Newsweek‘s cover story this week is on ”the trouble with boys” and the crisis facing boys in our school system. By and large they’re falling behind their female peers, and psychologists like Dr. Michael Thompson say it’s because our education system doesn’t take the biological makeup of boys into account. The American model of education has been transformed in the last few decades, driven partly by a feminist vision, and those changes have unexpectedly hurt boys. “Girl behavior becomes the gold standard,” Thompson says in the piece. “Boys are treated like defective girls.”

Clearly something’s going on as boys are now a minority on college campuses at 44 percent. And, startlingly, 40 percent of boys are raised without a biological father—something Thompson drives home in this video clip from his recent PBS special, Raising Cain.

Dr. Thompson’s lecture here February 1 on the emotional needs of boys sold out quickly, so we added another one the following day. Tickets are currently available.

[The Emotional Needs of Boys: 02/02/06]