美國男孩問題與經濟困境密不可分

The behavior gap between rich and poor children, starting at very early ages, is now a well-known piece of social science. Entering kindergarten, high-income children not only know more words and can read better than poorer children but they also have longer attention spans, better-controlled tempers and more sensitivity to other children.

從很小的時候，富孩子和窮孩子就出現了行爲差距。在這方面，一篇相關的社會科學論文現已變得衆所周知。走進幼兒園，你會發現富孩子不僅比窮孩子認識更多的字，閱讀能力更強，而且擁有更長的注意力週期，能夠更好地控制脾氣，對其他孩子更加敏感。

All of which makes the comparisons between boys and girls in the same categories fairly striking: The gap in behavioral skills between young girls and boys is even bigger than the gap between rich and poor.

所有這一切使得同一個類別中男孩和女孩的比較更加引人注目：小女孩和小男孩的行爲技能差異甚至比富孩子和窮孩子的差異還要大。

By kindergarten, girls are substantially more attentive, better behaved, more sensitive, more persistent, more flexible and more independent than boys, according to a new paper from Third Way, a Washington research group. The gap grows over the course of elementary school and feeds into academic gaps between the sexes. By eighth grade, 48 percent of girls receive a mix of A’s and B’s or better. Only 31 percent of boys do.

華盛頓研究機構第三條道路(Third Way)最新發布的一份研究報告顯示，上幼兒園時，女孩比男孩更加專心，更守規矩，更具韌性，更加靈活和獨立。這種差異在小學期間進一步擴大，加大了兩性之間的成績差距。到了八年級，48%的女孩獲得A和B，甚或更好的成績組合。只有31%的男孩能夠獲得這樣的成績。

And in an economy that rewards knowledge, the academic struggles of boys turn into economic struggles. Men’s wages are stagnating. Men are much more likely to be idle — neither working, looking for work nor caring for family — than they once were and much more likely to be idle than women.

在這樣一個獎勵知識的經濟體中，男孩的學業困境往往會轉化爲經濟困境。男性的工資正陷於停滯。與往昔相比，男性現在更有可能無所事事——既沒有工作可做，也不找工作和照顧家人。他們無事可做的可能性也要遠遠大於女性。

We reported last week that the United States had lost its once-enormous global lead in middle-class pay, based on international income surveys over the last three decades. After-tax median income in Canada appears to have been higher last year than the same measure in this country. The poor in Canada and much of western Europe earn more than the poor here.

我們此前的報道說，針對過去30年的國際收入調查顯示，在全球範圍內，美國中產階級的薪酬已經失去了昔日的巨大領先優勢。加拿大去年的稅後收入中位數似乎高於美國。加拿大和西歐許多國家的窮人要比美國窮人掙得更多。

These depressing trends have many causes, but the social struggles of men and boys are an important one. If the United States is going to build a better-functioning economy than the one we’ve had over the last 15 years, we’re going to have to solve our boy problems.

這些令人沮喪的趨勢是由多種原因導致的，但男性和男孩的社會困境是其中重要一環。如果美國打算建立一種比過去15年運行得更好的經濟，我們就必須解決美國男孩的問題。

To put it another way, the American economy — for all its troubles (and all of the lingering sexism) — looks to be doing pretty well when you focus on girls. The portion of women earning a four-year college degree has jumped more than 75 percent over the last quarter-century, in line with what has happened in other rich countries. Median inflation-adjusted female earnings are up almost 35 percent over the same span, census data show — while male earnings, incredibly, haven’t risen at all.

從另一個角度說，如果只關注女孩，你就會發現美國經濟的表現看起來相當不錯，儘管它面臨種種麻煩，以及揮之不去的性別歧視問題。一如其他富裕國家，在過去25年中，獲得四年制大學學位的女性人數飆漲了75%以上。人口普查數據顯示，剔除通脹因素後的女性收入中位數在同一時期上漲了約35%。而令人難以置信的是，男性收入根本就沒有增長。

“We know we’ve got a crisis, and the crisis is with boys,” said Elaine Kamarck, a resident scholar at Third Way and a former Clinton administration official. “We’re not quite sure why it’s happening.”

“我們知道我們面臨着一場危機，這場危機發生在男孩身上，”第三條道路常駐學者，前克林頓政府官員伊萊恩·卡馬克(Elaine Kamarck)說。“我們不太明白爲什麼會發生這種事。”

Two of the leading theories involve single-parent families and schools. The number of single-parent families has surged over the last generation, and the effect seems to be larger on boys in those families than girls. Girls who grow up with only one parent — typically a mother — fare almost as well on average as girls with two parents. Boys don’t.

兩個主要理論涉及單親家庭和學校。在過去一代人的時間裏，單親家庭數量急劇增長。在這類家庭中，男孩受到的負面影響似乎大於女孩。平均而言，單親（通常是一個母親）家庭女孩的學業表現幾乎跟雙親家庭女孩一樣好。而男孩做不到這一點。

But the trends seem too broad for family structure to be the only cause. That’s where schools come in.

但這些趨勢似乎過於廣泛，以至於家庭結構不可能是唯一原因。所以還需要探討學校教育因素。

Girls enter school with a lead on boys, and schools then fail to close the gaps. Instead, they increase. The behavioral advantage that girls have over boys in kindergarten, based on teachers’ assessments of their students, are even larger in fifth grade.

