As you say, "public schools are particularly toxic to boys", but there are not enough people who fully understand what they are dealing with on this front. It's too subtle, maybe. They don't make the connection between suspending a kid for making a gun out of Legos, or making a finger gun and yelling "bang", or drawing a picture of one, and the larger issue re: education and achievement and failure to launch. It's all connected, especially in the minds of the boys.

Right on cue: Hyannis West student, 5, warned for making Lego gun

This kind of insanity needs to stop. The schools are run by too many paranoid people who see risks where there are none, and fail to see the real risks. Not everybody, of course, but enough that it presents a problem.

There are not enough parents who "get it" yet. They have implicit trust in the schools because when they were kids in school, this kind of nonsense was not implemented, discussed, or even thought of, and would not have been tolerated. We don't live in those times any more. 

Thanks Merina, excellent points all. I too have read that book by Dr. Sax, and it is very enlightening.

The problem for me is that few people will read Dr. Sax's book, or the Legal Insurrection blog I linked to. Politicians, the media, and lobbyists make a very effective echo chamber, and facts that exist outside that echo chamber are essentially irrelevant. And since there is no machinery set up in Washington to promote the needs of boys, they lose.  

It's ridiculous and stupid and our boys (and eventually, some girls) suffer for it.

All I can say is, "you go, girls!". We have to put a stop to the silly idea that women think and act as a monolith: it's a leftist talking point that has no basis in reality. 

And thanks to Barkha Herman for showing great leadership. I like the emphasis on avoiding the pro-choice issue - it has become too incendiary and brings a lot of baggage (anti-religion, especially) and turns many people  who otherwise would vote R, especially young folk, into single-issue voters. I know a few in fact . . . 

Re: "too highly developed cynicism about everything I read"

That's me too. I don't trust any news story any more, to be honest. Well, maybe weather reports, and sports stories. Most of the time. ;-) 

But news about politics, government, the economy, religion, unions, teachers and education, gay or race issues, global warming, just about any issue you could name, are all hopelessly corrupted. 

There is that, yes. There is also the very real data showing the achievement has gone down for boys in every major way. They get 70% of all the failing grades, get into trouble and get diagnosed for ADD/ADHD medications at much higher rates than girls, do not graduate or get high grades or go on to college, etc. Almost 60% of all college students are female today - it used to be 50%. Any way you look at it, this is not good for either men or women. 

Agree completely, liberal jim. Excellent point. People on the right - or in the middle, for that matter - have to learn to frame the message to hit emotional hot buttons and "make it stick". Must be sound-bite-ready. 

Good point Franco - I wonder though if McCartney actually wrote most of the words, or all of them (several Lennon/McCartney songs were actually written by just one or the other).

And we could always blame "Imagine" and the entire anti-war thing on Yoko, I guess. ;-) 

Excellent post She, and it has particular cachet because a woman wrote it. So many lefty women have a monolithic view of womanhood and what it means that a debate like this is sorely needed, and is best fought *within* the gender to remove all War on Women potential objections. Also, Conservative/libertarian women have no true voice in today's media world. We need to figure out how to fix that . . .  maybe have Ann Coulter as a regular on The View. Now wouldn't THAT be entertaining, I'd watch every damn day and I hate that show!