I have written in these pages before about the disequilibrium that is growing in America because boys are falling behind girls in general, and as is true with any negative condition in this nation, Black male-female gaps are even more glaring. The gaps are increasing both absolutely, because girls are doing better, and relatively, because the boys are doing worse.
In one high school, girls comprised three of the four students who tied for valedictorian, 76% of the National Honor Society members, and 85% of the 4.0 students.
During the 2011-2012 school year, 84% of girls graduated high school in four years, as compared with 77% for boys. According to the Schott Foundation, only 59% of Black males graduated from high school in the 2012-2013 school year.
In high school graduation rates, Black males are more than 27 percentage points behind Black females. In terms of college enrollments, the gaps in favor of white women over white men are 10.7 points at the undergraduate level and 18.4 points at the graduate level.
For black students, there is a gap of 26.6 points for undergraduates and at the graduate level, the gap is 41.4 points.
For white students, the gaps in college degrees earned are 22.4 points in Associate’s Degrees; 12 points in Bachelor’s Degrees; 22.4 percentage points for Master’s Degrees; 13.9 points for Doctoral Degrees. First professional degrees favor white males by 8 points.
In college degree attainment, the Black gaps are 37 points in Associate’s Degrees; 32 points in Bachelor’s Degrees; 44 points in Master’s Degrees; 24 points in First-Professional Degrees; and 33 points in Doctoral Degrees.
Joking a few weeks ago, I said to a friend that girls are not playing fair. They are not doing the things the boys are doing, for they were, the gaps would close because the girls would start falling back.
In keeping with my Wellness Approach below here are some data which can be addressed and can be changed; all of them are behavioral, and perhaps subcultural and social, but not genetic.
1. Boys account for approximately 70 percent of all Ds and Fs in U.S. public schools.
2. About two-thirds of all students in “special education programs” are boys.
3. The average American girl spends 5 hours a week playing VIDEO GAMES. The average American boy spends 13 hours a week playing video games, amounting to 11,000 hours between ages 2 through 18. Video game addiction is approximately four times as common among boys as it is among girls.
4. In 2011, SAT scores for young men were the worst that they had been in 40 years.
5. Pornography addiction is a major problem among young men.
6. Young men in the 18 to 24 year old age bracket are nearly twice as likely to live with their parents as young women of the same age.
7. Young men are about four times more likely to commit suicide as young women are.
8. Twelve million boys play sports as compared with 8 million girls. In urban areas, 59% of girls participate in sport compared with 80% of boys.
9. Ritalin – Girls get extra school help while boys get Ritalin in response to the same kind of behavior.
The US buys and uses 90% of the world’s Ritalin. Higher uses as compared to the nation are found in the southeast, and for poor children, males, Black and Black males. African American boys are significantly more likely to be prescribed these drugs than the general student body. Serious questions have been raised about the drug’s long-term learning benefit and the harm they do to the brain; but use continues to increase.
Note that in none of the cases is the negative percentage 100%; thus millions of boys are doing WELL! What can we learn about the successful boys?
The current severity in the Black Male-Female gaps was not always the case. From 1900 to about 1950, Black men were attending college at a higher rate than Black women. With regard to college graduation, in the forties, the gap was in favor of Black women, but the gap was quite small.
Two of the most popular “answers” to this dilemma, female dominated (85%) elementary schools and boys’ different brain-wiring/learning styles, don’t explain why the gap began and continues to expand. Both have always been true. Until someone can show me reliable scientific research studies indicating that there has been a malevolent mutation in the genes that control cognitive enhancement, decent behavior, and the sequence of brain development; that this mutation has affected only males; and, more specifically and severely, that the mutation has been most destructive in Black males, I will lay the large and increasing disparities in success rates between the genders on the American society, in the overall social system, and all its subsystems, institutions and local communities. Boys need more knowledgeable male advocates and mentors, especially in early childhood.
