What has education really done to men?

Recently an article by Kay S. Hymowitz previewing her book that came out on March first has gotten a lot of attention. The article is called, “Where have all the good men gone?”

The focus is on a state between boyhood and manhood the author calls “pre-adulthood.” This is the time when many men seemingly try to extend the carefree life of childhood and avoid taking on responsibility. It’s marked by a Peter Pan mentality, whether consciously so or not. 

But the article also raises the question, what has higher education really brought us? Hymowitz draws the parallel of the pre-adulthood stage and the adolescent stage. She says the term adolescence began when high schools started becoming more widely attended in the 1970s. That was when teens started going to school instead of taking on some of the responsibilities of working and caring for the family. That age group became more carefree than previous generations at that age and created a whole new demographic in consumerism.

Now the same thing has happened with the late teens and early 20 age group that is attending colleges and universities. Few responsibilities, a disposable income, even if it comes from student loan debts, and a lack of direction in life. It’s where the forever-student spends time, never sure what he wants to be when he “grows up.” Hymowitz terms it pre-adulthood.

For a long time there has been a focus to draw people into schools, away from the reality of the workplace and growing up, for increasingly longer periods of time. It started with grade school, then went to high school, then college and university. (Somewhere in there it also started going in the other direction to daycares, and now all-day kindergarten.) The message is, the longer you’re in school, the better. The more qualified you’ll be for the workplace, the more ready for what’s really out there.

But it makes one wonder if this prolonged pre-adulthood, as the article puts it, really does prepare people for that, or maybe it’s an easy out for those who lack direction in their lives. Not that school doesn’t have its place or that everyone who attends has this attitude, but the over-emphasis of higher education may be more detrimental than good.

The article brought out a unique point.

“It is an almost universal rule of civilization that girls become women simply by reaching physical maturity, but boys had to pass a test. They needed to demonstrate courage, physical prowess or mastery of the necessary skills. The goal was to prove their competence as protectors and providers,” said Hymowitz.

In this society, you almost need a four-year degree to compete for the high paying jobs. Hymowitz calls them the “more satisfying jobs.” Interestingly, these are the usually the jobs that require the least “courage” and “physical prowess” in the sense of what used to be needed to become a man, protector and provider. If that’s what they’re competing for, but what they really need to be satisfied is to be able to show and use physical strength, it is no coincidence women are wondering where all the good men have gone. They lie, unfulfilled, playing video games and drinking beer while they trudge through endlessly mounting years of school trying to figure out what they want to do and what direction they should go, never entertaining the thought that perhaps life was simpler and more fulfilling when men actually worked, physically.

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