I don’t think Uncle Tims and White Knights are all bad. I’m a bit of a White Knight myself. I just recently wrote an article on this subject of Uncle Tims and White Knights the readers here might be interested in:
I'm a male home teacher and intervention specialist. I have been particularly interested in closing the gap between male and female achievement and have done quite a bit of research and experimentation. Here are some of my observations.
First, male academic achievement matters a lot more now. Until about the 1970's or so a boy who didn't particularly like school could get a union factory job and probably make as much or more than the teacher who told him to stay in school. Education is much more necessary for a good job.
Indeed, in my neighborhood a piece of land once occupied by an auto assembly plant now has a WalMart and we know what kind of jobs you can get there now.
One thing I have noted is that in a boy's life Dad is usually the one who encourages his son to go faster, stronger, higher, and also to take the challenge in academics. Mom is more often the nurturer. I have noted that especially in boys with disabilities the absence of a father often leads to less motivation. There are many more uninvolved fathers now.
Also, the way we teach elementary reading is not very boy friendly these days. First, we have pushed formal reading back to kindergarten. Many boys are not ready in kindergarten and get off to a bad start.
Also, we are so busy teaching discrete skills that boys are bored. They are much more interested in reading the whole work, especially a work with a strong male character. Boys are less likely to pick up a book just cuz.
Many boys, including myself when I was growing up, are given the message that being a "schoolboy" is not masculine.
I have been working on strategies to help boys associate academic achievement with strength and they work. Indeed, my screen name a double hundred is a meteaphor I use with boys--a hundred pounds of gray matter and a hundred pounds of testosterone. I find that once these boys get going they really get going. Anyone more intersted in hearing more can contact me at adoublehundred@gmailo.com
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Our modern economy is also more about interpersonal networking and communication, something girls do better at, earlier. Boys lose out, and have difficulty catching up due to the the "boys are defective girls" viewpoint that schools seem to have.
They also have far fewer examples of how other men navigate the same systems that are dominated by constantly disapproving, controlling women. A few rounds of that double standard, and I'm sure many boys just withdraw to endure it, rather than defy it and master it.
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Uncle Tims and White Knights Protecting Women from MRAs
http://secularpatriarchy.wordpress.com/2013/08/05/uncle-tims-and-white-knights-protecting-women-from-mras/
First, male academic achievement matters a lot more now. Until about the 1970's or so a boy who didn't particularly like school could get a union factory job and probably make as much or more than the teacher who told him to stay in school. Education is much more necessary for a good job.
Indeed, in my neighborhood a piece of land once occupied by an auto assembly plant now has a WalMart and we know what kind of jobs you can get there now.
One thing I have noted is that in a boy's life Dad is usually the one who encourages his son to go faster, stronger, higher, and also to take the challenge in academics. Mom is more often the nurturer. I have noted that especially in boys with disabilities the absence of a father often leads to less motivation. There are many more uninvolved fathers now.
Also, the way we teach elementary reading is not very boy friendly these days. First, we have pushed formal reading back to kindergarten. Many boys are not ready in kindergarten and get off to a bad start.
Also, we are so busy teaching discrete skills that boys are bored. They are much more interested in reading the whole work, especially a work with a strong male character. Boys are less likely to pick up a book just cuz.
Many boys, including myself when I was growing up, are given the message that being a "schoolboy" is not masculine.
I have been working on strategies to help boys associate academic achievement with strength and they work. Indeed, my screen name a double hundred is a meteaphor I use with boys--a hundred pounds of gray matter and a hundred pounds of testosterone. I find that once these boys get going they really get going. Anyone more intersted in hearing more can contact me at adoublehundred@gmailo.com
They also have far fewer examples of how other men navigate the same systems that are dominated by constantly disapproving, controlling women. A few rounds of that double standard, and I'm sure many boys just withdraw to endure it, rather than defy it and master it.