The Boys Aren’t Alright

I teach high school in the US, mostly freshmen. As I looked at my class rosters this year, I expected more of the same: mostly unfamiliar names of students coming up from the middle school and the occasional surname I recognized as possible relatives of former students I’ve had prior. But, this year especially, I saw something I’ve only seen sparingly in my twenty-some years as an educator. Each of my classes contained three to five students, twelve to fifteen total, whom I had last year. As I witnessed these students’ self-discipline, work ethic, motivation, and in some cases, attendance from last year, I knew that they had failed first semester. They did not attend summer school. And, for the first time since I’ve been around, the number of credit recovery classes was greatly reduced due to budget cuts. So these students had to retake my class for graduation credit.

Then something dawned on me that should should have been apparent prior: Every single one of those dozen-or-so repeaters were boys. 100%. Not a single young lady had to retake freshman geography. But about fourteen boys, give or take, did. Fourteen out of fourteen. All boys. The implication to me was apparent: this social crisis among boys is is something we can’t afford to ignore any longer.

If you teach, you likely aren’t surprised by this. I’m sure by now you’ve heard that young men are experiencing somewhat of a crisis in regards to education, workforce readiness, success outcomes, and ultimately, quality of life. Numerous studies and publications have been signaling the alarm for over a decade. I’m unsure of this is a uniquely American phenomenon, or Western, or global (maybe educators outside the US can report on this). The resulting impact on society will reach into everyone’s lives, regardless if they have children or not. Crime will certainly increase. The social and political effects have already caused incalculable damage to society and will only increase until we figure this out.

So, why is this happening? What can we do to reverse it? Both as a society, and through smaller measures as individual educators? What are your thoughts or stories surrounding this phenomenon?

Thanks for reading.