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March-April 2008
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< previous | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 ALPHA GIRLS, AWOL BOYSThanks to Harbour Fraser Hodder’s exposé “Girl Power” (January-February, page 34), it’s wonderful to see Harvard’s social scientists charging valiantly toward the trailing edge of social research. Dan Kindlon’s high-risk survey of 928 sixth- to twelfth-graders says it all. The 228 males are relegated to control group status. Hello, Harvard! Girls’ success hasn’t been news for half a generation. What needs research is not the expanded self-esteem and competence of young women but the depression, dropping-out, and lethargy of males. Has feminism succeeded when 69 percent of my eldest’s college class is female? The rough intellectual equivalence of the genders but huge disparity in outcomes suggests something bizarre and worth investigating. Is the disconnect caused by the maternalistic fascism of American public education? Perhaps it’s in the use of pesticides. Whatever it is, I guess the answer won’t come from The Cloister on the Charles. Evan M. Dudik, M.B.A. ’84 As the father of three sons and grandfather of two grandsons, I am troubled by academic (and national) attention continuing to be lavished on the 50 percent of our children who, by virtually every statistical measure, are doing better. Talk to a group of parents of sons and you will hear pride, yes, but just as often, if not more, worry about the directionlessness of their lives. Yes, as the article points out, there is reason to be concerned about how today’s “alpha girls” will, as alpha women, be able to combine work and family; but to continue, in 2008, to focus on girls when, as Kindlon says, “Girls are doing the work and boys aren’t—boys are playing Grand Theft Auto” does a disservice to half of our children, the half falling farther and farther behind. 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | continued >  
 
 
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