Boys May be Boys But....

On the one hand, here in Quebec, 30% of male students do not graduate from high school by age 20.

On the other hand, a young male Quebecer just made $8 million playing poker! Is there a message here, even if it is a misguided one?

Compare the demands for jobs in the work force against the professional preferences/career choices of boys in schools as to "what they wish to be," and we have a very real problem. The need for office clerks and sales personnel is plentiful. Rock stars, elite athletes, physicians, lawyers, engineers, etc., are in lesser demand and require much greater innate talent, training or educational qualifications. Eventually, that contrast will lead to much dissatisfaction and disappointment - for both the male students and society.

Who can solve the problem? Why, the schools, of course. Now there's an opportunity for a real "reality show"!

Back to School

This week heralded another school year and, I confess, I had no pangs of regret that I was not required.

The day's news included alarm that STDs in teenagers is increasing fast. That sex education is no longer a compulsory high school subject is the main reason attributed to this increase.

In addition, university principals are hustling to join Facebook and Twitter, thereby bringing them closer, informally, to their students. How they find time for such trivialities one can only guess at.
Universities were once the keepers and harbingers of truth, research and education.
In Chris Hedges' "Empire of Illusion," (2009) he claims that worldwide revenues from pornography are more than the total of Microsoft, Google, Amazon, e-Bay, and Apple combined. The largest users of Internet porn are between the ages of twelve and seventeen. Is there a message there?!