All very true. But no one is listening, especially not in education. Boys' schools, also, are not immune to the girls'-only celebration. Given the current obsession with 'elite boys' schools are cesspools of toxicity' trope that features so frequently -- thanks to our former Australian of the Year and her ilk -- in mainstream media, the road ahead is dire and despairing. School leaders seem to be trapped in the false narrative of Girls Need More, even when data shows evidence of 'boy trouble' in the academic classroom. I applaud Arndt's commitment to males, yet grow frustrated by the inaction from the Powers that Be who could make change.
The Powers that Be will only make changes if they hear from more ordinary parents, more people like us, rather than just the tiny feminist mob. We need to convince them that we are the majority.
It was a planned approach to ensure females achieved higher grades.
Look at the make up and proportions of female to male teachers. A high majority in primary education are female teachers. A lesser minority proportion of male teachers also teach in high schools.
Boys need effective, responsible male adult role models, especially given the absence of so many fathers in sole parent households.
Boys’ self esteem is affected. Their worth is being downplayed.
The imbalance in the makeup of teachers in classrooms has, for the last couple of decades, combined with the drive to direct as many young people to university.
That drive for University schooling overrides the needs, interests and aspirations of young people themselves.
University is not suited or needed by all young people.
Trades suffer from insufficient trained workers to fill jobs, with employers having to resort to bringing in trained employees from overseas.
The indoctrination of children has become such that it’s not just socialism that is given priority, over freedom, liberty and democracy, but manual work is downplayed and seen as not good enough in favour of even more theory than is pushed onto children in Australia’s State monopoly controlled schooling.
Only real unrestricted freedom of choice in education will ensure the best interests of children are met, not the ideological and political goals for children imposed by the States, through Education Departments dominated by the lasting effects of chiefly left leaning educrats including on a now single, nationalised curriculum, irrespective of which governments are elected to govern.
It's all part of the socialist, communist totalitarian one world government agenda conspicuously being pushed by Klaus Schwab and other pusbags like Morrison and his ilk. Destroying men's inner strength and future career prospects is making it easier for them to impose this evil on us.
I'm employed by an organization currently running a "#breakthebias" campaign, ostensibly to stop the terrible discrimination imposed by men against females wanting employment in the agricultural sphere. I feel so guilty that my white, male privilege keeps job positions from being filled for many months while we wait for a poor biased-against female to apply for a job involving many lonely hours on the road, eating roadhouse food and encouraging the heart disease along. Meanwhile the scores of male applications are ignored. Clearly the bias against women is everywhere. These in-house campaigns seem ubiquitous and so far I've managed to hide from them because it is not a good look to not enthusiastically participate.
This rubbish is everywhere now. But so hard for people working within the system to call it out. When are we ever going to see a major media program investigate this whole issue?
I come originally from a rural background (in another country) and my understanding the rural sector is that doesn't give a flying f**k about the gender of the applicant /worker ~ they just want the job done at affordable (above) award rates.
I know many in this sector who are crying out for workers and who prefer would prefer immigrants /refugees (over displaced Australians /transients /BPs) because, those of us who have come to Australia with no fall-back option, have no choice but to work our proverbials' off... we don't have a "fall-back option", so we work hard and do the (shite) jobs "Ozzies" are too proud to do and in conditions no Ozzie would accept when "Working for the Dole"
FFS ~ $5.99 for a tiny half cabbage /quarter cauli? WTF!
The rush is on in Agribusiness to reduce harvesting costs because WW, Coles, Aldi, Foodland, Westfarmers, Costco, Foodworks, et al are all squeezing the 'farm gate' price...
At the end of WW2, the farmer was getting 46% of the sale price of the goods they produced. 2022 the farmer at the gate is get <5% of the sale price of the products they produce... if WW, Coles, Aldi, Foodland, Westfarmers, Costco, Foodworks, et al reduce the price of a product, they aren't taking a hit to their bottom line ~ it is the farmers.
Think about it.... this is how you destabilise production and distribution networks to maximise profits in times of environmental stability.... is this why many of the major distribution centres in Qld are located on flood plains below the 1:20 event so that prices can be inflated....
Australia is more at risk to supply chain disruption than any other continent on Earth (not sure if I'd exclude Antarctica).
