<p>Once again, there’s an article about girls. Yet, the study’s focus could also be applied to boys: participating in sports is good for your self-esteem. This totally assumes all boys participate in sports, but that is not the case! </p>
<p>There are SO MANY ISSUES BOYS are having in college and beyond. They need Title X: where everybody is encouraged to participate in sports. Hidden in the article is this, “While I only show this for girls, it’s reasonable to believe it’s true for boys as well.” Sorry about the rant, and I don’t mean to offend moms/dads of girls, but somehow we need to pay attention to the fact that boys aren’t succeeding at the same rate as girls and that shouldn’t take an act of Congress to change!</p>
<p>limabeans - I don’t think many people question the lifelong value of participating in sports for boys. Girls have only been playing sports for a generation or two and there are still some detractors.
Wait until schools start cutting budgets - folks will come out of the woodwork to defend football for boys but want to cut softball for girls.</p>
<p>Boys and girls do have different issues. Perhaps we need some articles on the benefits of encouraging boys to sing in the school musical or read a book or play the piano.</p>
<p>I find this funny:
I have 4 girls who all participated in sports at varying levels. I don’t think there is a “type of girl who is attracted to sports”. Girls of all types are attracted to sports. Same as boys.</p>
<p>I find the “1 in 3” statistic shocking. In my kids high school it’s about 50/50 among boys and girls and we had football. I think it’s about the same in all schools in our area.</p>
<p>My son, who is a sr and not an athlete, often complains about how is high school rewards the males who get athletic scholarships. He’d like to see every college bound student’s name on the marquee and in the paper at end of the year.</p>
<p>"I think they meant “1 in 3” of high school students nationwide, not 1 in 3 of the students at your kids’ high school "</p>
<p>I know what they meant. It is not that way in our area. It is surprising to me that in some areas half the boys participate while only 1/3 girls participate.</p>
<p>lilmom - doesn’t your school honor those who get academic scholarships? Is not getting an athletic scholarship quite an accomplishment?</p>
<p>Justamom–you were quite clear, to me, anyway. It *is *shocking when you realize that what you think is fair and the norm is far from that in other places.</p>
<p>JustAMom… they might cut softball, but they have to keep something else, so there’s still parity.</p>
<p>My beef isn’t about girls and sports, but Title IX and “bring your daughter to work” and all those other “let’s promote women” came at the expense of boys.</p>
<p>Look at the statistics: </p>
<p>*<em>Proportion of male/females who have autism/Asperger’s<br>
(significantly more boys have autism)
*</em>proportion of male/females who attend college (48:52)
**ratio of males/females who lost their job during the recession</p>
<p>Those stats point towards boys/men struggling. That’s frightening! It might be true that men’s salaries are still higher than women (not sure if that’s true anymore). But overall, boys/men are struggling. (Mind you, I’m not talking about the top executives)
Maybe you just need to excuse my rant, since I just got off the phone w/ a new psychiatrist for my son and she was saying how many boys, not girls, are struggling.</p>
<p>All of that was simply the result of being excluded from those things for so long. Take your Daughter to work day has been replaced by Take your child to work day. It was never meant to take anything away from boys but to show girls they could also have a rewarding career.</p>
<p>Boys have the same opportunities they always have had. Girls have not taken anything away from that.<br>
Don’t make this boys vs girls. That is just wrong. Sure boys have issues. I absolutely acknowledge that - I don’t think more boys are autistic or not going to college because of girls who play sports.
Just what is it that girls have that is denied to boys?<br>
(besides the monthy you-know-what, lol)</p>
<p>I guess the mistake people make is assuming that you can only fix one problem, ever. </p>
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<p>I heard about this one. Does it have to do with men being overrepresented in manufacturing jobs (and the auto industry and construction, which I heard are both in a slump)? I’d love to see an article that talked about this, especially if dealt with how gender affects job placement. </p>
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<p>I’m not sure how any of those things hurt boys. The reason boys have trouble in school seems unconnected to girls’ success. Instead of trying to tear down one sex or the other, wouldn’t it make sense to address the problems? One example is autism; I don’t think anyone really blames the Civil Rights Act for that and a solution would have to come from somewhere else.</p>
<p>Sometimes I think it would be good for a lot of boys if sports opportunities for them were limited or toned down a bit. So many seem to see sports as the only reason they are in school, and fail to put much thought into what they want to do besides play goalie, shooting guard, or offensive lineman.</p>
<p>Maybe it’s just that the research vis-a-vis girls started a while back when there wasn’t any research about girls. It may well be that the research into why boys are struggling has recently begun. Good studies take more than a year or two to fund, carry out, and interpret. So, it may well be that right now it is “always about girls” because the subject matter became popular a decde or so ago.</p>
<p>In about ten years, or so, I suspect we’ll be hearing the studies about boys and school and education rates. fwiw</p>
<p>Men losing jobs in higher numbers than women - it is not just manufacturing. Imagine this scenario. Your white-collar business took a hit during the recession, and you need to cut costs and staff to stay afloat. If you had two equally qualified employees doing the same job with the same efficiency, one being paid $70K/yr and the other $100K/yr, which one would you let go?</p>
<p>We just put instrumental music back into the 5th grade expressly as a way to give kids who are NOT sports oriented - boys and girls - another way to shine. Adults in my Town are pretty sports crazy, and the now that girls sports are about as obsessed over as boys sports (and both M and F athletes protected from standard discipline by the Town mothers and fathers, but that’s a whole other post) we are stepping things up for kids that have other goals than . . . well, goals.</p>
<p>Kei</p>
<p>P.S. If sports need to be cut the dads of softball and soccer and LAX girls will not let them be cut while football survives </p>
<p>We won the battle: my Town is normatively Title IX now.</p>
<p>P.P.S. And poetgirl’s right about studies lagging life.</p>
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