Boys’ Backslide | WBUR and NPR - On Point with Tom Ashbrook

TODAY IS TUESDAY, MARCH 9, 2010

Monday, September 1, 2003 at 11:00 AM EDT

Boys’ Backslide

Chances are, if you’re over the age of 30, boys ruled the roost in your high school. They were the class presidents, captains of the debate team, editors of the student newspaper, valedictorians. The whole town cheered them on at football games. It was good to be a boy back then.

Now, it seems the tide is turning. Girls are tearing through the education system, leaving many boys behind in the dust. Now, girls are the big men on campus. Business Week magazine explores the phenomenon in its May 26th cover story “The New Gender Gap.” It describes a new school order where girls rule and boys are becoming the second sex. And raises questions about the long-term societal impact when boys take a backseat to girls.

Guests:

Michelle Conlin, Working Life Editor at Business Week magazine

Dr. William Pollack, psychologist and author of “Real Boys: Rescuing Our Sons from the Myths of Boyhood”;Thomas Mortenson, senior scholar at the Pell Institute for the Study of Opportunity in Higher Education

Cindy Rudrud, principal at Cactus High School in Glendale, Arizona

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