Exercise. Well hardly anyone walks anymore. Kids don't even walk to school. Some people drive to the gym and then pay to use the gym and get worn out.

And food; surely we have enough fresh fruit and fairly cheap bread and milk? And smoking- well they choose to do it and fill their lungs with smoke; it's not compulsory. A healthy mind in a healthy body is the ideal: could we all try a bit harder?

And yes, when younger I served in shops, cleaned toilets, worked milling steel in factories and even worked for guys who installed cigarette machines in people's houses. A fairly broad experience of the world before I did a range of other things.

//A healthy mind in a healthy body is the ideal: could we all try a bit harder?//

http://i.pinimg.com/736x/c3/e5/7e/c3e57e878306afb103280d6238a028a9--i-number-slim.jpg

Every time I see people exercising- I'm happy. Healthy people work hard, live longer and pay taxes (unless they belong to those big corporations which happily avoid taxes by using tax havens the Liberals haven't heard about yet).
I thought we were talking about how to encourage boys to achieve :)

Dr Peter West asks (again), "What's going wrong with our boys?"

Mate take a look in the mirror. You and your academic cronies appear to know nothing about education and boys. This is not surprising when the academic and education systems are viewed from outside looking in. Cultural Marxist (leftist) ideologues the lot of you. And the leftist culture embraces feminism, which promotes misandry, and you ask the question "What's going wrong with our boys?"

In the introduction of the article you establish the meme "boys' underachievement", which puts the onus of blame onto the boys themselves. The boys didn't do their best. It's their fault. What about the education system's underachievement? And just to prove my point, you then go on to write "In the words of one boy: 'I will continue to do my best, no matter how pointless the task is'." Obviously, this boy is not underachieving. He's declared that he's doing his best. Do you ever read your own words Dr West?

Then you go on with a charming metaphor for boys, "like a chemical sludge". Just who's side are you on Dr West? It would seem that it's not on the side of boys.

And then this; "And English tries to develop students' ability to talk about life's problems, relationships, marriage, death and separation. And refine complex understandings, and introduce students to nuances and subtleties. And boys aren't getting most of that." Of course they bloody aren't! This is girly talk. I assume you do expect these boys to grow into men don't you?

Next this is a good one, why many boys don't do well; "everywhere boys are confronted by bad models of male behaviour". It's not the fault of the girls school education, oh no. It's the fault of those naughty football players! Who'd have thunk it? You've been hanging around in the feminist staff room with those misandrist teachers again, haven't you? Where else would you get rubbish like that?

(TBC)

This next one's a classic. "Who stands in the way?", you ask. Then you, in your own words provide the very answer from Ms Cook. "(A)ttempts to help boys have been subverted by powerful feminists entrenched in the education system". What part of those words can't you understand Dr West? Do you have problems with comprehension?

"Is this true in Australia, I wonder?", you quiz. The poor man must live in a different Australia to me. Of course this is true in Australia. It's been glaringly obvious for at least the last two decades.

Finally you put up a smoke screen of subterfuge about a couple of your own hobby-horses; "It's not fair to support selective schools"; "(M)oney not spent on schools. Underfunding. I ask, what have these issues got to do with boys getting shafted by an education system that is female focused and can't be bothered to engage with innocent 'over-privileged white boys' suffering from 'toxic masculinity'?

Now, Dr West calls himself an "expert on men's and boys' issues". If Dr West can't see the rape of boys' education clearly in the light of day as he has described above, after years of working at the coal face, then he must be an idiot. But I don't think he is an idiot. Nope. I think he's cunningly clever. I think he writes these essays on boys' education, as he normally has over the past few years at this time of the year, published on these pages, displaying a concocted outrage to appear concerned and to present the hopelessness of the “chemical sludge” and allay people's fears that this matter is in the hands of an 'expert', and gosh, there's just nothing we can do about it.

I think Dr West is playing us for idiots.

(TBC)

Hopefully Dr West might read these comments. I hope so. For his benefit I commend the following link:

The trouble with boys
http://pandora.nla.gov.au/pan/38333/20060423-0000/www.kittennews.com/depts/mag/johng_01_boys.html

(Note: after clicking the above link you may have to click another link at the Pandora site to access the document).

The article is over 15 years old and still applicable today, except the situation today is probably worse. It's a truthful and factual article. I know because I wrote it.

Dr West, how come after over 15 years of close up and personal expert affiliation with boys' education are you still asking the idiotic question, "What's going wrong with our boys?".

Frankly, I don't think Dr West is sailing under his true colours.

END