AU has 0.33% of the worlds population, we are responsible (excluding CO² exports) 1.3-2.3% of the world's GHG emissions, we use about 2.5% of the worlds energy and Qld has the highest Carbon Footprint per capita in the Western World... the other states aen't that far behind.
This is a terrific and welcome article about a topic which I think has become a national disgrace. Your reference to the 1970s are consistent with my memories of this period. As you may be aware, my mother worked in the PM department and was involved in some of these educational reforms that you refer to. Although I did not participate in any of this, I recall being quizzed about these changes to gauge my reaction. What did I know? I was just a disinterested teenager. There was no discrimination that I could see. The girls seemed to sit up at the front of class and get all of the attention. While this has certainly worked well for girls, I am concerned about the appalling impact this has had on boys. I have no doubt that the blue line on your graph was above the pink during the 1970s. That's why all the talk was how to change the outcomes - there was never any discussion about fairness that I can recall. I tried to find a copy of the SMH HSC lift-out published on 26 January 1997. I was so struck when I saw it I've never forgotten it. The lift-out cover has a stylised picture where every female figure is depicted in a positive light as either a successful HSC recipient, a proud teacher or a doting parent and all the male figures are depicted as outsiders - the postman on a motorbike delivering the results etc. Your points about hiding the figures is also right on the money. Everybody knows, for example, that the now closed Don Dale juvenile detention centre was occupied by 95% aboriginal children at the time of the infamous 4 Corners episode. Perhaps unsurprisingly, there was an even higher percentage of boys at the facility (97%). And look what's happened to the Liberal Party in the years since the John Howard attempt. There's Michaelia Cash's who once said in support of yet another $15 million splurge on promoting women in STEM: "We need a concerted national effort to overcome the cultural and organisational factors that discourage girls and women from studying STEM and which subsequently limits their career opportunities". There's never been any discouragement that I can see. I was staggered to see a paper recently that stated there are actually 337 current schemes that are designed to promote women in STEM. None of them ever seem to finish and more of them accumulate. This is after decades of systematically tilting the balance in favour of girls. After seeing your graphs it makes me wonder - why do we need a Minister for Women? And why do we also need an Assistant Minister for Women?
Joe, nice to hear from you. Of course I knew who your mother was. I am fascinated that she quizzed her son about these so called reforms. Of course men and boys have never been properly surveyed about the impact on their lives of all this unfair promotion of girls. Have a look at Janice Fiamengo's book, Sons of Feminism, which is a collection of essays from men all over the world talking about growing up in this feminized world. It is frightening.
Thanks Bettina, I distinctly recall being occasionally quizzed about what I thought about particular changes at the time such as continuous assessment but never in any formal sense. I knew at the time that all these changes were being promoted to boost girl scores. I never expressed any strong views at the time as I was only a naive teenager who was interested in other things. Of course, in those days education was entirely State based. Many of the strategy discussions for this took place in our living room although I never knew what was being discussed of course. In retrospect, the idea seems to have been make these changes initially in the ACT system then roll them into the State system using federal funding as the mechanism to force these changes. Unfortunately, it seems this has created a monster as the Commonwealth government has intervened in all sorts of things and not always for the better.
Not sure why you included this link in the current discussion, Jo. But it is interesting it finally acknowledged that separation is a trigger point for these murders. We have long known that men are very vulnerable in these circumstances, liable to harm themselves or others. Research has shown this for many years yet our authorities have cut back on support for organisations such as Dads in Distress, which used to provide support for separated men. Now we leave these men on their own, without support, and allow them to be persecuted by the ex spouse, doing anything she can to destroy him. You will notice there is no mention at all of measures to try to stop men from doing such harm. Contrast this to the incredible resources poured into women with post partum depression to stop them harming their babies.
