跟TED演讲学英文：How to solve the education crisis for boys and men by Richard Reeves

How to solve the education crisis for boys and men

Link: https://www.ted.com/talks/richard_reeves_how_to_solve_the_education_crisis_for_boys_and_men

Speaker: Richard Reeves

Date: April 2023

Introduction

While studying inequality and social mobility, Richard Reeves made a surprising discovery: in some countries, like the US and UK, boys are drastically lagging behind girls across many academic measures. He explains why these struggles in school are indicative of the larger crises facing boys and men – and outlines how society could thoughtfully tackle these challenges to work towards a more inclusive, equitable future. (Followed by a Q&A with head of TED Chris Anderson)

Vocabulary

social mobility: 社会流动性

indicative of：指示，表明

I focused on the divides of class and race. 我关注的是阶级和种族的差异。

“Divides” 意指分裂、分隔或分歧。在这种情况下，它指的是社会中存在的不平等、分歧或差距，特别是指阶级和种族之间的差异或不平等。

it’s clear that on some measures at least now men are lagging quite a way behind 很明显，至少在某些指标上，男性已经远远落后了

trail

that reflects the fact that boys are trailing girls throughout the education system. 这反映了在整个教育系统中男生落后于女生的事实。

在这里，“trail” 意味着在某一方面落后或处于劣势。

elite: 美 [eɪˈliːt] 精英； 注意发音

affluent：富裕的

stark：美 [stɑːrk] 明显的

the gender gaps are just much less stark in affluent communities. 在富裕的社区，性别差距并不明显。

feminist：美 [ˈfemənɪst] 女权主义者；女权运动者

prefrontal：美 [priˈfrʌntəl] 前额的；前额骨的

cortex：美 [ˈkɔːrteks] 脑皮层；皮质；皮层

the prefrontal cortex：前额皮质

etcetera：美 [etˈsetərə] 等等

sensation：美 [senˈseɪʃn] 感觉；知觉；

Getting your homework done requires your impulse control to match what psychologists refer to as sensation seeking. 完成你的作业需要你的冲动控制来匹配心理学家所说的感觉寻求。

binder：活页夹

nicely labeled binders：标签精美的活页夹

dispel the idea：打消念头

peg：螺钉；栓

our boys feel like square pegs being forced into round holes. 我们的男孩感觉就像被塞进圆孔的方钉。

Their problems are thus medicalized and often medicated. 因此，他们的问题被医学化了，而且经常被药物治疗。

draw good lessons：吸取好的教训

And here I think we can draw some really good lessons from the successful movement to get more women and girls interested in STEM subjects.

We cannot leave a vacuum by neglecting this issue. 我们不能因为忽视这个问题而留下真空。

Title IX

1972年，美国通过了一项具有里程碑意义的立法，即“第九条标题”（Title IX）。这项法律旨在禁止对性别进行歧视，特别是在教育领域。Title IX要求任何接受联邦资助的教育项目或活动不得因性别而歧视任何人。这意味着学校、大学和其他教育机构必须提供平等的机会和资源给男性和女性学生，包括在体育、课程选择、招生和奖学金等方面。Title IX的通过标志着美国历史上对性别平等和性别歧视问题的重大进步，为确保公平和平等的教育机会起到了重要作用。

Transcript

In 1972,

the US passed a landmark
piece of legislation.

The new law was called Title IX,

and it expanded economic
and educational opportunities for women,

especially in higher education.

Back then, there was
a 16-percentage-point gap

in the awarding of college degrees

in favor of men.

Within a decade,

women had caught up
and then just blew right past the men.

Today, there’s an 18-percentage-point gap
in the awarding of college degrees.

So there’s a bigger gender gap today,

in US higher education,

than there was 50 years ago
when Title IX was passed.

It’s just the other way around.

I study inequality for a living,

and for most of my career,

I focused on the divides
of class and race.

But in recent years,

I’ve just been noticing
more and more gender gaps

and not in the direction
that I was expecting.

Probably like most of you,

I’m used to thinking
about gender equality

and the goal of gender
equality as synonymous

with the advancement of women and girls.

