Where Have the Men Gone

Men who once dominated the student body at American institutions of higher learning now make up no more than 43% of all students in these institutions. From boys to men, the problems in the classroom are increasing as America finds the number of males in college decreasing.

Although the number of college bound men has dropped, optimists cite that, even with a decline in education, men still hold the highest jobs and have the biggest effect on society today. Society is run by wealthy males such as Bill Gates, John Robertses and George Bush. What society gets when they look at there predominately male leaders is a perception that men are greater and still in charge. This idea of the well off man offsets all thoughts regarding a decline in male production and work within the educational systems.

Compared to the days of the "old industrial promise" -" a man will get a decent job no matter what", society has taking a giant step forward in equality for all people resulting in a much tougher venue for a man without and education to get a good job at.

Being able to simply "follow your father's footsteps" is a much tougher task than it used to be.

The fact that "schools will take care of the boys and help them succeed", is and old school promise (no pun intended) that educational systems now a days are not able to keep anymore. Experts say that this is due to the systematic style of teaching young men through the "industrial schooling" method. This method involves a large amount of students in a classroom, resulting in less attention being provided to each student, attention that the average male student needs in order to stay on course. This raise-your-hand quietly, don't-learn-by-doing-but-by-taking-notes classroom has presented itself as a much larger problem for boys rather than girls.

Boys have a lot of "Huck Fin" in them, they don't, on average, learn as well as girls by sitting still, concentrating, multitasking and listening.

Boys and young men compromise the majority off high school dropouts, as high as 80% in some cities.

Until educators find a way to cater to both the needs of males and females in the classroom, the rising number of male dropouts may grow larger and larger. Before you make any conclusions or stereotypes of male learners, put into the equation