Young Men: "Canary in National Coal Mine"

Br Mary Sanchez, Kansas City Star, October 18, 2010
But the unheard subtext to all this hand wringing is that boys are in trouble. As one participant in a College Board study of American education noted, “Our young men are the canary in the national coal mine.”
As vice president of the D.C.-based College Board Advocacy and Policy Center, Ronald Williams attends many a college graduation ceremony. He notes the clickety-clack of high heels across the stage floor as graduate after graduate crosses to accept her diploma. Increasingly, Williams is aware of the dearth of men.
Researchers are starting to look into the ways our schools are failing certain students more than others. There are a lot of factors at play: race, class, and poverty both urban and rural. And, of course, there is the impact of broken families and single-parent households. Academics and administrators are trying to understand the way all these things affect the attitudes and expectations of the young, especially young men.
In the most troubled school districts, however, reflecting on these issues is a luxury they can’t afford. Here is how one former K-12 superintendent framed the issue to Williams: If you have 30-some schools and 16 are being threatened with being taken over by the state, you don’t have time to figure out which part of the population is messing up.
Still, some points of consensus are emerging about the difficulties boys face in school.
One is that schools are punishing “boy behavior” harshly and ineffectively. From a young age, boys tend to have excessive energy and more trouble settling down. Speaking loudly, not being able to focus and follow instructions, and the like tend to get a kid in trouble in school. Research has shown that boys are twice as likely as girls to be suspended, labeled learning disabled or diagnosed with attention deficit or attention deficit hyperactivity.
Others studies seek to unravel how particularly for African American and Latino teenagers, school becomes a “pipeline to prison” rather than to college. Disciplinary measures often cast boys to the street (out-of-school suspension) rather than imposing penalties in school, which can lead to delinquency and juvenile detention. It’s a pretty well-worn path that has helped the U.S. achieve some of the highest incarceration rates in the world.
President Barack Obama targeted 2020 as the date by which the U.S. should regain its marker as the nation with the highest percentage of postsecondary degrees. But it should be blatantly obvious that a nation only educating half of its population to its potential can’t advance, much less reclaim, past global prominence in academic standards.
Read more: http://www.kansascity.com/2010/10/18/2327281/add-this-to-the-list-boys-are.html#ixzz12sxAmMxr
While Canadian norms are different from U.S. norms, and the data disclose different patterns (for example, our prison intake is significantly smaller than the U.S.), the fact that this story is emerging in the heartland of the U.S. suggests that it is a broadly recognized societal trend, looking for answers in that country too.
Perhaps it can also legitimately be said that "young men are the canary in the national coal mine in Canada, also."