- “A smaller and smaller proportion of boys are going on to college. Right now, the student body at the average university in the United States is 58 percent female, 42 percent male (with similar numbers in Canada and Australia).3 And going to college doesn’t guarantee any positive result, particularly for boys. In fact, college is where the gender gap in motivation really shows up. Most girls who enroll in a four-year college will eventually earn a degree. Most boys won’t.” Boys Adrift: The Five Factors Driving the Growing Epidemic of Unmotivated Boys and Underachieving Young Men (Leonard Sax) Page 8
- “Here are the numbers for the male proportion of students enrolled in four-year colleges and universities in the United States, 1949-2006: 1949: 70 percent of undergraduate students were male 1959: 64 percent were male 1969: 59 percent were male 1979: 49 percent were male 1989: 46 percent were male 1999: 44 percent were male 2006: 42 percent were male.” Boys Adrift: The Five Factors Driving the Growing Epidemic of Unmotivated Boys and Underachieving Young Men (Leonard Sax) Page 8
- “A series of studies over the past seven years has demonstrated clearly and unambiguously that the more time your child spends playing video games, the less likely he is to do well in school—whether he is in elementary school, middle school, high school, or college.” Boys Adrift: The Five Factors Driving the Growing Epidemic of Unmotivated Boys and Underachieving Young Men (Leonard Sax) Page 63
- “Nevertheless, as the New York Times reported in a recent front-page story, college administrators are reporting that more and more young men show no interest in meeting young women (or meeting other men for that matter). They don’t want to meet anybody. They just want “to stay in their rooms, talk to no one, [and] play video games into the wee hours. . . . [They] miss classes until they withdraw or flunk out.” Boys Adrift: The Five Factors Driving the Growing Epidemic of Unmotivated Boys and Underachieving Young Men (Leonard Sax) Page 71
- “Today’s kids feel tremendous pressure to develop as athletes and play on winning teams. Many will put years of tee-ball, Little League, high school, and college games under their belt, with parents yelling and screaming as life depended on whether you win or lose. Parents fight for positions for their kids on traveling teams and spend thousands of dollars on private coaching, equipment, tournament fees, and airfare. No one pretends it’s about fun for the better players; it’s about preparing them for the next level. Many parents of talented kids see their offspring’s athletic prowess as their own ticket to success. Look at those ballplayers on television making millions. Why not my son? He can play. If I can just get him to focus, to work harder, to spend more time on his drills. Sure, not all parents fall into this category, but today there is a definite tendency to push kids very hard, very early. Look, my parents took me to Little League games, they worked in the concession stand, and they sponsored teams. But they never saw me as a kid destined for stardom, much less their ticket to a life on Easy Street. They wanted me to grow up, go to college, be well-rounded, be what I wanted to be. They didn’t push me. Baseball for me was never a hyper-competitive, pressure-cooker deal as it so often is for so many kids today.” Clearing the Bases (Schmidt, Mike; Waggoner, Glen) Kindle Location 309-318
- “There were twelve and a half years from the time I received my doctoral degree until I sent my first bill for surgical services,” Russell recalled. “We borrowed money. Dantzel earned some. I made a little here and there. Somehow we survived.” Insights from a Prophet’s Life, Russell M. Nelson, Page 25