Bettina, I admire how you maintain the rage, but despair of how sick our society is on so many fronts. As further evidence of females surging ahead of males educationally, look at the gender (im)balance of veterinary graduates. Australia now has 7 vet schools, of which 4 are relative newbies (Murdoch, CSU, Adelaide, JCU), and not really informative. Look at Melbourne, Sydney and UQ to track the explosion in female vet numbers. Some of my best friends are female veterinarians, and I have written glowing reviews for several of them of their achievements and dedication (I've done the same for male colleagues asking for my input), contributing to their career advancement and promotion, mostly in academia, some to professorial level. But the imbalance disadvantages livestock producers in remote rural locations, who have less and less access to veterinary services to ensure the continued health and wellbeing of their animals
Yes, that is a good example, Johann, of the untold negative consequences of the current crisis in education. I also think of the single women determined to marry their equals who will have no hope of finding their match. There's a certain pleasure knowing that this push by women will ultimately do a lot of damage to their own kind.
With the way Universities are going, I would be very reluctant to encourage a male to study there…..we need balance and it’s not happening. Maybe we should go back to Girls schools for girls and Boys school for boys.
And so many ads and promotions on TV highlighting high-achieving girls over and over again- scoring goals, getting praise, being happy and admired- and never a boy in sight when they've been in the same classrooms, taken part in the same activities. Absolute disgrace! Thanks, Tina, for pointing it out, again. So disappointing for anyone interested in basic fairness.
Someone just sent me an ad for the University of WA... featuring a cast that was almost entirely female, apart from a few Asian males for diversity points. It was frightening.
The rebuttal to the trope about 2000 years of blah, blah, blah, is...It was 2000 years ago that Paul the Christian Apostle lit the fuse for equality of races, sexes and 'classes', destroying the ground for all such distinctions. Before that, women were even worse off...and for that whole time most men have been slaves, worked in mines, rowed galleys, then starved to death seeking to feed their families, had short, brutish, impoverished and disease-ridden lives. In the old days almost no one was ' privileged'; all lived in a suburb of Hell. The very few who had nice clothes and a carefree life lived in half-rate novels (and now TV shows).
I'd have been off to the cops for serious assault by the girl, and the headmaster for punishing self-defense...after I'd had a practical discussion with him about cricket bats.
All very true. But no one is listening, especially not in education. Boys' schools, also, are not immune to the girls'-only celebration. Given the current obsession with 'elite boys' schools are cesspools of toxicity' trope that features so frequently -- thanks to our former Australian of the Year and her ilk -- in mainstream media, the road ahead is dire and despairing. School leaders seem to be trapped in the false narrative of Girls Need More, even when data shows evidence of 'boy trouble' in the academic classroom. I applaud Arndt's commitment to males, yet grow frustrated by the inaction from the Powers that Be who could make change.
The Powers that Be will only make changes if they hear from more ordinary parents, more people like us, rather than just the tiny feminist mob. We need to convince them that we are the majority.
It was a planned approach to ensure females achieved higher grades.
Look at the make up and proportions of female to male teachers. A high majority in primary education are female teachers. A lesser minority proportion of male teachers also teach in high schools.
Boys need effective, responsible male adult role models, especially given the absence of so many fathers in sole parent households.
Boys’ self esteem is affected. Their worth is being downplayed.
The imbalance in the makeup of teachers in classrooms has, for the last couple of decades, combined with the drive to direct as many young people to university.
That drive for University schooling overrides the needs, interests and aspirations of young people themselves.
University is not suited or needed by all young people.
Trades suffer from insufficient trained workers to fill jobs, with employers having to resort to bringing in trained employees from overseas.
The indoctrination of children has become such that it’s not just socialism that is given priority, over freedom, liberty and democracy, but manual work is downplayed and seen as not good enough in favour of even more theory than is pushed onto children in Australia’s State monopoly controlled schooling.
Only real unrestricted freedom of choice in education will ensure the best interests of children are met, not the ideological and political goals for children imposed by the States, through Education Departments dominated by the lasting effects of chiefly left leaning educrats including on a now single, nationalised curriculum, irrespective of which governments are elected to govern.
It's all part of the socialist, communist totalitarian one world government agenda conspicuously being pushed by Klaus Schwab and other pusbags like Morrison and his ilk. Destroying men's inner strength and future career prospects is making it easier for them to impose this evil on us.
Great read
I'm employed by an organization currently running a "#breakthebias" campaign, ostensibly to stop the terrible discrimination imposed by men against females wanting employment in the agricultural sphere. I feel so guilty that my white, male privilege keeps job positions from being filled for many months while we wait for a poor biased-against female to apply for a job involving many lonely hours on the road, eating roadhouse food and encouraging the heart disease along. Meanwhile the scores of male applications are ignored. Clearly the bias against women is everywhere. These in-house campaigns seem ubiquitous and so far I've managed to hide from them because it is not a good look to not enthusiastically participate.
