An epidemic lurks at the heart of our educational system, hidden from view, it is quietly felt within every classroom, school, and home in the country; a generation of missing boys quietly falling behind, and dropping out of school. And not just a few boys. Tens of thousands every year in the UK, more than half a million in the last decade, have disappeared, left behind by an educational system that fails far, far, too many. It’s a unique gap too – Unlike other groups that lag behind, such as those from public schools, inner cities, those with special learning needs, from the north, or from different ethnic backgrounds, the “boy girl gap” is uniquely puzzling. We, for example, may not like the fact that private schools do better than public schools, but we can at least understand why that gap exists… But boys and girls come from the same families, from the same socioeconomic and racial backgrounds, live in the same parts of the country, go to the same schools, are taught the same curriculum, in the same class, and by the same teachers… And boys do worse. Much worse. Worse at every stage, every year, and in every country in the western world. So why, with everything else the same, are boys falling further, and further behind? Why is a gap that is needlessly disadvantaging half of the population, so rarely discussed? Why are we so willing to look the other way, as boys fail, fall behind, and drop out of an education that is a basic human right for all of us? Well… we don’t know. We don’t really know why boys do worse, and sadly, we don’t care enough as a society to ask why. And so our boys are swept under the rug, or worse, dubbed as ‘privileged’ by naive social justice nitwits; until of course, the disadvantage and disenfranchisement of such boys impacts women and girls, then a Netflix series is made, and suddenly… well… you know what happens next… So where are our missing boys? ~ Sources Half a million men have missed out on higher education CSJ Lost Boys 2025  Images Jordan Gonzarlez, Brooke Cagle, Giulia Squillace, Yunus Tug, Getty

2025-03-28