Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/71882
THIS WEEK WITH MARGARET THIS WEEK WITH MARGARET Finding New Footing preparing applications for admission to the colleges and universities of their choice. Most of these folks are recent high-school graduates, but increasing numbers are what are termed "non-traditional" students, meaning older students who want to go back to school, change careers or re-tool their lives in some way. Regardless of age and educational background and goals, though, there common denominators. The women applicants are likely to be more accomplished, at least on paper, than the men applicants. The Dean of College Admissions Throughout North Carolina and across our nation, millions of people are and that many see their opportunities as limitless as those of any man with similar credentials. It troubles me, and many others, that our young men are not achieving as much as our young women, and it worries me for their futures over the long haul. It has to be positive, too, that the role of men in our society has expanded exponentially, as has the role of women. and Financial Aid at Kenyon College made a splash about this several years ago, a splash that continues to ripple and generate controversy as another application cycle gets underway. Jennifer Delahunty Britz wrote an op-ed piece for the New York Times in 2006, in which she apologized to women students who are rejected by their choice institutions even as less qualifi ed men students are accepted. The situation, says Britz is that because women applicants as a group are more qualifi ed than men applicants as a group, institutions that want some level of gender balance must admit men with lesser achievement records than some of the women they reject. "The reality is that because young men are rarer, they are the more valued applicant … I admire the brilliant successes of our daughters. To parents and the students getting thin envelopes, I apologize for the demographic realities." The situation remains unchanged in most institutions of higher learning today, except in schools with engineering and related programs that generally draw more men students, though that is changing as well. This demographic turn of events is no surprise to anyone who has been on a college campus in recent years, at least on a campus with a gender-blind admissions policy. There are far more women students than men, a reversal of what college was like for many Baby Boomer students whose schools did not admit women at all or limited their numbers. Two of the Precious Jewels attended a public institution with a gender-blind policy, one that suited them just fi ne since they were in the minority in a pool of high-achieving young women who welcomed their presence. When I was growing up, some mothers, including my own, were employed outside the home, but daddies were almost universally regarded as the person bringing home the bacon, at least most of it. My father took my sister and me to school, but I do not remember his ever taking us to a doctor's appointment or a ballet lesson or helping us with homework. He certainly never cooked a meal, nor did any of us expect him or any other man in the neighborhood to take on any of those routine domestic chores. There are more and more "non-traditional" students filling out college applications. successful career in sales. Nowadays, my heart sings when I see daddies strolling their children, daddies like the one in my neighborhood who routinely walks two dogs and two children. I know one couple whose husband lost his job years ago in an economic blip and has since raised three fi ne, strapping boys as a stay-at-home dad, while his wife has enjoyed bringing home the bacon with a brought expanded choices both in the workplace and at home. People are no longer locked into gender-limited roles, and I, for one, believe this makes for happier and more productive individuals and families. What is not to like about people being able to do what they are most comfortable doing without being squeezed into some other role just because they are one gender or the other? All of that being said, it is still troublesome that so many of our young women are running circles around so many of our young men in school achievement. Britz's cold assessment, accurate as it may be, is a red fl ag about how we are educating our boys. Too much sitting still? To geared toward sociability and verbal skills? Are we rewarding girl's skill sets more than boys'? We as a society need to ponder this one long and hard, because The point is, of course, that changing roles for both men and women have Change can be positive or negative, both or neither, and this demographic change is probably both. It is surely positive that women are achieving so much LETTERS Local Official Disrupts Game The behavior displayed by the Hope Mills (elected) town offi cial (Tonsie Collins) at the Gray's Creek youth baseball game Friday, June 15 was sickening!!! Why would someone who is a fi gure in the public eye to come out to a baseball game and heckle and ridicule a game offi cial? Shouting out comments such as "Shut up, shut your mouth, watch your mouth … I'm watching you!!" What is that about? Our children stood in shock, puzzled to see two grown men shouting at one another and one "challenging" the other!! Of course the game offi cial's behavior was less than acceptable as well!! To walk off of the fi eld, leave those children there staring and go out to the parking lot to "accept this challenge" … it's just all the way pathetic!!! To know that this is the kind of people that we have representing our town is sad. They, of all people, should be held to a higher standard than the rest of us. They are representing us and the town as a WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM whole! We, the adults, are supposed to be setting an example for the youth, and tonight's behavior would not be an example I would want either of my boys to mirror!! Agreed that the offi cial's behavior to leave the fi eld and go to Mr. Collins' truck was not professional at all, neither was the behavior of the elected town offi cial to shout and heckle the offi cial, even after he was warned that if he didn't quiet down he would be removed from the game. We should lead by example! Our children should not be witnesses to such behavior!! This was those children's last game of the season and that's what they get to remember?? Sad situation!!! I am ashamed for the fans, family and friends and for our children!! MY CHILDREN!! Tania Smith, Hope Mills JUNE 27 - JULY 3, 2012 UCW 5 in real life in 21st century America, we need all the high achievers we can get. MARGARET DICKSON, Con- tributing Writer, COMMENTS? Editor@upandcomingweekly.com.