Don Asbridge, KOG Editor
 

In agreement with the USDE's recent decision to make available additional options, choices, programs, and schools for both genders in the public schools; and in disagreement with the ACLU's response to the USDE's decision, this is an open letter to the United States Department of Education and the American Civil Liberties Union.
 

Associated Links:

Press Release by USDE (October 24th, 2006)
ACLU Press Release (October 24th, 2006)

Dear USDE & ACLU:

First, I would like to thank both the USDE and the ACLU for your efforts to address and protect the education and civil rights of students. 

As a parent of two daughters, I am highly appreciative that both of them have had equal access to education throughout their educational careers.  But as a professional educator, school psychologist, child advocate, §504 coordinator, licensed educational psychologist, registered sports psychologist, male, and human, I believe it is a great decision by the USDE to allow same-sex (and coed) settings for both boys and girls.  In striving for success for students, alternatives and choices are important.

I have worked with boys and girls on a daily basis for over twenty years; still, I don't pretend to have any "magic answers."  But it is quite obvious to me that boys' needs in particular are in so many ways not being met in public schools in at least some of the same ways girls' needs were not being met thirty years ago.  The tide has turned... the pendulum has swung.  Boys and their parents (as well as girls and their parents) need new choices in education.  But in agreement with the ACLU, I do believe it's essential the USDE provides this option (i.e., same-sex schools and programs) as a choice -- not a mandate; this is my recommendation to the USDE.

Concurrently, I am asking the ACLU to reconsider it's stance on this issue.  When gender gaps were identified in the past, the ACLU courageously and heroically fought to close the gap.  As one who always has placed a high priority on equality and equal access, I'm proud to have worked in 1986 with womens' rights groups from Greeley, Colorado (who subsequently appeared before President Reagan in the White House addressing the Gender Gap in the 1980's).  However, there is new gap in education and I hope the ACLU will fight now to protect males' rights just as it fought then for females' rights.  Both genders can be victims of discrimination.  In present-day education, boys are daily being excluded from equal educational opportunities.  In acknowledgement of, and in reaction to, that real and observed phenomenon, the recent action by the USDE merely offers them a choice.

By almost every measure and every standard, girls are flourishing and boys are struggling in the present matriarchal school system.  Instead of referring you to thousands of pages of research, much of which, admittedly, is pseudoscientific and/or mere opinion based on outdated stereotypes or other agendas, I hope you'll address one crucial statistic:  please compare the numbers of women vs. men who are annually being admitted into colleges nationwide (and please don't ignore the obvious long-term trends).  Don't take my word for it, look at the numbers yourself -- you will immediately see in black and white the actual numbers reflecting the new gender gap.  This is not pseudoscience and it isn't rocket science -- the numbers are easy for anyone to understand and impossible to deny.

At one point, the gap between the genders was so wide (at the expense of females), the Feds had to pass Title IX.  In many (hopefully, most) ways, that prior gender gap in athletic and academic opportunity has decreased.  But in the recent fifteen or more years, the gap has again widened, but this time at the expense of males.  The way boys are treated in schools can no longer be considered an infrequent and minor case of  "reverse discrimination" -- treatment is often outright discrimination and exclusionary based solely on gender.  I observe this phenomenon on a daily basis.  Boys truly have become the second class citizens in American schools.
 

I agree with the ACLU that there exists a lot of junk and pseudo science.  So I want to take just a brief moment and share here some real science pertinent to this topic... As per Asbridge (1993), "...the Spearman correlation coefficient (rs=.62) suggested boys' problems increased (emphasis added) in frequency through the progression of grades K-8 (see Figure 4).  The coefficient of determination (r2=.38) indicated at least a moderate amount of the reported problems seemed to relate to the current grade (also age), while the coefficient of determination (K2=.62) indicated other internal/external factors exist which unfortunately have a negative impact on boys as they progress through the important early years of social, emotional, and physical development.  (KOG Editor's note:  this means boys' problems are not due to being male -- they are primarily due to environmental factors).  This information is important in the prediction of the occurrence of problems and should be considered in educational strategies, interventions, and prevention."  In real language, Figure 4 clearly indicates the new gender gap. (1)      The figures below (also from Asbridge, 1993), graphically and statistically demonstrate boys are to a much larger degree at risk than girls at every grade (Figure 2); many more boys are at risk than girls (Figure 3); boys' problems increase over time (not decrease, which would have been expected given effective interventions); and finally, boys' problems are described as high risk much more frequently than girls' (Figure 5).  In real language, that means boys are suffering and the system isn't working for them.  It's time for a significant change.        (1) Asbridge, D.J. (1993).  The use of teacher surveys to identify "at risk" students in the Arvin schools.  Unpublished paper.

