10 months ago, the NYT posted an interesting article: A Link Between Fidgety Boys and a Sputtering Economy. Surprisingly bold and honest for a major newspaper.

We all know rich kids have a head start compared to their less-advantaged peers. Better vocabulary, attentions span, tempers, and sensitivity. On a Pre-K skills exam, rich kids score 53% compared to poor kids at 40%. A staggering 13-point difference.

For decades, the US government has been trying to correct this imbalance by dumping money into a whole host of programs aimed at poorer neighborhoods and demographics. Preschool, after school, summer camps, you name it. No one seems to care if it is effective or not. Doesn't matter. We gotta do something. For the children!

Turns out there's an even bigger factor at play: Gender. On these same exams, regardless of income demographic, girls frequently score 58% compared to boys at 42%. A 16-point difference.

Anyone think we'll start seeing tax funded programs exclusively for young boys? Of course not. Even when we're talking about 4- and 5-year-olds, the population at large (both men and women) care less about boys. Even at that young age, boys are disposable.

What is responsible for this disparity? The NYT comes startlingly close to the truth:

The number of single-parent families has surged over the last generation, and the effect seems to be larger on boys in those families than girls. Girls who grow up with only one parent — typically a mother — fare almost as well on average as girls with two parents. Boys don’t.

Read between the lines. You kick dad out of the boy's life and the boy suffers. Pretty bold statement for a major newspaper! But this is TRP, so let me state it even more plainly and without any ambiguity: Single mothers don't know how to raise young men. Some exceptions, definitely, but overwhelmingly, single mothers fail miserably.

So what if Pre-K boys are behind? We all know they catch up, right? That's why we still need Title IX. Not to mention all those new programs pushing young girls into math and science.

Nope. By 5th grade the gap is even wider. Gender is a far more significant factor than income or race:

By [5th grade], the average girl is at the 60th percentile of an index of social and behavioral skills, while the average boy is at only the 40th percentile [...] That gap of 20 percentage points is larger than the 14-point gap between poor and not poor children or the 15-point gap between white and black children.

The gap continues through high school and even college.

Educators and social scientists are stumped. Feminist education reforms aren't working for boys. Impossible. What is the cure? I know! How about more Feminism?

“Boys are getting the wrong message about what you need to do to be successful,” Ms. Buchmann says. “Traditional gender roles are misguiding boys. In today’s economy, being tough and being strong are not what leads to success.”

Yeah, somehow I don't think that's going to help.


TRP is not MRA. We are not activists. We aren't trying to change the world. We just want to improve ourselves. I've said these very words to many a new subscriber, explaining why we aren't out lobbying for alimony reform or equal protection for male sexual abuse victims. TRP doesn't believe we can change the environment; we are focused on finding ways to succeed within it. I don't care about a grown man who lets himself be a victim. (I'll give him a hand up, but I'm not going to fight for him.)

However, when it comes to children, I do care. I am a father. I am willing to be an activist. I will fight. But it appears to me that no one is looking out for these boys. We can't tell a 5-year-old boy to go lift and improve his career. You don't tell him to learn the game, toughen up, and be stoic.

There are no major advocacy groups for boys. The National Parents Organization (formerly Fathers & Families) lobbies for "shared parenting" of divorced couples. AKA, Dads' Rights. I don't know how effective they are. (Seems a little nebulous.) Regardless, their efforts may help future kids, but what is being done for those boys already in the system?

Where are the Boys' Rights groups? Does anyone know of any? I couldn't find a single one. I'll donate. I'll volunteer. I'll even help organize. Is there anything out there?