Learning Matters: Identifying and addressing ‘the boy problem’

Girls in school are getting a lot of attention these days, and for good reason. If women are to succeed in the technology-driven workplace, more girls need to get excited about science, technology, engineering and math.

I expect “Hidden Figures,” the book-turned-movie “about the largely unknown black women who helped NASA launch the space program” (L.A. Times, Jan. 30) will prove a great inspiration to girls of all backgrounds.

It’s been a long time since I laughed, cried and cheered at a movie as much as I did watching the three black female “computers,” one by one, prove themselves in the white male-dominated world that was NASA in the 1960s.

But who’s inspiring our boys and young men these days, and who’s cheering them on? That’s the question Valley View Elementary teacher Scott McCreary put to me when I visited his classroom recently.

“I have a column for you,” he said as his sixth-grade students worked at their desks. “All boys are at risk.”

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McCreary is concerned about boys’ role models and ambitions. He hears boys talk about becoming [video] gamers, technology tycoons, and athletes, he said.

“They’re not interested in being scholars,” he added.

In a follow-up email, he shared evidence of “the boy problem” as he sees it: lower graduation rates, lower participation in school leadership and non-athletic extracurricular activities, lower college entrance percentages and a significantly disproportionate percentage of males in the justice system.

“Gender-specific observations are complex, and I don’t mean to oversimplify,” he wrote. “There are a lot of developmental and behavior issues in play,” and he’s looking for solutions to address them. He sees expansion of career-technical education programs beyond the few currently offered as one remedy for the problem.

McCreary is not alone in his concern for boys. Shortly after my visit to his classroom, I heard some of his points echoed by Drexel University economist Paul Harrington, who recently completed research on Los Angeles County’s “disconnected youth” and spoke recently in L.A.

Defined as 18- to 24-year-olds who are neither employed nor in school, disconnected youth are a major focus of both state and national efforts to move more people into higher-skilled, higher-paying jobs.

Addressing the issue of growing numbers of foster youth, and the resulting cycles of poverty, Harrington’s advice was succinct.

“You have to raise the earnings of men” to lower the number of foster youth, he said. “Employment for men has deteriorated terribly.”

After reviewing monthly earnings differences by levels of educational attainment, Harrington offered two suggestions for high schools and colleges, changes he believes would benefit all students, but especially boys.

First, he said, college admission offices and high school administrators and counselors should encourage early work experience rather than community service hours now required by so many high schools.

“It’s jobs, not volunteer service, that give better [college] retention rates,” he said. “Kids who have early work experience just do better than kids who don’t — a lot better.”

In one of his reports — “Opportunity Rising,” Drexel University Center for Labor Markets and Policy — Harrington expands on the benefits of work experience.

“Recognizing the important developmental aspects of work experience for young people alongside the development of academic proficiencies will contribute to further reductions in the share of teens and young adults disconnected from opportunities to succeed in the adult world that demands ability, knowledge skills and character,” he wrote.

Harrington also recommends colleges discontinue placing students in remedial classes, where his statistics show 70% of youth entering community college end up. “…45% of those [students] are gone the next year …. Remediation programs are wrong. Stop it!” he implored his audience.

Looking for more local context, I reached out to several high school and college counselors for their input on the particular risks facing male students, and I was met with the email equivalent of sighs.

“Honestly, there is a year’s worth of conversation and data on these subjects,” my good friend Lois Sheridan wrote. “I don’t know where to begin.”

Karen Bomar, a counselor and former math teacher, pointed me to two books, “Raising Cain” and “Reviving Ophelia.” Clearly, this is a topic that will require more homework.

Meanwhile, maybe I’ll go see another movie. Movies employ a lot of skilled workers in L.A. County.

JOYLENE WAGNER is a past member of the Glendale Unified School Board and an advocate for college and career education. Email her at jkate4400@aol.com.

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