Has school become hostile to boys?
American Enterprise Institute philosopher and IWF friend Christina Hoff Sommers addresses this question today in Time magazine’s “Ideas” section:
As school begins in the coming weeks, parents of boys should ask themselves a question: Is my son really welcome? A flurry of incidents last spring suggests that the answer is no. In May, Christopher Marshall, age 7, was suspended from his Virginia school for picking up a pencil and using it to “shoot” a “bad guy” — his friend, who was also suspended. A few months earlier, Josh Welch, also 7, was sent home from his Maryland school for nibbling off the corners of a strawberry Pop-Tart to shape it into a gun. At about the same time, Colorado’s Alex Evans, age 7, was suspended for throwing an imaginary hand grenade at “bad guys” in order to “save the world.”
Christina further notes that millions of boys are struggling academically and are increasingly disengaged from school. Could such draconian measures as those described above be a factor?
This is an important subject and we’re delighted to remind you that the Independent Women’s Forum is joining forces with AEI to present a discussion of whether single-sex schools should be eliminated.
Christina will argue in favor of single-sex education, and Lise Eliot of the Chicago Medical School of Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science will argue against it. Author and "Crossfire" host S.E. Cupp will moderate.
Time: Wednesday, August 28, 2013 | 5:30 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.
Place: AEI, Twelfth Floor
1150 Seventeenth Street, NW
Washington, DC 20036