The School System Is Creating The Men Women Can’t Connect With (CBC Boy Crisis Reaction)
I became a father not long ago. My daughter is still young, but I already find myself thinking deeply about the world she will grow up in. One day she’ll work alongside men, befriend them, marry one if she chooses, and help build a family and community with them. That reality changes how I view the growing conversation around boys and young men.
Recently, the CBC released a thoughtful documentary examining why so many boys are struggling in school. It wasn’t sensational or political. It simply presented parents, teachers, researchers, and data that point to a troubling trend: boys are falling behind academically at alarming rates.
This isn’t just a problem for boys.
It’s a problem for all of us.
One of the most striking moments in the documentary comes from a teacher who is also a mother. She worries that her son won’t feel like he belongs at school, and if he doesn’t believe he can succeed there, he’ll simply stop trying.
That observation cuts deeper than poor grades or classroom behavior.
Children rarely continue investing in places where they feel they don’t belong. When boys begin believing that school isn’t built for them, they don’t necessarily become rebellious overnight. More often, they quietly disengage.
Unfortunately, we’ve become very good at misreading that disengagement.
Instead of recognizing discouragement, we often interpret it as laziness or a lack of motivation. Boys learn to hide disappointment behind indifference because vulnerability rarely feels safe. Rather than saying, “I’m struggling,” they say, “I don’t care.”
Those are two very different statements.
