Thanks to the sharp eyes at Inside Higher Ed for picking up this article about faltering white boys in England who hail from working class families. There’s no shortage of reporting on this abroad; this Economist  article does a nice job as well.

Few realize that the boy troubles are an international phenomenon (the U.S. lags behind in recognizing the problem in part to what I call the Pushback Movement, which you’ll find in the library to the right. Think of the recent “report” from the American Association of University Women arguing that the boy troubles, if they exist at all, are limited to poor and minority boys.)

To me, it’s been obvious for some time that the most undercovered part of the boy troubles involves white boys from blue-collar families. And I’ve also come to realize that developments in England (where the boy troubles are widely acknowledged) signal what’s coming our way. Actually, those troubles have already arrived; we just choose not to see it. My attempt to illustrate the problem in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Texas is here.

Tags: blue collar, white boys

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