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Back to new Transitions - Re-Engagement Edition

Author's note: I am not advocating the following for every boy or excluding girls. I am offering a suggestion for those boys who are not ‘succeeding’ academically in our education system. The paper is meant to provoke thought and initiate discussion.

What harm are our modern society and education systems doing to our boys?

As a mother of four boys, a school teacher, a TAFE teacher, employment consultant and a career adviser I have encountered a lot of boys either in the education system or as early school leavers looking for work. A large proportion of these would be considered ‘failures' due to low academic achievement in the education system. At the beginning of their secondary education these boys have varying talents and potential. How then, do they get to the stage where they drop out of school, can't get a job and may be exhibiting anti-social behaviour?

Modern society

Our society has ‘progressed' so much that we no longer have the choices of outdoor, physical work that young males had in previous generations.

Our expectations are skewed towards academic success. Everyone has different talents and abilities. A child is not ‘dumb' just because they don't achieve academically. It is a matter of identifying them and fostering in them something that will benefit the child and society. We don't need to devalue academic ability. We do need to give equal value to non-academic skills and abilities.

What can these young males contribute to our society?

Scenario from our past

Boy lives at home with two parents and numerous extended family members nearby. As he progresses through adolescence he is surrounded by male role models. The extended family live just around the corner. Roaming around the streets, playing with his friends, he grows up, knowing the people who do the plumbing, or repair the roads or sell the groceries. If he lives in a city or a town he is getting pocket money by doing deliveries. If he lives in the country he is doing chores around the farm. At 14 he is considered old enough to leave school and gets a job on the railway, on a farm, with a tradey or in a shop. There are countless outdoor occupations to choose from.

At an age where hormones are causing all sorts of behaviour he is out mixing with older males learning how to be a man. He has started the growing up that happens in a work environment where there are male role models.

Scenario from today

Boy lives at home, maybe in a single parent family, with no male relatives nearby. Today families are smaller and scattered. The extended family doesn't live just around the corner. Due to safety concerns he may have to stay inside after school. Leisure activities are much more likely to be sedentary and occur within the four walls of the home. At fourteen he is considered only to be in the early part of his high school education. The casual, or after school, jobs available to him are usually in hospitality or customer service. TV means he has a broader vicarious knowledge of possible occupations but our modern society has disabled him when it comes to knowing the people in these jobs. He can't leave school because he would be considered a drop out. If he did, society would consider him well on the way to being unemployable.

Education Systems

The reduced intimacy with males in real jobs is exacerbated by our education system. Our schools are predominantly female orientated. Most teachers are female, especially in infants and primary schools. Classroom learning has evolved to suit females. Reading, writing and sitting still are measures of success. The kids who do this are getting the positive feedback. Consider our genetic history - who sat in the cave and nurtured and communicated?

What were the males doing? They were out hunting and actively solving problems. How far removed in evolution are our boys from our hunter ancestors? It is in the genetic blueprint of our boys to learn by doing. Our education systems expect them to sit still and listen. Instead we have hormonal teenage boys who learn by doing, by being active. We are doing the proverbial ‘fitting square pegs into round holes'.

The result

Outcomes from the current system include behavioural problems that impact on teachers, on other students, on families and on society as a whole. But what about the view these young men have of themselves? We are turning out young males with low self-esteem who exhibit aggressive and anti-social behaviour. What impact is that going to have on future generations?

Talk to any disengaged young male about what they want to do and invariably it is something outside and/or something with their hands. They don't want to sit in an office all day. They have been sitting in a classroom for the last ten years. They know they are not suited to it. I'm sure all of the teachers who have had to cope with behavioural problems in the last five years would also agree. So why are we keeping these boys at school? Is their literacy going to improve once they get to high school, if they hate being there? The longer they are in the traditional school system the more the cycle escalates and any positive view they have of their role in society fades.

Alternative scenario

Boy starts to spend a few days a week from the beginning of high school at work for which he receives pocket money. He is in practical, work-related and living skills, literacy and numeracy classes. He also has electives where he can choose to do other high school subjects in class or on-line.

At an early age, before he becomes a ‘behavioural', problem he is out there mixing with males, learning hands-on practical skills and being exposed to the real need for literacy and numeracy.

If we have this type of a flexi-school how do we avoid creating a second best system for marginalised young people? By not considering them as marginalised in the first place. The only way we can stop this, is by valuing all education and ability, not just academic. We need to bring back the regard and esteem for jobs that people get when they are fourteen. These have become the poorest paid despite often being the hardest work. Academic success at school age is seen as a necessity for success in life. We must work to change attitudes that measure success.

The recent proliferation of ‘men's sheds' is a step in the right direction. Can we incorporate this into our education systems? Trade schools and Australian Technical Colleges are positive moves but in the political football that education has become we seem to lose sight of the real reason they should be in existence. Not to make a particular, state or political party or government funded programme look good, not to say, ‘Hey we're great, because we're doing something about the skill shortage'. But to give our boys real skills, a chance of success in life and build strong, confident people with great self esteem.

We need the untapped manual dexterity, the active problem solving, the divergent thinking, the persistence and the energy of these wonderful young people.

Strong, confident young people help build a strong, confident, skilled nation.

About the Author

Wendy holds a BA, Dip Ed and a Grad Cert in Career Counselling and is the mother of four boys.

Wendy grew up in rural NSW. After completing a Bachelor of Arts, majoring in Psychology and Australian History, and a Diploma in Education at the University of New England she taught in a small school in the Northern Territory for three years. She has over fifteen years experience in western NSW working with the unemployed as a part time teacher with TAFE NSW and as an employment consultant. Following the completion of a Graduate Certificate in Career Counselling in 2005 she worked as the Regional Industry Career Adviser in Western NSW, under the Australian Government Initiative, Career Advice Australia. She is currently working on writing Adopt-a-School Programmes with Rural Skills Australia, is a partner in a small office solutions business, Grey Matter Management, and is back teaching job seeking skills and workplace communication subjects with TAFE. She is also mother of one plant mechanic (who now works in mining and earns way more than his mother), one auto electrician (who we struggled to keep in school until the end of year 10 and who bought a house the day he turned eighteen), one apprentice motor vehicle mechanic (who bought a brand new ute as a second year apprentice ) and one university graduate (who thought he would earn big $$$$ but is still waiting!).

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