Has Education Failed Boys?
Males are increasingly falling behind. While there may be reasons to explain this (or perhaps not), the fact that the education system isn’t working for half the population should spark some concern.
The following charts are courtesy of Scott Galloway at Prof G Media.
It starts early. Only 30% of high school valedictorians are male. Even if this ratio is indicative of lower performance during high school, the question is ‘why’? Why are males (i.e. 50% of the high school population) not succeeding in high school? Or is the ratio below caused by other issues, such as faulty evaluation criteria or bias?
As expected, weaker high school performance results in lower college enrollment. Only 40% of American men aged 18-30 attend college. As a corollary, men in this age bracket also report lower intimacy levels.
Lower levels of education reduces lifetime earnings potential by a significant amount. With falling college enrollment, on average males are becoming less financially prosperous.
Like it or not, lower financial success and stability makes men less desirable as mates. Women have traditionally valued the ‘financial support’ provided by a partner, in addition to numerous other important qualities.
So what happens to a society in which the pool of ‘ideal’ males is shrinking? And what can be done to make the education system work equally for males and females?