This rubbish is everywhere now. But so hard for people working within the system to call it out. When are we ever going to see a major media program investigate this whole issue?
I come originally from a rural background (in another country) and my understanding the rural sector is that doesn't give a flying f**k about the gender of the applicant /worker ~ they just want the job done at affordable (above) award rates.
I know many in this sector who are crying out for workers and who prefer would prefer immigrants /refugees (over displaced Australians /transients /BPs) because, those of us who have come to Australia with no fall-back option, have no choice but to work our proverbials' off... we don't have a "fall-back option", so we work hard and do the (shite) jobs "Ozzies" are too proud to do and in conditions no Ozzie would accept when "Working for the Dole"
FFS ~ $5.99 for a tiny half cabbage /quarter cauli? WTF!
The rush is on in Agribusiness to reduce harvesting costs because WW, Coles, Aldi, Foodland, Westfarmers, Costco, Foodworks, et al are all squeezing the 'farm gate' price...
At the end of WW2, the farmer was getting 46% of the sale price of the goods they produced. 2022 the farmer at the gate is get <5% of the sale price of the products they produce... if WW, Coles, Aldi, Foodland, Westfarmers, Costco, Foodworks, et al reduce the price of a product, they aren't taking a hit to their bottom line ~ it is the farmers.
Think about it.... this is how you destabilise production and distribution networks to maximise profits in times of environmental stability.... is this why many of the major distribution centres in Qld are located on flood plains below the 1:20 event so that prices can be inflated....
Australia is more at risk to supply chain disruption than any other continent on Earth (not sure if I'd exclude Antarctica).
AU has 0.33% of the worlds population, we are responsible (excluding CO² exports) 1.3-2.3% of the world's GHG emissions, we use about 2.5% of the worlds energy and Qld has the highest Carbon Footprint per capita in the Western World... the other states aen't that far behind.
This is a terrific and welcome article about a topic which I think has become a national disgrace. Your reference to the 1970s are consistent with my memories of this period. As you may be aware, my mother worked in the PM department and was involved in some of these educational reforms that you refer to. Although I did not participate in any of this, I recall being quizzed about these changes to gauge my reaction. What did I know? I was just a disinterested teenager. There was no discrimination that I could see. The girls seemed to sit up at the front of class and get all of the attention. While this has certainly worked well for girls, I am concerned about the appalling impact this has had on boys. I have no doubt that the blue line on your graph was above the pink during the 1970s. That's why all the talk was how to change the outcomes - there was never any discussion about fairness that I can recall. I tried to find a copy of the SMH HSC lift-out published on 26 January 1997. I was so struck when I saw it I've never forgotten it. The lift-out cover has a stylised picture where every female figure is depicted in a positive light as either a successful HSC recipient, a proud teacher or a doting parent and all the male figures are depicted as outsiders - the postman on a motorbike delivering the results etc. Your points about hiding the figures is also right on the money. Everybody knows, for example, that the now closed Don Dale juvenile detention centre was occupied by 95% aboriginal children at the time of the infamous 4 Corners episode. Perhaps unsurprisingly, there was an even higher percentage of boys at the facility (97%). And look what's happened to the Liberal Party in the years since the John Howard attempt. There's Michaelia Cash's who once said in support of yet another $15 million splurge on promoting women in STEM: "We need a concerted national effort to overcome the cultural and organisational factors that discourage girls and women from studying STEM and which subsequently limits their career opportunities". There's never been any discouragement that I can see. I was staggered to see a paper recently that stated there are actually 337 current schemes that are designed to promote women in STEM. None of them ever seem to finish and more of them accumulate. This is after decades of systematically tilting the balance in favour of girls. After seeing your graphs it makes me wonder - why do we need a Minister for Women? And why do we also need an Assistant Minister for Women?
Joe, nice to hear from you. Of course I knew who your mother was. I am fascinated that she quizzed her son about these so called reforms. Of course men and boys have never been properly surveyed about the impact on their lives of all this unfair promotion of girls. Have a look at Janice Fiamengo's book, Sons of Feminism, which is a collection of essays from men all over the world talking about growing up in this feminized world. It is frightening.