But it’s now clear
that there are many boys and men

who’ve fallen behind

and that we have to be able to think
about gender inequality

in both directions.

One thing that makes that hard
is that the changes have been so quick,

so rapid,

that it’s hard to update our beliefs
to match the new facts.

It’s a bit like the needles
on a compass swinging round.

Suddenly north is south
and south is north.

It’s really quite disorienting.

But it’s clear that on some
measures at least

now men are lagging quite a way behind,

not least on college campuses.

And that reflects the fact
that boys are trailing girls

throughout the education system.

Two thirds of the top academic
performers in high school,

measured by GPA, are girls.

And two thirds of those
at the bottom are boys.

It’s not just in the US.

If we look at the 20 most economically
advanced countries in the world,

there’s on average
a 13-percentage-point gap

in the share of young men and young women
with a college degree,

with young women much more likely
to have a college degree.

And in some nations,
the gap is much bigger.

In Norway, for example,

there’s almost a 20-point gap.

And just like in the US,

these differences at the college level

reflect what’s happening
earlier in the school system.

It used to be that maybe boys
were ahead in math and science,

girls were ahead in reading and language
in roughly equal measure.

That’s not true today.

Internationally, at the age of 15,

there’s a five-point gap
in favor of boys and math.

There’s essentially no gap in science,

a slight gap in favor of girls
actually in science.

But boys are 30 points
behind girls at the age of 15

in reading and language skills.

But not all boys and men
are struggling in the same way.

The intersection of gender with class
and race really matters here.

So boys from poorer households

and middle-class households,

much less likely to attend college
than girls from the same background.

But there’s a much smaller gap
at the top of the economic ladder.

I think one of the reasons

that elites can sometimes struggle
to grasp what’s going on with boys and men

is that the gender gaps
are just much less stark

in affluent communities.

And the gender gaps are even
more stark for Black Americans.

For every Black man
getting a college degree,

there are two Black women.

So anybody who really cares
about boys and men

has to care about racial injustice
and economic inequality.

And anybody who really cares
about racial injustice

and economic inequality

has to care about boys and men.

Now, the fact that the education system
doesn’t seem to be working very well

for lots of boys and men

is obviously not intentional.

There wasn’t a feminist
conspiracy 100 years ago

to say, “Well, it might take a century,
but eventually we’ll overtake them.”

(Laughter)

Especially as it was men
who mostly designed the school system.

What’s happened is that
as the artificial and sexist barriers

that were placed in front
of women and girls

have been successively removed,

so their natural advantages
in the classroom have been revealed.

Compared to girls,

boys face two big structural
disadvantages in education.

First, their brains simply develop later.

The skills of planning, organization
and impulse control

are associated with the prefrontal cortex,

which develops in adolescence especially.

But about a year later, on average,
for boys than for girls.

So there’s a significant difference there
in the timing of brain development.

Social scientists refer to those skills,
planning, organization, etcetera,

as non-cognitive skills.

I like to think of them
as “chemistry homework” skills.

You know, doing your chemistry homework
requires a lot of steps.

You have to be paying attention in class
when the assignment is given.

You have to make a note of it.

You have to remember hours later
that you’re supposed to do it.

You have to actually sit down and do it,

instead of something
more enticing instead.

And remember, it’s chemistry homework,
so that’s everything.

(Laughter)

Sorry, I know there are some
chemists here, I’m sorry.

And then turn it in.

That’s a lot of steps, right?

That’s a lot.

Getting your homework done
requires your impulse control

to match what psychologists refer to
as sensation seeking.

Basically, that urge to go and do
something more fun, more exciting.

And even in the most difficult
years of adolescence,

which are also the crucial years
for educational success,

girls have a reasonable balance between
impulse control and sensation seeking.

But it’s a very different story
for adolescent boys.

They have higher levels
of sensation seeking.

And with that less developed
prefrontal cortex,

they have significantly lower levels
of impulse control.

Again, on average.

Now if you still don’t believe me,

go into any ninth or 10th grade classroom

and ask all the students
to open up their backpacks.