進入學校時，女孩的素質本就高於男生，但在上學期間，這種差距不僅沒有消失，反而變大了。根據教師對學生的評估，到五年級時，女孩在幼兒園期間相對於男孩的行爲優勢進一步增大。

By then, the average girl is at the 60th percentile of an index of social and behavioral skills, while the average boy is at only the 40th percentile, according to Claudia Buchmann of Ohio State and Thomas DiPrete of Columbia, the authors of the new paper. That gap of 20 percentage points is larger than the 14-point gap between poor and not poor children or the 15-point gap between white and black children.

俄亥俄州立大學(Ohio State)的克勞迪婭·布赫曼(Claudia Buchmann)和哥倫比亞大學(Columbia University)的托馬斯·迪普雷特(Thomas DiPrete)最新發布的論文顯示，到這時候，女孩通常處於一個社交和行爲技能指數的第60百分位，而男孩通常只處於第40百分位。20個百分點的差距不僅大於窮孩子和富孩子的差距（14個百分點），也大於白人小孩和黑人小孩的差距（15個百分點）。

These behavior measures are subjective, of course, based on the views of teachers across the country in very different classrooms. Yet it’s clear that the measures reflect something real, because the behavior differences later translate into academic differences. By high school, even advanced math and science classes now have more girls than boys. At college graduation ceremonies around the country this spring, women in caps and gowns will easily outnumber men.

這些行爲評估主要基於全美各地教師對差異明顯的學生羣體的觀察，當然帶有主觀性。但它們顯然在一定程度上反映出了現實情況，因爲這些行爲差異隨後就轉化爲學業差異。到了高中，就連選修高等數學和科學課的女生現在都比男生多。在今年春天全美各地的畢業典禮上，身穿學位服的女生數量肯定會明顯多於男生。

The experts who study the subject disagree on the solutions. Some, like Ms. Buchmann and Mr. DiPrete, point out that boys still do quite well in the best-performing schools. When good grades bring high status, boys respond. To the researchers in this camp, the answer involves improving schools, which will have a disproportionate effect on boys, rather than changing schools to be more attuned to boys’ needs.

研究這個問題的專家對解決方案持不同意見。布赫曼和迪普雷特等人指出，在成績最好的學校，男孩的表現還是相當不錯的。當好成績帶來高地位時，男孩會予以迴應。在這個陣營的研究人員看來，解決方案在於改善學校教育（這將對男孩產生更大的影響），而不是改變學校教學來迎合男孩的需要。

Others, like Christina Hoff Sommers, argue that today’s education system fails to acknowledge the profound differences between boys and girls. It asks boys to sit still for hours every day and provides them with few role models in front of the classroom. Just as the dearth of female science professors hampers would-be female science majors in college, the dearth of male fourth-grade teachers creates problems for 10-year-old boys.

其他人，比如克里斯蒂娜·霍夫·索莫斯(Christina Hoff Sommers)，則認爲今天的教育體制沒有認識到男孩和女孩的深刻差異。它要求男孩每天一動不動地坐上好幾個小時，而且幾乎沒有給他們提供站立在教室前面的行爲榜樣。正如女科學教授的稀缺妨礙女生報考科學類專業一樣，四年級男教師的稀缺也給10歲的男孩帶來了一堆問題。

My own sense is that both sides have a point — and that their ideas aren’t mutually exclusive. Experimenting with all kinds of solutions will offer better answers than we now have.

我自己的感覺是，兩個陣營各有其道理，他們的想法也並非相互排斥。用各種解決方案來試驗，將帶來比現在更好的答案。

The problems that stem from gender have become double-edged. The old forms of sexism, while greatly diminished, still constrain women. The job market exacts harsh financial and career penalties on anyone who decides to work part time or take time off, and the workers who do so are overwhelmingly female. That’s a big part of the reason that the top ranks of corporate America, Silicon Valley and the government remain dominated by men.

這些源自性別的問題已經成爲一把雙刃劍。傳統形式的性別歧視雖然大大減少，但依然束縛着女性。就業市場往往會懲罰那些決定兼職工作或休假的僱員，導致他們的收入和職業生涯嚴重受損，而有此打算的員工以女性居多。這正是美國工商界、硅谷和政府部門的最高層依然由男性主宰的重要原因之一。

But men have their own challenges. As the economy continues to shift away from brawn and toward brains, many men have struggled with the transition.

但男性也面臨他們自己的挑戰。隨着經濟模式持續變遷，越來越多的就業機會正在從體力勞動轉向腦力勞動，許多男性由此陷於困境。

“Boys are getting the wrong message about what you need to do to be successful,” Ms. Buchmann says. “Traditional gender roles are misguiding boys. In today’s economy, being tough and being strong are not what leads to success.”

“在怎麼做才能成功這個問題上，男孩正在獲得錯誤的信息，”布赫曼說。“傳統的性別角色正在誤導男生。在今天的經濟中，堅韌和強壯已不再是獲取成功的保證。”

The problem doesn’t simply involve men trying to overcome the demise of a local factory or teenage boys getting into trouble. It involves children so young that most haven’t even learned the word “gender.” Yet their gender is already starting to cast a long shadow over their lives.

這個問題不僅僅涉及那些正在努力克服當地工廠倒閉這一難關的成年男性，或者陷入麻煩的十幾歲男孩。它還波及非常年幼的孩子，其中大多數甚至還沒有學過“性別”這個單詞。不過，這些男孩的性別已經開始給他們的人生投下一道長長的陰影。