Thanks Bettina, I distinctly recall being occasionally quizzed about what I thought about particular changes at the time such as continuous assessment but never in any formal sense. I knew at the time that all these changes were being promoted to boost girl scores. I never expressed any strong views at the time as I was only a naive teenager who was interested in other things. Of course, in those days education was entirely State based. Many of the strategy discussions for this took place in our living room although I never knew what was being discussed of course. In retrospect, the idea seems to have been make these changes initially in the ACT system then roll them into the State system using federal funding as the mechanism to force these changes. Unfortunately, it seems this has created a monster as the Commonwealth government has intervened in all sorts of things and not always for the better.
https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/7629115/three-patterns-which-can-lead-to-domestic-violence-murder/?cs=14329
Not sure why you included this link in the current discussion, Jo. But it is interesting it finally acknowledged that separation is a trigger point for these murders. We have long known that men are very vulnerable in these circumstances, liable to harm themselves or others. Research has shown this for many years yet our authorities have cut back on support for organisations such as Dads in Distress, which used to provide support for separated men. Now we leave these men on their own, without support, and allow them to be persecuted by the ex spouse, doing anything she can to destroy him. You will notice there is no mention at all of measures to try to stop men from doing such harm. Contrast this to the incredible resources poured into women with post partum depression to stop them harming their babies.
Bettina, I admire how you maintain the rage, but despair of how sick our society is on so many fronts. As further evidence of females surging ahead of males educationally, look at the gender (im)balance of veterinary graduates. Australia now has 7 vet schools, of which 4 are relative newbies (Murdoch, CSU, Adelaide, JCU), and not really informative. Look at Melbourne, Sydney and UQ to track the explosion in female vet numbers. Some of my best friends are female veterinarians, and I have written glowing reviews for several of them of their achievements and dedication (I've done the same for male colleagues asking for my input), contributing to their career advancement and promotion, mostly in academia, some to professorial level. But the imbalance disadvantages livestock producers in remote rural locations, who have less and less access to veterinary services to ensure the continued health and wellbeing of their animals
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/feb/08/sydney-university-under-fire-for-vet-scholarship-giving-preference-to-males
Yes, that is a good example, Johann, of the untold negative consequences of the current crisis in education. I also think of the single women determined to marry their equals who will have no hope of finding their match. There's a certain pleasure knowing that this push by women will ultimately do a lot of damage to their own kind.
With the way Universities are going, I would be very reluctant to encourage a male to study there…..we need balance and it’s not happening. Maybe we should go back to Girls schools for girls and Boys school for boys.
Perhaps this should apply to universities as well? Far safer for males. Imagine the outcry if anyone suggested it.
And so many ads and promotions on TV highlighting high-achieving girls over and over again- scoring goals, getting praise, being happy and admired- and never a boy in sight when they've been in the same classrooms, taken part in the same activities. Absolute disgrace! Thanks, Tina, for pointing it out, again. So disappointing for anyone interested in basic fairness.
Someone just sent me an ad for the University of WA... featuring a cast that was almost entirely female, apart from a few Asian males for diversity points. It was frightening.
The rebuttal to the trope about 2000 years of blah, blah, blah, is...It was 2000 years ago that Paul the Christian Apostle lit the fuse for equality of races, sexes and 'classes', destroying the ground for all such distinctions. Before that, women were even worse off...and for that whole time most men have been slaves, worked in mines, rowed galleys, then starved to death seeking to feed their families, had short, brutish, impoverished and disease-ridden lives. In the old days almost no one was ' privileged'; all lived in a suburb of Hell. The very few who had nice clothes and a carefree life lived in half-rate novels (and now TV shows).
Yes, but they are doing a good job making sure people like me reach only a small audience. Still, I am working on that problem!
"The eastern powers are rising..." and the women folk will do what they have always done. Change sides.
I'd have been off to the cops for serious assault by the girl, and the headmaster for punishing self-defense...after I'd had a practical discussion with him about cricket bats.
Would you like to borrow one of my javelins?
Yes, being older does give perspective on current craziness.