The Boys Are All Right

Parent Cafe
1

<p>Time magazine cover story: the Myth About Boys
<a href=“http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1647452,00.html[/url]”>http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1647452,00.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

2

<p>thanks for this link - I’ll be sharing with school friends</p>

3

<p>Interesting. What did you think of the two boys with visible six packs?</p>

<p>Kinda unusual for that age-group–or rather–it used to be unusual for that age group. The only boy I’ve seen with those abs was a state ranked gymnast.</p>

4

<p>Cheers, I had the exact same thought. The article even mentions that 1 in 5 boys in that age group is obese. You wouldn’t know it from looking at the picture, though.</p>

5

<p>The picture was taken at Falling Creek, where the kids do things like “cling to zip lines two stories above a lake.” Overweight kids are likely under-represented there.</p>

6

<p>^^^So are Asians, Hispanics, and African Americans, apparently.</p>

7

<p>That’s cause boys may be just fine – unless you look at African American boys…</p>

<p>(I haven’t read the article yet - it’s still kicking around my kitchen - I get behind on my Time and Newsweek!)</p>

8

<p>Some of those kids are just really skinny. Maybe one of them actually worked on a 6 pack.</p>

9

<p>The two on the right worked long and hard to get those abs with the amount of testosterone available to their bodies.</p>

10

<p>The kid in the back center is forming a six pack, it looks like.</p>

11

<p>

</p>

<p>I thought this was a pretty honest assessment of the reams of data out there. This was a surprisingly balanced piece, finding a middle ground between the “woe bearers” and the “myth busters” as he puts it. It does not scoff at the opinions of those who found reason to be concerned about the performance gap among American boys. </p>

<p>

</p>

<pre><code>I might quibble with the “paying off” part in regard to low-income boys but at least he’s not contending that there never was a “crisis” and everyone was being goaded by the media to worry about boys for no reason at all. It’s a reassuring article for the parents of boys like the writer himself, comfortably middle and upper middle class, but it does acknowledge that there is still work to be done to reach some boys, especially in regard to literacy.

Doubleplay’s comment on the photo accompanying the article makes a good point. The “Boy Heaven” camp doesn’t look like it serves many low-income families.
</code></pre>

12

<p>I just looked at the rates for Falling Creek Camp - $4350 for the Main Camp (grades 2 -10) for 4 weeks. These are boys who no doubt come from very well to do families who are paying the gym fees (and whatever else) for the 6-packs.</p>

<p>Something just doesn’t smell right about the statistics in this article. For example, contemplate this paragraph with the fact that in 1970 13% of families with children were single parent households, compared with 34% in 1998.</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>Also, reading his section on schools and boys - I found it a less than convincing argument that boys are doing just fine in school. And, oh my gosh, his illustration of black boys status in schools with the Frederick Douglass Academy in Harlem - is he kidding?!</p>

13

<p>Wow, you guys sure are dwelling on these kids’ bodies…</p>

14

<p>Unregistered, it is only notable since the article is focused on the state of boys today. The photo is not a complete or accurate representation of the group the article is supposed to be enlightening us about.</p>

15

<p>I think the point is, the article uses a camp full of obviously very athlete young white (and apparently economically comfortable) boys to make a generalized statement about all boys.</p>

16

<p>Well, the article states that boys are just ‘fine’…and from my experiece, boys who are ‘fine’ do not obsess about six packs before they have the testosterone to do something about it. ‘Skinny’ boys at camp–and my sons went to just such a camp in Canada–do not have six packs. They have tight abs and rib cages.</p>

<p>So it was a weird visual. For me.</p>

<p>Plus, yeah, it costs a bundle to give city boys that country freedom.</p>

17

<p>Son #2 just graduated from a suburban public high school that serves an affluent community. There were 15 kids with straight A’s who were contenders for the top spot in the class. They were all girls, save for one Asian boy. I thought back 35 years to the people who said my college shouldn’t admit women because they weren’t as smart; of course they were. But are people now saying that the boys are shut out of the top of this high school class because they are smarter? I really don’t think that the same parents in the same community have, overwhelmingly, smarter girls than boys: don’t the odds favor the same brainpower in both genders of the 700-student class? So, here’s what I think: when people deny there’s anything odd about the picture that’s before our eyes, they really diminish their own credibility.</p>

18

<p>Might as well subtitle the article with “For once, the rich white man is in control”. (Montgomery Burns, the Simpson’s Movie)</p>