UK: Brown vows to combat the gender gap in education

He repeated his call for a "fathers' revolution" where dads take greater involvement in schooling and upbringing.

This coming from the same government party that has refused to budge with regard to the protests of Fathers 4 Justice and The Real Fathers 4 Justice. What does he think such groups have been fighting for all along?

That is more than the American powers-that-be have done. (Note: anyone interested in this issue should read "The War Against Boys", a book by Christina Hoff-Sommers).

That comment about how fathers need to get more involved, is basically assinine. It is almost as bad as blaming the victim. What I mean is that, not only does it once again blame men for men's problems; but also that even though it would probably help some for fathers to get more involved, this can in no way become the main part of the solution - it just would not have that great of an effect in and of itself.
Instead, they need to do all the other things we have talked about on this board, like have special programs for boys like the ones for girls; have more single sex classes, which have been shown to help boys in reading and writing (they have also been shown to help girls); get rid of all these "progressive-education" barfbags who view everything from a feminist perspective; encourage more males to enter the teaching profession; a return to rote learning to some extent; etc, etc, etc.
I remember a similar comment being made by some idiot on "60 Minutes" a few years ago, i.e. about fathers needing to become more involved. In fact I think it was the episode where they were interviewing Hoff-Sommers about her book. The guy who made that comment also said that unless fathers do this, we will "become a nation where females hold all the white-collar jobs, and males the blue-collar" (quoting from memory). That sounds a little alarmist at this point, doesn't it?

-Axolotl

Gordon Brown is just a politician on the make, setting out his stall to become the next Prime Minister.

He has been a powerful and influential member of the British Government for 9 years, during which time that self-same Government has separated literally hundreds of thousands of children from their fathers. So how does he expect fathers to get involved in their sons' education when he has been one of the main reasons why so many boys and girls don't have a father to begin with?

What a hypocrite. The same goes for Alan Johnson. He has already established his anti-male credentials so you can't trust him to do anything for boys either.

Stand by for some poorly-resourced, token, cosmetic exercises supervised by feminists and designed to catch headlines, but which are designed to make no difference to the problem at all. Then when they fail, you will hear yet another chorus of "we told you so, boys are just not up to it, you can't educate them" while Brown, Johnson and the rest stand in the background wringing their hands.

Seeing as how feminists are exclusively interested in white collar jobs and believe that men are only truly capable of performing the jobs they do not want to do I think that commenter was spot on on his prediction.

And men do need to get more involved. Men need to take an interest in men's issues and stop pandering to womens every whim. Men need to fight to regain our rights.

How exactly would you suggest getting more men in the teaching profession with VAWA and now AWA making teaching and absolutely toxic profession for males?

Would you want to be a teacher in this world where one pissed off student could have your career/reputation/pension ect. stripped away from you and possably even have you put in jail by saying a total of 3 words? Plus, with kindergarden aged boys being charged with sex offences these days and AWA removing the adults only provisions from old Megan's laws on the shiney new national sex offender registry we can now have these 6 year old boys publicly shunned for life. In this kind of environment that our sons are growing up in, how likely do you think they are to take an interest in guiding the children of the next generation when they enter the work force?

Females already have 80% control of the education system and by the time the current generation of young boys reach adulthood, they will have 100% control because boys these days have been made aware of the risks of being a male fron the time they entered the education system.

The same toxicity exists in just about every postition a male could hold where he has supervisory or care responsabilities included in his job. All it takes is one accusation to loose everything. You may be old enough not to have grown up with that idea drilled into your head but our young boys today are not recieving the same schooling that you did. They are getting told repeatedly that they are the reason for all the worlds ills and that they will grow up to be potential sexual predators.

So, what does that leave? Blue collar factory and general labour, and other jobs away from the general public. This is exactly what feminists are trying to force men into.

Remember the "Answer Man" commercials? It was not I who appeared in them.
I am just saying we need more male teachers. I think Hoff-Sommers has recommendations on how to do this - check out her book, like I said.
As far as fathers getting involved, I was specifically referring to "PTA"-type involvement, which is what the guy on 60 minutes was talking about. I don't think more fathers joining the PTA is a very significant part of the answer to the bigger problem. It is the school system itself that needs to change. If I myself had kids I would educate them at home.
-Axolotl

Gordon Brown has, in the last 3 years, become the father of two small boys. Although he's clearly got enough money to get them educated privately, there's nothing like the prospect of the effect of the system on your own children to concentrate minds. This may be not unlike the Damascene conversion of some women when they see their son's getting shafted in the divvorce court and they lose contact with their grandchildren.