{"id":16622,"date":"2026-08-30T19:21:38","date_gmt":"2026-08-30T16:21:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/americas-schools-designed-to-tear-down-young-men-study-finds\/"},"modified":"2026-08-30T19:21:38","modified_gmt":"2026-08-30T16:21:38","slug":"americas-schools-designed-to-tear-down-young-men-study-finds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/americas-schools-designed-to-tear-down-young-men-study-finds\/","title":{"rendered":"America’s Schools Designed to Tear Down Young Men, Study Finds"},"content":{"rendered":"

The dramatic reversal in academic performance between the sexes has occurred over just three decades, according to Dr. Leonard Sax<\/strong>, a physician, psychologist, and educational consultant writing in New York Post<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Dr. Sax recounts the experience of a kindergarten boy named Jason who was sent to the principal’s office four times in two weeks for typical boyish behavior\u2014turning a craft project into an imaginary lightsaber and channeling Darth Vader. By the end of the second week, the child came home in tears declaring that school was stupid and he hated it.<\/p>\n

This early rejection of education has lasting consequences. Research by Deborah Stipek<\/strong>, former dean of education at Stanford, shows that children form attitudes toward school early, and once a boy decides he hates school, he is unlikely to change his mind.<\/p>\n

A Complete Reversal in Three Decades<\/h2>\n

The transformation in educational outcomes represents a stunning shift from the recent past. When Dr. Sax graduated from his public high school in Ohio in 1977, boys outnumbered girls among the highest achievers both at his school and nationwide. Thirty years ago, researchers Myra and David Sadker<\/strong> published their book “Failing at Fairness: How our Schools Cheat Girls,” documenting an achievement gap that favored boys and examining how schools were holding girls back.<\/p>\n

Today the situation has completely reversed. Girls now outperform boys by wide margins in every content area from kindergarten through twelfth grade, including math and science. Girls outnumber boys by more than two-to-one among high school valedictorians, and young women are now substantially more likely than their brothers to attend college.<\/p>\n

Normal Boy Behavior Now Punishable<\/h2>\n

Over the past 25 years, Dr. Sax has visited more than 500 schools and witnessed firsthand how educational environments have become unfriendly to boys. Activities that boys have always engaged in\u2014pointing fingers at each other saying “bang bang you’re dead,” drawing pictures of weapons, or throwing snowballs\u2014now result in disciplinary action.<\/p>\n

The question is not why girls are succeeding, but why boys are failing at such alarming rates. Dr. Sax emphasizes that schools can be made friendly to boys without becoming unfriendly to girls.<\/p>\n

Gender-Aware Teaching Strategies Ignored<\/h2>\n

Dr. Sax leads workshops for schools teaching zero-cost strategies that boost achievement for both boys and girls through gender-aware instructional methods. The most effective way to engage boys with a subject like Emily Dickinson differs from the approach that works best for girls. Similarly, the optimal method for exciting girls about computer coding differs from what motivates boys.<\/p>\n

Many teachers remain unaware of these differences because leading schools of education, including Harvard and Columbia, endorse the claim that gender is merely a social construct\u2014a position Dr. Sax attributes to theorist Judith Butler<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Warning Signs Parents Should Watch<\/h2>\n

Dr. Sax provides parents with concrete indicators to assess whether their son’s school is boy-friendly. First, check the honor rolls, which should be roughly evenly split between boys and girls. If girls vastly outnumber boys, something has gone wrong.<\/p>\n

Second, ask whether teachers are allowed to use the phrase “boys and girls.” At many schools today, teachers are officially prohibited from using these words and are instructed to say “purple penguins” or similar alternatives instead. Such policies signal allegiance to an ideology that is unfriendly to both boys and girls.<\/p>\n

Third, inquire about the top athletes at the school. At boy-friendly schools, the top male athletes are also scholars. At schools unfriendly to boys, young men face a false choice between being scholars or athletes, but cannot be both.<\/p>\n

Dr. Sax has published a new edition of his book “Boys Adrift,” documenting the growing gender gap in achievement. The gap is widening not because girls are doing better\u2014they are not\u2014but because boys are doing worse. Parents who want to prevent their sons from becoming adrift must ensure they attend a boy-friendly school.<\/p>\n

With information from New York Post<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An educational expert warns that American boys are falling behind as schools increasingly penalize natural male behavior, with girls now outperforming boys across all academic metrics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":16621,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[122],"tags":[12596,3765,12595,12597,209],"nfg_topic":[137],"class_list":["post-16622","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-boys-academic-performance","tag-education-system","tag-gender-gap","tag-leonard-sax","tag-united-states","nfg_topic-culture-wars"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16622","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/47"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16622"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16622\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16622"},{"taxonomy":"nfg_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/nfg_topic?post=16622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}