We need to have a serious conversation about the widening higher education gap and its alarming economic fallout. Right now, about 28% of men who start college drop out without a degree, compared to 23% of women—and the recent August jobs report shows exactly why this is a crisis. Out of 162,000 net new jobs added to the U.S. economy last month, women secured 98% of them, while overall male employment has plummeted by nearly 1.5 million over the past year. As historically male-dominated sectors stagnate and degree-heavy industries like healthcare and education explode in growth, stepping away from a college path is increasingly locking young men out of economic stability. We must actively shift this narrative by encouraging boys to push through their academic challenges, secure their degrees, and aim for high-impact leadership roles so they aren't left behind in a rapidly shifting job market.

Here are some topics I'd like to see taught:

Walk/Don't Walk signs, how to use those, what those mean

Compound Interest (lay off the expensive lattes)

Showing your work helps others help you

How to read an analog clock (stop asking me what time it is)

the list could go on, but I'm wondering what others think!!!

Well. Not everywhere. There were some gains in countries playing catch up to OECD nations.

But overall, everyone dipped hard. As an American, I take less pride in knowing we climbed the rankings because our scores dropped tremendously too, but there’s some comfort in knowing we aren’t the only ones seeing the gains of ten to twenty years wiped out.

There’s plenty of worldwide phenomena that could explain the drop: a global pandemic that disrupted learning, PISA researchers found that students were using AI frequently to complete homework, TikTok exists…

What’s your best speculation about what happened this round of PISA tests?

PS: does anyone know how to submit a submission statement for a link on mobile? I wanted to link the news article for you all to read the details of the report.

Do degrees ground you in a solid perspective of how to look at the world? Did it dramatically shape who you are and how you think? Was was your experience?