surf over to my site (www.thisweekineducation.com) if you want to see USA Today's richard whitmire response.

There is more to the issue regarding boys in society today than just test scores. Gurian raises that issue in the quote they give, but the article fails to follow up on that. (Gurian also says in his books that he is uncomfortable with the use of the word crisis).

What about the much higher rate of suicides among teenage boys than girls (or as against any demographic group at this point)? What about the high number of boys on ADHD meds? Or other behavior related meds? Does any believe that when it comes to disciplinary issues that schools are dealing with an equal number of girls as boys? No, schools find themselves dealing more with boys. So, is there something that can be done about that? That's all some people in the debate are asking.

Also, it is great that girls are going to college, but why haven't boys kept up (the study just compared one generation of men to an older generation), especially when it should be well-known that potential income is clearly correlated to education level?

And what about special education -- yes, the rate of girls with disabilities may be increasing rapidly, but so too for boys, and there was no suggestion that the ratio of 2 to 1 boys to girls in special education has decreased at all.

So, take out the word crisis, but don't stop considering some of these important issues.

Also, was there any bias in the study? For example, they article states:

The "boy crisis," the report says, has been used by conservative authors who accuse "misguided feminists" of lavishing resources on female students at the expense of males and by liberal authors who say schools are "forcing all children into a teacher-led pedagogical box that is particularly ill-suited to boys' interests and learning styles."

Wow, they got that from test score data?

Or how about this one:

"There's no doubt that some groups of boys -- particularly Hispanic and black boys and boys from low-income homes -- are in real trouble," Education Sector senior policy analyst Sara Mead says in the report. "But the predominant issues for them are race and class, not gender."

I am not sure how they can assume that gender is not at all a factor in while finding that some groups of boys are "in real trouble." Isn't is possible that cultural issues regarding gender, especially as it concerns education, are negatively impacting the performance of some boys in school in comparison to girls? My kids go to a school where the majority population is Hispanic, and it appears that with the Hispanic students it is more "okay" for girls to be sitting around reading than it would be for boys, who are are encouraged instead to run around and be physical more So understanding an interaction of factors is likely important, and not trying to separate it out as neatly as saying, "that's about race and class, but not about gender." But the writers of the study seem on a mission to discount the possibility of any gender related factors.

Persoanlly, I don't think that boys in general are in "crisis" in elementary school education; but I am concerned that certain patterns seem to be showing up by the time high school rolls around that will be a problem for society if they continue as is.

"much of the pessimism about young males seems to derive from [...] discomfort with the fact that although the average boy is doing better, the average girl has gotten ahead of him."

I'm sorry but anyone who believes that is just wrong and lacks credibility. If boys were improving in math and science faster than girls or if boys were as far a head of girls in math and science as girls are over boys in reading and writing there would be a major crisis being declared. And if fact there was such a major crisis declared and girls have gotten far better. But no similar effort has been taken for boys in the areas they trail girls. If the percentages of boys and girls in college were to be reversed again no one would be shouting about how great it was that boys were making progress. Admitting that there is a problem is the first step toward fixing it and that is what needs to happen.

Esquire Magazine devoted their entire July 2006 issue to "the State of the American Man." One key article is entitled The Problem with Boys:

...Is actually a problem with men. We've ignored all the evidence of male achievement and ambition deficits and stood aside as our sons have notched a growing record of failure and disengagement. It's time we did something about it. A call to action.