Five For Friday, October 4th

Education News, Boy Problems, VP Debate, Autism, Personal

Education News

Bad news for Harvard, first because students are increasingly choosing big Southern colleges for the parties and less complicated politics. From the Wall Street Journal:

Students say they are searching for the fun and school spirit emanating from the South on their social-media feeds. Their parents cite lower tuition and less debt, and warmer weather. College counselors also say many teens are eager to trade the political polarization ripping apart campuses in New England and New York for the sense of community epitomized by the South’s football Saturdays. Promising job prospects after graduation can sweeten the pot.

In 2017, my son was only the second student from his high school to ever apply to the University of Tennessee. It was his first acceptance, which he didn’t care about because it was his safety school. He wouldn’t have been accepted this year, because it’s now super competitive.

And students that do go to Harvard are just as illiterate as other college students.

Great article in the Atlantic about the poor reading skills of colleges students. “Many students no longer arrive at college—even at highly selective, elite colleges—prepared to read books.”

I love Alexander Russo’s feature on Alec MacGillis and his great coverage of education policy. He was the first guy in the mainstream press, who covered the problems with school closures.

States are whitewashing the permanent education loss caused by Covid school closures. State education departments are just making the standardized tests easier. That sounds like a great idea.

Boys In Trouble

To follow up on last week’s links on the problem with boys, this graph on young men’s gaming time went viral on X. Gee, I wonder what happened in 2020 that could have had an impact on computer time.

The Wall Street Journal has a long piece on the boy problem: America’s Young Men Are Falling Even Further Behind.