(Laughter)

Most, many, at least of the girls,
will have pretty carefully organized,

nicely labeled binders.

And for many, if not most of the boys,

it will resemble a small,
controlled explosion.

(Laughter)

It’s not that girls are smarter than boys.

There’s no gender gap
in intelligence levels

in either direction.

It is just that girls develop more
of these non-cognitive skills,

these “chemistry homework” skills,

somewhat earlier than boys do.

That’s just a fact.

But it is a fact that we ignore
in education policy.

The second big structural problem
that boys face in the classroom

is the lack of male teachers.

After falling for decades,

the share of K-12 teachers who are male
in the US is now just 23 percent.

And falling.

And the lack of male teachers matters
for at least three reasons.

First, for many children, [they]
can be an important male role model,

especially if they don’t have one at home.

And second, male teachers
appear to be more sensitive

to the specific challenges
of boys in the classroom.

I can vividly remember my own experience.

I can actually still feel what it was like
to sit for what felt like hours on end

on an incredibly hard plastic chair,

and that it was actually a male
primary school teacher, Mr. Cole,

who gave us more opportunities
to move around,

made the lessons a little
bit more interactive.

And the third reason
male teachers may matter

is there’s some evidence that,

especially in subjects like English,

which is where the boys
have fallen so far behind,

having a male teacher
seems to dispel the idea

that reading and writing
just aren’t for me or for people like me.

In a similar way to how
having a female teacher

has historically helped girls
in STEM subjects.

Right now, in too many of our schools,

our boys feel like square pegs
being forced into round holes.

And too often our response
is to try and fix the boys

rather than fix the schools.

The problems of boys are turned
into problems with boys.

If they struggle to sit still
or pay attention

or apply themselves to a task,

they may be diagnosed
with some kind of disability.

Their problems are thus medicalized
and often medicated.

In the US today, 23 percent
of school-age boys

have been diagnosed with some form
of developmental disability.

Twice the rate for girls.

ADHD, as you might expect,
is the most common.

But really,

when one in four of our boys
has a developmental disability,

it seems clear to me
that it is the system which is disabling

rather than the boys who are disabled.

(Applause)

Now, there’s a lot we can do

to make the education system
work better for boys.

Let’s start with those two big problems,

of later brain development
and lack of male teachers.

So first, we should start
boys in school a year later.

And the idea there
is to level the playing field,

given those differences
in the timing of brain development.

And actually that’s already
quite common practice

at private schools and in lots
of affluent communities,

but it’s actually not the boys
from rich families

who will benefit the most
from that extra year.

It’s the boys from lower-income,

poorer neighborhoods and families

who would most benefit from the gift
of extra time for development.

And that’s why I think this should be
a question of public policy.

Second, we need to recruit hundreds
of thousands more male teachers,

especially in subjects like English,

where the boys are struggling so much

and which is the subject
men are least likely to be teaching.

And here I think we can draw
some really good lessons

from the successful movement

to get more women and girls
interested in STEM subjects.

So that means setting clear targets,
launching public campaigns

and offering financial scholarships

to men who want to enter
teaching as a profession.

Of course, those are changes
that will take time.

Those are long-term changes.

And there are millions of boys
and men who are struggling right now.

And so if you’re a parent or a teacher
working with a boy or a young man

who’s in difficulty right now,

my message to you is, first,

be careful not to even inadvertently
judge him against a female standard

or blame him if he’s
struggling in a system

that just might not be working
very well for him.

Recognize and respect the ways
in which he’s different.

Don’t say,

“Why can’t you be more like your sister?”

Try not to even think that.

It’s very important
that we don’t treat our boys

as if they were malfunctioning girls.

And the second message to those people,
cousins, parents, neighbors, friends,

uncles, coaches, anybody
working with a boy or a young man

who is struggling right now,
is simply, thank you.

Thank you.

They do need you.

Of course,

doing more for boys and men

doesn’t mean doing any less
for women and girls.

That’s like saying to the parent
of a son and daughter:

“You’re only allowed to care
about one of them.”

