First, this lawsuit has nothing do with reality. It has to do with doing whatever it takes for your kids to get ahead. That's what parents do these days, from parents in Manhattan getting their toddlers in Manhattan falsely diagnosed with learning disabilities to make them eligible for intensive interventions that will help them get into the best preschools, to parents paying people to ghostwrite college admissions essays.
Secondly, I believe that it is possible for an environment to discriminate against boys, that some schools may do so, and that this is more likely to be going on now than it was several decades ago (I have no real arguments to support my third point, though.). I believe that there are personalities that are more common among females and personalities that are more common among males. (For the purposes of the rest of this discussion I will call those personalities "how men behave" and "how women behave". I am not arguing that all men behave this way, nor that no woman behave this way. Think of it as a "women are likely to be shorter than men, but not every woman is shorter than every man, nor is the woman guaranteed to be shorter than the man in any given pairing." sort of thing.) I'm not going to bother to make lists of such personality differences, but think about the sorts of communication differences that are frequently described (women talk to strengthen relationships, men talk to give each other information.)
I think we can all agree that most corporate workplaces benefit people who behave like men. You get paid more if you aggressively negotiate for your salary. You are respected more if you never say "I don't know". Etc.
There exist environments where you are penalized for behaving like a man. Disagreement with the consensus is considered "being disruptive". Direct talk is considered confrontational. (My father's point of view is that his current employer is one such place; this isn't the voice of bitterness, but one of anthropological interest.) I agree that those environments aren't common, but I think it would be short-sighted to claim no such environments exists solely because the powerful environments are male-supportive.
It seems entirely possible to me that some high schools are the latter sort of environment. And that increased focus on reducing the discrimination against girls has changed the effects of those environments.
Are the boys hurt by a school culture that discriminates against them? I think this is the thing that is changing most quickly. People think that college admissions are based on tiny differences between applicants. In such an environment I can see where someone could reach the conclusion that a male-intolerant culture would be causing serious harm. I'm not sure there is a harm, since I'm not sure that any of the things mentioned by the student actually interfere with someone's ability to get an education.
Keep in mind that when I was in eighth grade I went on a tirade against my school because the girls were allowed to wear miniskirts of any length while boys were required to where long pants. No girls ever got in trouble for wearing shorts, either. But boys got sent home (the obnoxious boys who liked to point out they weren't following the rules.) I considered this discriminatory and proposed a length above the knee policy instead which was rejected by the principal. (And then after I left that school system my exact language was adopted by the school board without attribution.) So yes, I do think it's possible for an educational environment to discriminate against boys.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2006-01-26 07:58 pm (UTC)First, this lawsuit has nothing do with reality. It has to do with doing whatever it takes for your kids to get ahead. That's what parents do these days, from parents in Manhattan getting their toddlers in Manhattan falsely diagnosed with learning disabilities to make them eligible for intensive interventions that will help them get into the best preschools, to parents paying people to ghostwrite college admissions essays.
Secondly, I believe that it is possible for an environment to discriminate against boys, that some schools may do so, and that this is more likely to be going on now than it was several decades ago (I have no real arguments to support my third point, though.). I believe that there are personalities that are more common among females and personalities that are more common among males. (For the purposes of the rest of this discussion I will call those personalities "how men behave" and "how women behave". I am not arguing that all men behave this way, nor that no woman behave this way. Think of it as a "women are likely to be shorter than men, but not every woman is shorter than every man, nor is the woman guaranteed to be shorter than the man in any given pairing." sort of thing.) I'm not going to bother to make lists of such personality differences, but think about the sorts of communication differences that are frequently described (women talk to strengthen relationships, men talk to give each other information.)
I think we can all agree that most corporate workplaces benefit people who behave like men. You get paid more if you aggressively negotiate for your salary. You are respected more if you never say "I don't know". Etc.
There exist environments where you are penalized for behaving like a man. Disagreement with the consensus is considered "being disruptive". Direct talk is considered confrontational. (My father's point of view is that his current employer is one such place; this isn't the voice of bitterness, but one of anthropological interest.) I agree that those environments aren't common, but I think it would be short-sighted to claim no such environments exists solely because the powerful environments are male-supportive.
It seems entirely possible to me that some high schools are the latter sort of environment. And that increased focus on reducing the discrimination against girls has changed the effects of those environments.
Are the boys hurt by a school culture that discriminates against them? I think this is the thing that is changing most quickly. People think that college admissions are based on tiny differences between applicants. In such an environment I can see where someone could reach the conclusion that a male-intolerant culture would be causing serious harm. I'm not sure there is a harm, since I'm not sure that any of the things mentioned by the student actually interfere with someone's ability to get an education.
Keep in mind that when I was in eighth grade I went on a tirade against my school because the girls were allowed to wear miniskirts of any length while boys were required to where long pants. No girls ever got in trouble for wearing shorts, either. But boys got sent home (the obnoxious boys who liked to point out they weren't following the rules.) I considered this discriminatory and proposed a length above the knee policy instead which was rejected by the principal. (And then after I left that school system my exact language was adopted by the school board without attribution.) So yes, I do think it's possible for an educational environment to discriminate against boys.