Part 3
Facts, according to Diane Ravitch (formally Assistant Secretary of Education between 1991 to 1993), and the U.S. Department of Education, such as: more adult men than women lack a high school diploma; young men have lower educational aspirations; boys consistently earn lower report card grades; they get in more trouble at school.
Young men also bring into the classroom emotional problems from outside the school fences, stemming from being what some have called “an endangered species.”
A past U.S. Department of Justice report revealed that high school boys are four times more likely than girls to be murdered. They are more prone to abuse alcohol or drugs; boys 12 to 15 run double the risk faced by girls of becoming victims of a violent crime, and 82% of the nation’s incarcerated youths 18 and under are male – a percentage that increases to an estimated 95% for adult men.
Larry Schryver, the former director of Camp Afflerbaugh, a Los Angeles County probation facility in La Verne, which houses about 115 Male juvenile offenders between the ages of 16 and 18. He stated that most people acknowledge boys problems only when they are [associated] to their ethnicity, such as the high homicide rate among young African American men. “People tend to view boys’ problems as something that can be solved only with punishment. With girls, there’s a feeling that they can be rehabilitated,” said Schryver, Pointing out that boys occupy 17 of the county’s 18 probation centers. “This gives boys the idea that they don’t matter, that they don’t exist.
Educators and psychologist worry that rowdy behavior exhibited by more boys than girls propels school officials to wrongly place boys in special education classes. The National Longitudinal Study of Special Education conducted by the U.S. Department of Education in 1993. Found that boys make up about two thirds of the classes for students with learning, behavioral and developments.
For the past decade, boys have filled about 90% of Alice Robinson’s Special education classes. “A lot of boys suffer because many students in non-special education classes call them stupid,” said Robinson, a former elementary-school teacher for the Los Angeles Unified School District who now teachers in the Bay Area. “ It can have a negative long-term effect on the boys. I worry about them.”
“Boys tend to puff themselves up more,” said William Purkey, co-author of the study and a counseling professor at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. “Boys brag when they’re insecure, so it looks like they’re more confident than they really are."
From elementary school through high school, boys receive lower report card grades. By middle school, they are far more likely to be grade repeaters and dropouts. As a classroom teacher there are time that I feel totally helpless when I see a capable student "choose" to fail in response to peer pressure. Even after discussing the problem with the parents and suggesting possible strategies, many times the student lack the understanding of the importance of appropriate behavior in order for learning to occur. According to the teacher's experience, perspective and sometimes culture, a referral is made for these students to be evaluated for special education. It needs to be clear that a referral is just that, a referral. The schools team will do a series of evaluations to determine if in fact there is a learning disability, but ultimately it is the parent's decision what happens next.
The majority of students identified for special education programs are boys. They represent 58% of those in classes for the mentally retarded, 71% of the learning disabled and 80% of those in programs for the emotionally disturbed. Boys comprise of 71% of all school suspensions. It should be noted that special education is not a dead-end road. Today's schools want this population reduced to its lowest possible level. One of the problems is when a student with a learning disability is not referred because the behavior can be so disruptive that it overshadows academic progress. So much time is spent on behavior that the years go by before it is discovered that there may be a cognitive problem that was never addressed. However, the blame can also be spread to the parents for not acknowledging what it means to work on grade level and how difficult it can be for a teacher to move a student to proficiency. As boys move from elementary to middle and high school, other issues seem to materialize.
Boys are 3 times more likely to become alcohol dependent and 50% more likely to use illicit drugs. Men account for more than 90% of all alcohol-drug related arrests. The leading cause of death among 15 to 24 year old white males is accidents. Teenage boys are more likely to die from a gunshot wound that all natural causes combined. Males commit suicide 2 to 3 times more frequently than females. These are staggering statistics and lead one to think, especially a parent, what could be so wrong in a child's life to commit suicide.
Note: Much of this section is directly from the study and was published in a variety of publications including the LA Times
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