affects minority and low income boys.

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A number of responses were sent in pointing out how racist and classist these feminists were, and also that they are wrong, because even white boys drop out more than girls within their own race (http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d04/tables/dt0 4_107.asp), and white women in 2001 received 31% more bachelor degrees than men (p. 9, tables 1-A and 1-B at http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2005/2005169.pdf).

The Washington Post printed the following two letters responding to Rivers and Barnett.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/14/AR2006041400912.html

Saturday, April 15, 2006; Page A13

As a professional high school counselor in an urban school, I found the April 9 Outlook piece "The Myth of 'The Boy Crisis' " contrary to the reality that I see every day.
To say that it's only inner-city and rural boys who are not doing as well as girls is like saying that besides women, breast cancer is not a big problem (men can acquire the disease as well).

That may be a suitable perspective from the ivory tower of the article's authors. But for those of us who work in the trenches every day, all populations matter. We are not willing to discount any to serve our own agenda, which the authors clearly have.

-- Gus Griffin

Suitland

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Caryl Rivers and Rosalind Chait Barnett cite my New Republic article as an example of poor reporting on the boy troubles, which they see primarily as an issue concerning African American boys.

They may not be aware that the alarms about boys' academic problems are heard loudest in states such as Vermont and Maine, which lack high minority populations. The state that appears to have the largest gender gap at the university level? Minnesota. Scores of private colleges that rely mostly on white, middle class students grant admission preferences to boys as a way to keep the female-male balance on campus under 60-40.

The authors' contention that literacy gaps are not driving the gender imbalances is undermined by the reality that the schools that produce equal outcomes among girls and boys do so by doubling or tripling the amount of time and effort spent on literacy instruction. One such school is Washington's Kipp DC: Key Academy.

-- Richard Whitmire

McLean"

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