OT: Any other parents worried about young men struggling?

I love this post. Kudos to the OP . . . worthwhile discussion.

I would chime in that I definitely see this reality as well (challenges for males compared to females in academic settings.) I don't exactly know what the answers are. But I see the problem.

My anecdotal corroboration has to do with my own three children.

Our two youngest are twins, adopted, a boy and a girl. The girl has been an academic high achiever. She is driven, a member of various clubs and sports teams, great in the classroom, a straight arrow. Her twin brother has been much more of a slacker. Between sports, girls, video games, hanging out with friends, nefarious activities, and lack of motivation, he has definitely not done well. He is finally starting to turn things around, but in terms of admission to elite colleges like Michigan, that ship has long since sailed. He just is maturing at a different rate. At this point, his best bet might be something in trades, and not college. The point is, the academic system has been much more geared to our daughter's rather than our son's strengths.

My oldest, a girl, is just about 25, and is about 5 years into a 6 year stint in the Navy. She has been an Aegis Computer Network Technician, a very competitive and hard rating in the Navy, where you need brains, nerves of steel, and a pretty good STEM aptitude. The fact that the Navy will provide about 150k plus towards college costs was a big motivator for enlisting. Interestingly, she will leave it all behind, to pursue a degree in Nursing. In practical and financial terms, this doesn't make sense. But she has the freedom and ability to choose a field of greater interest to her.

Thanks again to the OP for putting this topic up for discussion.

For four decades Michigan has adopted an admission policy that favored women over men and minorities over Caucasians and Asians. If you look at the stated goals of Michigan's admission policy for the Medical school or other of its graduate programs, the University seeks a majority of women in its enrollments.

So yes, we alumni should be concerned that merit is ever less important in the enrollment policies of our university.  

As a college professor for thirteen years counting, yes, you sum up the differences quite well. Who dislikes the truth so much? I had students fill out a weekly schedule to plan their study time, and a few boys marked “Xbox” or “video games” for 30 plus hours in their weeks. Zero girls put video games. That’s all anecdotal, but young men are definitely falling behind with regard to academics at the different colleges my wife and I teach at. Here are also higher rates of depression showing up. With two boys of my own, I hope having two professors in the house doesn’t drown out academics. My older boy loves to learn, right now, so we shall see if he wins out over peer pressure to act cool.

As a college professor for thirteen years counting, yes, you sum up the differences quite well. Who dislikes the truth so much? I had students fill out a weekly schedule to plan their study time, and a few boys marked “Xbox” or “video games” for 30 plus hours in their weeks. Zero girls put video games. That’s all anecdotal, but young men are definitely falling behind with regard to academics at the different colleges my wife and I teach at. Here are also higher rates of depression showing up. With two boys of my own, I hope having two professors in the house doesn’t drown out academics. My older boy loves to learn, right now, so we shall see if he wins out over peer pressure to act cool.

To what extent should we, as Michigan fans, consider blaming the social factors such as the video game industry for limiting the pipeline of effective male offensive tackles in this generation? As male underachievement goes, this one hits home particularly hard.

Women are advancing so much because starting in the 60's they have incrementally experienced more and more freedom from societal strictures to pursue careers and  they do so with great intensity. Women have a drive  that many men nowadays lack.

This has only continued apace in more recent times as feminism has become more mainstream and thus placed more emphasis on women's rights and interests than ever before.

The decline in boys achievement should worry us all. Not just for reasons of equity, but the potential of marginalized males to develop into a force of malevolence and destruction.

The mass shootings we see being committed by angry and socially isolated young,mostly white, men may be the first signs of the development of a cadre of young men bent on destroying a system they see as inimical to their interests.

The rise of white nationalism is in part an outgrowth of this. Many of them fit the description above. Video games, porn, drug and alcohol abuse,aimlessness, fascinated with violence, etc. 

Very clearly there needs to be more of an effort made to study and understand this issue because male rage and violent expressions thereof is a public health problem.

Books and books could be written on this topic. Some of the conclusions would probably get deleted.

I see this stuff on a daily basis, as do many of you. I didn't read all of the comments, so someone may have addressed this. But I think the advancement of women has made men somewhat more replaceable. Men used to have to compete for good jobs in order to support women and their family.

Now that many women are making equal to or more than their significant others, men are no longer feeling the pressure to compete and succeed at such a higher level. Men have become more financially dependent on the opposite sex.

As for athletics, there have been positive and negative studies on their effect. For example, some studies have shown that grades take a bit of a hit during sports seasons. Personally, my grades were higher - and so were those of many people I know - during sports seasons. But that's anecdotal.

On the plus side, people who participate in athletics are more likely to graduate high school. There are also lessons about leadership, hard work, teamwork, etc. learned during sports that are not learned in the classroom. Some of those characteristics are not taught/learned in the classroom. 

I do believe we put too much emphasis on sports in this country. I think practice hours should be shortened, and dead periods should be lengthened. The problem is that if your rival school is practicing for 3 hours a day, you need to practice for 3 or 3.5 or 4. If they start their weight program 2 weeks after the season ends, then you want to start 1 week after the season to get ahead. More restrictions need to be placed on those types of things to allow young men (and women) to concentrate more on studies, family, community service, etc.

I guess I'll leave it there for now.

My limited experience (two kids, boy is three years older than girl) is that boys take longer to bake. I don't know why, and I know not all boys and girls can be categorized this way. I think boys need strong and supportive male figures in their lives. Not necessarily dads; it could be a coach or a teacher. They need structure of some kind -- assuming it's all those crazy hormones that need to be wrangled. My daughter is way more on top of things than my son, who is a senior in high school. My daughter, a freshman, is almost completely self-sufficient, while my son barely knows how to boil water, and isn't interested in learning. He's too into video games. One thing he's completely committed to is playing baseball. When it comes to working out, practices, etc...he's self-sufficient and needs no prodding. 

My brother and I had the same age difference, and were exactly the same way. We both turned out fine. 

Here's the beginning of an answer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LH16ympCb7Q

 

What’s going on is good parenting vs. bad parenting. To many video games, and no imagination. Less playing outside, more looking at iPads, and a culture where everybody wins and gets a pat on the back for a good ole try. I also noticed in my own child’s school children are being placed in higher level courses very early based on state/national testing. For example my child gets straight A’s but was not invited to the discovery program because of the percentage she fell in based on state testing, so I had to write a letter with the teachers recommendation to get her in. That to me is ridiculous. Everything is so ass backwards now in schools. I’m not sure what they are trying to accomplish with kids anymore. It’s more just get them through the system and if based on this test they took in 4th grade this is where they should be long term

About 75 percent of teachers are women. Our education strategy sucks. It's basically become a worthless barrier to entry for getting a job. Females do better likely bc they're being taught by females and are higher in conscientiousness on average which is the greatest predictor of success in school aka "can you sit there and listen and grind away at task after task and be organized". Very few boys want to do that. Men take more risks and existvat the extremes. If they can survive the sludgefart education they will have more success but also more disastrous failures than women on average. Also the need for men to provide is being replaced as more women work and view being a mom has having less value. Men are also being replaced by the state causing more singlemotherhood which in turn hurts the growth and development of the fatherless boys. but at least we get to feel progressive for progressiveness's sake. a nice balanced society with equal opportunity for all and less govt interference would be nice.