Minneapolis/St. Paul appears to be suffering from boy crisis panic. They're implementing a "Guys Read" program to get young boys in Minnesota to read more. I had thought the boy crisis had been thoroughly debunked by think tank people like Sara Mead in her definitive paper for the Education Sector, The Truth About Boys and Girls (PDF). She argues that boys aren't falling behind, they're just increasing at a couple of percentage points behind girls. She also says that the boys that are falling behind, primarily blacks and Latinos, are more struggling because of issues that have to do with race and class than about gender.

For the record, I think the general ideas in the Minneapolis program are good: mentorship and individual attention. The program also in a weird way breaks down certian gender stereotypes -- only women should teach young kids -- while reinforcing others -- boys learn better from men than women. What's more the teachers are reinforcing gender stereotypes when they offer up books about "gross things" because they think they will appeal to boys more.

Instead of looking at ways to make boys excited about reading, the program should look at individualized ways to get everyone excited about reading. The fact that we're excluding girls in a reading program harks back to some uncomfortably sexist times for me. 

The BBC reports that women are "choosier" when it comes to mates and look for things like financial security. But here's the thing. It was a survey of 46 people at speed-dating session. A survey of 46 people is hardly scientific, and I doubt that those at a specifically targeted dating event are representative of their genders as a whole. What's more, here's what the lead researcher said:

"While humans may pride themselves on being highly evolved, most still behave like the stereotypical Neanderthals when it comes to choosing a mate.

"Evolutionary theories in psychology suggest that men and women should trade off different traits in each other and when we look at the actual choices people make, this is what we find evidence for."

I hardly thing that this has anything to do with "evolution" or "psychology" but rather cultural norms and expectations. Somebody get these people an intro to research class.