I wonder if the feminisation of education has anything to do with this?

No doubt boys will be identified as the cause of this be blamed for being lazy/idle/too disruptive or generally for being male and nothing will be done to stop this growing trend.

If you want to leave a comment about this, here is the link:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/liv...&icc=NEWS&ct=5

nice find, MT.

With every other group that has failed to thrive, educators have bent over backwards trying serve them. So I hope you are wrong about this. But if educators do try to "solve" the problem then I'm afraid it will be the wrong solution, like more focus on their self-esteem or talking about their feelings or drugging them.

Personally, I think the system currently stinks. Not just because it has become feminised (which I can specifically recall when this change was taking place), but also because classes are too large for most tutors.
Hence the one ADHD ritalin kid per classroom now. If one kid is that little bit too noisy - drug him up!
If the classes were smaller, it would give tutors more time per student -more time = more focus. More focus = more study. More study = better understanding.
Simple.

Study: Teacher’s gender affects learning

I spent nearly twenty years working in my state's education system. In 1980 we had 120,000 teachers split roughly evenly between the genders. There was little difference in the achievement levels of boys and girls.

We now have similar ratios to those detailed in this article and, surprise surprise, girls are doing much better than boys.

A couple of personal observations:-

I coach basketball and athletics mainly with kids in their mid teens. Something I notice consistantly with boys is that they feel like outsiders at school. They genuinely feel as though they are not welcome in the system.

A couple of years ago my 14 year old nephew, much to his parents horror, stated that "all men are pigs". When questioned about this it became clear that he'd picked up this attitude from his teachers. He certainly didn't pick it up at home. His friends present at the time reinforced this. Something very sick is going on in our schools.

In the meantime 90% of teenage suicides are boys and yet girls need gender specific self esteem programs. Go figure.

Boys now live in a world that constantly bombards them with messages that they are sub-standard. And they cop it from everywhere.

In a couple of weeks it starts again. The athletics season is approaching. I'll be out in the schools teaching new groups of kids to throw properly.
And I know exactly what to expect from the boys.
Heads bowed.
Eyes down.
Utterly still and unanimated.
Totally passive, unenthused.
If they respond at all it's barely audible.
Even just ten years ago they weren't like this.
It reminds me of images I've seen of slaves chained together.
The shackles may not be visible but they're there nonetheless.

I'm beginning to believe women should not be allowed to teach boys beyond a particular age. Regardless of the rightness of it most women are physically intimidated by them.

Teenage boys are discovering they possess these magnificent machines in their own bodies and minds that are getting bigger, faster, stronger every day. Everything is new and exciting. Some of them experience immense joy from physical movement and debate as a consequence. Their expression of this can get them into trouble particularly from women who feel physically threatened by it and use their authority to block it completely. IT DOESN’T NEED TO BE STOPPED. IT NEEDS TO BE DIRECTED.

Unfortunately most women simply do not understand or empathise with it. They go as far as pathologising it as though there is something somehow wrong with it.

So how many boys are on Ritalin?

More importantly what proportion of boys would otherwise be destined to be among the elite if not drugged into a stupor or constantly being shamed(By a woman! In front of ones peers!) during the most important phase of their life?

Just how much of our future creativity and innovation are we prepared to sacrifice to achieve some illusory and constantly shifting concept of parity between the genders.