Again, don't take my word for it -- ask one hundred male students between the ages of eight and eighteen if girls are consistently provided with preferential treatment in the schools -- they are the experts.  Listen to them.  They know exactly what's going on.  And then ask the girls -- they are also experts.  They will concur.  They also know exactly what's going on.

And present day educational practices continue to [at times] adversely effect girls.  Women teachers are so busy scolding and disciplining and referring the boys, the girls are sometimes missing out on educational opportunities too. 

In the same way that so many "girls-only" schools were started in the past (and continue in the present), it is only fair that "boys-only" schools and programs be allowed also.  That's fair, right?  That's equal, right? Both genders can be victims of discrimination.  This is no longer just a "womens' rights" issue... it is a human rights issue.  I am striving for equality for both genders in education (you are,  too, right?) -- an equality that can be reached (by some of either gender) with increased -- not decreased -- educational opportunities in my professional opinion and clinical judgment.

Present elementary (and even secondary) educational systems are often highly matriarchal; the vast majority of adults employed in elementary sites are women (not that there's anything wrong with that).  But as a [direct] result, girls are succeeding in classrooms where students are expected to sit for six hours and listen to a female lecture on poetry, while boys are given "sad faces," sent to the office for discipline, referred to mental health because they are 'distractible,' just can't seem to pay attention, won't do their homework, are 'defiant,' or a myriad of other discriminatory/exclusionary practices.   A high percentage of boys are subsequently disabled by the present system and put on medications just because they are male; boys are suspended or expelled at a much higher rate than girls.  Boys graduate less than girls; boys enter the prison system at a higher rate than girls.  Is all this because of some inherent and internal flaw in "maleness?"  Or is it a result of an external, environmental [matriarchal and/or other factors] system that is unwilling or incapable of meeting boys' needs?  My past scientific research -- and just one-cents worth of common sense -- easily answer that question.  Girls hold almost all the leadership positions in most student senates (I work in one middle school and one elementary school -- 100% of the student officers are female); young women earn most of the scholarships and are now being enrolled in colleges at a much higher rate that young men.  This is all good for females, but it is my observation that this progress appears to often come at the expense of males. And the basic laws of human nature dictate that this imbalance cannot ultimately be best for females either:

"Repression is more detrimental to the oppressor than to the oppressed."
     Dick Gregory, Human Rights Activist

Boys and sometimes girls are in so many ways suffering in the public schools.  As a school psychologist, I observe this suffering on a daily basis.  I am glad some from both genders might now have a choice for new educational alternatives that might better include them and no longer exclude them based solely on their gender.  Under any paradigm, it goes without saying that both genders would be included in the full curriculum (although it would be great if the curriculum itself could be improved).

As a §504 coordinator, it would be easy to justify and defend the position that, "the student is eligible for reasonable accommodations (i.e., protection of his civil rights) based on the fact that he has a condition (i.e., "maleness") that results in substantial limitations in [several] major life activities (including learning).  Would the "human rights" department of the ACLU back that up?  Or would the "women's rights" department of the ACLU shoot that down?

I ask the ACLU to change their position(s) to:  1) allow choices and alternatives in education for both genders, as the USDE has proposed, and; 2) to accept the fact that this is a human rights issue -- not just a women's rights issue.  Please reassign this topic to the "human rights" or "men's rights" departments in the ACLU.  Males are suffering at the hands of women making all the educational decisions.  Boys want out of the present system for a legitimate reason, please let them go!

Sincerely,

Donald J. Asbridge, Ed.S., LEP, RSP, KASP Webmaster
School Psychologist & Human
Bakersfield, California  USA
shrink@igalaxy.net

This open letter/comment is located on the November issue of the KASP Online Gazette (KOG) at the following URL:
http://www.kernschoolpsych.org/novkog21.htm

If you would like to respond to this article, the KOG would be happy to print your responses.
If so, please send your submission to shrink@igalaxy.net

KASP and other readers are encouraged to forward their comments to...
ACLU at:  media@aclu.org
USDE at [these are the only contacts I could find]:*  webmaster@ed.gov  and/or webmaster@inet.ed.gov
 

This open letter was e-mailed to the ACLU and USDE at the contact numbers listed above on Wednesday, November 1st, 2006.

*Reportedly there is a 45-day public "comment period" regarding USDE's position, but I could not find it; if you can find it, please forward to the KOG.
 

Dear KOG Editor,    Are schools safe?                Signed, "Nervous Parent" Dear Nervous Parent,    Well, some of the schools seem to be safe most of the time, and most of the schools are safe some of the time, but not all of the schools are safe all of the time.                Signed, KOG Editor

Dear KOG Editor,    Are schools fair to both genders?                Signed, "Parent of a Daughter and Son" Dear POADAS,    Well, some of the schools seem to be fair to both genders most of the time, and most of the schools seem to be fair to both genders some of the time, but not all of the schools are fair to both genders all of the time.                Signed, KOG Editor      See you next month!  KOG Editor!