Education's War Games

October in an election season is tailor-made for a war of the words. Competition runs high for shelf space with booksellers and a seat with O’Reilly. Add the terror component and you have a boiler room. But there is a war room where we are in a losing trend and the long-term effects directly impact our ability to engage every enemy at home and abroad. America’s boys are dying before they leave the classroom. And our obsession with the sacred grail of feelings-based education and ramped up social conditioning is killing the very feelings they are meant to preserve. Nothing kills like apathy!

In 2003, 65 percent of boys earned high school diplomas compared to 72 percent of girls (Garibaldi, 2006). The number is only becoming more disparate over time. College bound females outnumber boys to an extent that many schools are now employing affirmative action for boys in admissions.

How have we reached this point and why should we be concerned? First off, in a time of war and a nation grappling with international issues, strong, male leaders are needed to employ principles arrived at by exercising their nature. As author Gerry Garibaldi puts it, “boys’ aggressive and rationalist nature—redefined by educators as a behavioral disorder—[is]…getting many of them in trouble in the feminized schools.” Why is socialized education afraid of the aggressive and rational nature of boys? Is it an ethical persuasion that says nothing good can come of it, the “rational” and “aggressive” inherently lead to the challenge of social mores? We like our world the way it is. Or is it more about pragmatism? Crowd control is necessary when dealing with adolescent boys in large numbers. Where does that leave the boy that learns by asking questions, not simply completing assignments obediently as girls are more prone to do?

Move them outside, and boys’ natural inclinations are being assaulted on the playground. Willett Elementary in Attleboro, Massachussetts, has now ousted tag, touch football and other “chasing games” out of concern for injury risks and liabilities (LaHoud, The Sun Chronicle, Oct 21st 2006). Dodgeball has taken a beating. As have many sports where winners and losers must be identified. Does this really make the playground safer? God forbid we tilt the sacred level playing field. If the playground is an early education to prepare for life and human interaction, how is this preparing boys (and girls for that matter) for the meritocracies within corporate America, and the competitive world of outsourcing to places like Bangalore where boys will not only compete against others but against new digital platforms and applied innovation?
Boys are having an identity crisis. Some applaud their feminization as a culturalization in the diversity of human interaction. But what about the danger? Could a danger come when growing adolescent boys, discouraged from exploration into their intellectual nature, feel trapped between a choice of apathy and compliance or engagement in the lesser reaches of male aggression and rationale? Where does this choice leave them? And if our future is currently in basic training, a loss on the war of the playground is a loss for the soul of a nation.