Girls excluded from 'Red Tails' field trip; Thousands of Texas schoolboys brought to see the film

[Igel]

38. Don't know their thinking.

I do know that graduation rates, TAKS results, college attendance and a host of other problems afflict AA males at rates far higher than AA females. The literature is dripping with references to role models--the need to make sure that male AA students see adult AA males as teachers, as employers, as successful. White male role models don't count; black female role models don't count.

If women had the same kind of drop out rate as men do at the high school and college level there'd be an outcry and a call for gender-specific programs. We *have* gender-specific programs, but they're still for women. Some colleges are trying to institute male-specific programs but they're a hard sell.

So is it a coincidence that boys and girls are each given same-sex role models? Maybe. Maybe it is racist sexist stereotyping. Or maybe it's just responding to recent trends in the literature. Sometimes they really resemble each other.