Project "Boys" (1965)
"A disproportionate number of the boys were poorly motivated for school and for life in general . . . . Our girls, on the other hand, presented minimal problems by comparison." This isn't a quote pulled from the latest "boy crisis" magazine cover story; it begins the article "Project 'Boys'" (PDF), which appeared in the September 1965 Educational Leadership.
Not only were boys, by and large, behind girls academically in author Kathryn Y. Hazeur's school in Wilmington, Del., but their hygiene and social skills were wanting, too: "The appearance of boys as far as grooming was concerned was not good, and the boys cared little about the impressions they made on others." Girls were taking on all of the leadership positions, from Safety Patrol to Student Council.
The school faculty discussed the issue and decided that boys were underexposed to positive male role models. The vast majority of school faculty were women, and the community was "essentially matriarchal . . . . The male image in the