# War on Boys | 5 Minute Videos | PragerU # Uploader: PragerU # Upload date: 2014-05-19 # URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFpYj0E-yb4 # Presenter: Christina Hoff Sommers, American Enterprise Institute [0.65] Being a normal boy is a serious liability in today's classroom. Boys tend to be disorganized [6.65] and restless. Some have even been known to be noisy and hard to manage. [12.32] Sound like any boy you know? [15.3] But increasingly, our schools have little patience for what only a couple decades ago [20.77] would have been described as "boyishness." As psychologist Michael Thompson has aptly observed: [27.12] "Girl behavior is the gold standard in schools. Boys are treated like defective girls." [34.1] As a result, these "defective girls" are not faring well academically. Compared with girls, [40.34] boys earn lower grades, win fewer honors and are far less likely to go to college. [46.6] Boys are languishing academically, while girls are prospering. In an ever more knowledge [51.46] based economy, this is not a recipe for a successful society. [56.64] We need to start thinking about how we can make our grade school classrooms more boy-friendly. [63.33] Here are four reforms that would make a very good start. [67.72] 1. Turn boys into readers. In all age groups, across all ethnic lines, [74.84] boys score lower than girls on national reading tests. Good reading skills are -- need I say? [81.7] -- are critical to academic and workplace success. A major study in the UK discovered, not surprisingly, [88.75] that girls prefer fiction, magazines, and poetry while boys prefer comics and non-fiction. [95.58] Boys whose eyes glaze over if forced to read Little House on the Prairie may be riveted [100.82] by the Guinness Book of Records. Boys will read if given materials that interest them. [108.04] If you're looking for suggestions for books that have proved irresistible to boys go to [112.31] guysread.com [115.24] 2. Inspire the Male Imagination. Celebrated writing instructor Ralph Fletcher [121.25] contends that too many teachers take what is called "the confessional poet" as the classroom ideal. [127.7] Personal narratives full of emotion and self-disclosure -- stories girls commonly write -- [134.16] are prized; whereas action stories describing, say, a skateboard competition [139.26] or a monster devouring a city are not. I recently read about a third-grader in Southern California [145.44] named Justin who loved science fiction, pirates, and battles. [149.8] An alarmed teacher summoned his parents to school to discuss a picture the 8-year-old [154.69] had drawn of a sword fight -- which included several decapitated heads. The teacher expressed [160.67] grave "concern" about Justin's "values." The boy's father was astonished, not by his son's [166.57] drawing which to him was typical boy stuff, but the teacher's overwrought -- and female-centered [173.55] -- reaction. [175.82] If boys are constantly subject to disapproval for their interests and enthusiasms they are [181.75] likely to become disengaged and lag further behind. Our schools need to work with, not against, [189.28] the kinetic imaginations of boys. [192.42] 3. Zero Out Zero Tolerance. Boys are nearly five times more likely to [198.6] be expelled from preschool than girls. In grades K-12, boys account for nearly 70% of suspensions, [206.5] often for minor acts of insubordination and sometimes for entirely innocent behavior. [212.63] Hardly a week goes by without a news story about a young boy running afoul of a school's [217.82] zero-tolerance policy. [219.82] Josh Welch, age 7, was recently sent home from his Maryland school for nibbling off [225.94] the corners of a strawberry Pop-Tart to shape it into a gun. [230.11] Josh -- like many other boys punished for violating zero-tolerance policies -- was guilty [236.16] of nothing more than being a typical 7-year old boy. [240.38] 4. Bring back recess. Believe it or not, recess may soon be a thing of the past. [246.58] According to a research summary by Science Daily, since the 1970s, schoolchildren [252.19] have lost close to 50% of their unstructured outdoor playtime. Much-loved games have [259.24] vanished from school playgrounds. In schools throughout the country, games like dodge ball, red rover [265.49] and even tag have all but disappeared; too damaging to self-esteem or too "violent" [271.3] being the usual excuses. One popular classroom guide suggests tug of war be replaced with "tug of peace." [279.98] Boys need to work off their energy. They need to be free to play games they enjoy. [286.86] And keeping them cooped up inside all day will not help them learn. [292.06] As our schools become more feelings centered, more competition-free and more sedentary, [297.62] they move further away from the needs of boys. We need to reverse the boy-averse trends. [305.93] Male underachievement is everyone's concern. These are our sons. These are the young men [312.05] with whom our daughters will build a future. If boys are in trouble, so are we all. [320.38] I'm Christina Hoff Sommers of the American Enterprise Institute for Prager University.