And it’s the kind of zero-sum thinking

that is doing so much damage
to our politics and to our culture.

We can think two thoughts at once.

We can do two things at once.

(Applause)

Two thoughts at once, two things at once.

That’s why Norway,

a country that’s made huge investments,

quite rightly for women and girls,

but where boys and men have now fallen
behind on many measures,

has launched a commission
for boys and men.

I’ve talked about education today,

but there are many other areas
where many boys and men are struggling,

including in mental health,
including suicide risk.

Loneliness and belonging,

family life, employment.

And I don’t think we can afford
to get this wrong.

If there are real problems in a society,

and responsible people
don’t acknowledge and address them,

irresponsible people will exploit them.

And that is already
happening on this issue,

both online and at the ballot box.

We cannot leave a vacuum
by neglecting this issue.

The future cannot be female.

Nor, of course, can the future be male.

The future has to be for every single
one of us, every boy and girl,

we have to rise together.

Thank you.

(Applause)

(Applause ends)

Q&A with Chris Anderson

Chris Anderson: Thank you, Richard.

I’ve got a question for you.

Come this way.

So you gave great advice there
for the system as a whole,

for teachers, for parents.

But suppose you’re a 14-year-old boy
listening to this talk.

What would you say to him?

Richard Reeves: Huh.

Well, the first thing I’d say
is that if you are struggling at school

or in some aspects of your life,

that’s almost certainly
not just your fault.

It may be that the system
is just not working for you.

The second thing I would say is …

We see you.

We’ve got you.

We understand, we’ve got your back.

And the third thing I would say is,
don’t follow the people

who say that the reason you’re struggling
is because women are flourishing.

Or because of feminism.

Or because of changes in society.

That we somehow have to,

in order to lift boys up,

we have to somehow push women
and girls back down again.

Don’t fall for that.

Understand that we get
that you’re struggling,

but don’t turn this into zero-sum.

Don’t turn to some of the darker corners
of the internet where unfortunately,

that is the message
many of our boys are getting.

But the first part
that’s really important,

that whole conversation
that we had about belonging,

the wonderful difference in belonging,

if our boys don’t feel that they belong,

that we’ve got them, that we see them,

they’re going to be much more
vulnerable to those voices.

So don’t listen to those voices,
but we need them to listen to us instead.

CA: Thank you so much.

(Applause)

Summary

Richard Reeves’ speech addresses the shifting landscape of gender inequality in education, highlighting how traditional gender roles have been reversed over time. He emphasizes the need to recognize and address the challenges faced by boys and men in education, particularly in terms of academic performance and access to male role models. Reeves argues for policy changes such as starting boys in school later and recruiting more male teachers, especially in subjects where boys struggle the most, like English. He stresses the importance of acknowledging and respecting differences between genders and calls for a balanced approach that supports both boys and girls.

In the first part of his speech, Reeves outlines the historical context of gender inequality in education, noting the significant advancements made by women since the passage of Title IX in 1972. He highlights the surprising trend of men falling behind in higher education attainment, challenging the conventional notion of gender equality solely benefiting women. Reeves underscores the importance of recognizing and addressing gender disparities in both directions, especially concerning boys’ struggles in the education system.

Next, Reeves delves into the structural disadvantages faced by boys in education, focusing on differences in brain development and the lack of male teachers. He explains how boys’ later development of non-cognitive skills impacts their academic performance, advocating for policies that accommodate these differences, such as starting boys in school later. Additionally, Reeves emphasizes the importance of male teachers as role models and advocates for efforts to recruit more male educators, particularly in subjects where boys lag behind.

In the final part of his speech, Reeves calls for a balanced approach to addressing gender inequality in education, one that supports the needs of both boys and girls. He acknowledges the interconnectedness of gender with race and socioeconomic status, emphasizing the importance of considering these intersections in policy interventions. Reeves concludes by urging action to address the challenges faced by boys and men in education, emphasizing the need for a collaborative effort to ensure a future where everyone can thrive.

后记

2024年5月16日于上海。