David Tyack and Elizabeth Hansot on “Differentiating the High School: the boy problem” defined what was the boy problem during the twentieth century. Boys at that time were doing much worse than girls and the rate of dropouts were higher for boys than for girls. Many administrators argued that boys had a greater desire to earn money for the home than girls, since it was the man stereotypically the ones that provided for the household. Also peer attitudes that stressed work over schooling contributed to make boys leave school. Teachers, along with administrators, thought the same, because boys apart from the reasons just explained were more often characterized as lazy, and/or embarrassed not to pass than being mentally incapable. Yet in a study made at a classroom students were given the opportunity to rank the reasons why they thought students in general might drop out of school. Students ranked “dislike of school first, service required by family second and ill health third” (Quotation) Most of the students agreed that dropping out of school was due to the fact that many students needed to contribute to the economy in their houses or just because they wanted to gain financial independency. Both groups, boys and girls, said that this tendency applied mostly to boys. Some comments from boys were:
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Some boys think, they cannot be convinced otherwise, that it is a perfect waste of time and energy to spend four years in a high school which could be, as they say, more profitable employed in getting a start in life.
Some boys think, they cannot be convinced otherwise, that it is a perfect waste of time and energy to spend four years in a high school which could be, as they say, more profitable employed in getting a start in life.