As someone who identified as a boy at one point in my life I can say event #1 would hold no interest what so ever for me. Especially if the talent show was an event I was aware of.

Event #2 would have been replaced by boy scouts.

I am guessing event #2 had the soccer team participation? Sounds like kids who are already friends doing stuff together.

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"I think I've cracked the code. double letters are cheaters except for perfect squares (a, d, i, p and y). So Leddy isn't a cheater... "

I would not have done a talent show either. But the kids that are in "Leadership Classes" have to participate. My point was that there were very few boys in the Leadership classes.

 Boys are stupid.

At least that's what I keep telling my daughter.

What sort of half ass league is this?

As a father of 3 daughters also. (we age gapped opposite of you, they are now 21, 19, 16) one, boys mature slower so not a surprise that there are more girls in 8th grade in leadership. Of course our city is VERY ethnically diverse with a large Asian population and my kids excelled in math and science, so often they might be one of a handfull of girls in class occasionally they were the only Caucasian. Point there, stereotypes are around for a reason and the Asian boys were pushed hard to be in those types of things.

The volunteer thing in middle school is impressive, I don't think our school would get that many kids to do that many hours. That's more hours than our Nation Honor Society requires I believe.

Anyhow, can't really tell you why the mix is the way it is in your city/school. But I bet if you dig deeper locally you will find a local explanation for it. Start by asking your daughter why are there so few boys in leadership, could be as easy as the school thinks it needs to encourage girls more so they accept more girls.

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Just Triing
Triathlete since 9:56:39 AM EST Aug 20, 2006.
Be kind English is my 2nd language. My primary language is Dave it's a unique evolution of English.

Perhaps the boys parents still let them be kids instead of pushing them to do a bunch of stuff to pad their college applications?

Back in my day our school didn’t have anything like you described Sports and student council (maybe 5 kids total) were it. I did swim 5 days a week though. The only after school event once a year was 8th grade dance. High School had a bit more but not much.

This is a microcosm of a bigger issue that society is experience in secondary and post secondary schools. Boys are simply falling behind. It is ok for a boy to be a goofball. It is ok for a boy to be dumb. In those middle school years, boys are made fun of when they are smart, volunteer, get super involved.

This trend continues in high school and into college. Those are things that often make boys unpopular with the crowd. For some reason that isn't the case for women.

You’re probably not wrong. But “kids being kids” these days usually means time in front of a screen.

This, for the love of God, this.

At the age the OP mentioned, I was building ramps to ride my bike off of, playing pick up sports in the neighborhood, throwing eggs at busses and trying to dig holes to China just for the fun of it.

They're freaking kids. Let them be kids.

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Long Chile was a silly place.

Doesn’t have to be. We have a 9yo boy and 6 yo girl. They will veg out in front of the tv or play video games most of the day if allowed. But turn all that off and they usually entertain themselves outside riding , playing and unfortunately as BC said digging to China. Plus sports

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"I think I've cracked the code. double letters are cheaters except for perfect squares (a, d, i, p and y). So Leddy isn't a cheater... "

The problem is simple. Boys are idiots.

We have 2x 7th graders and a 9th grader. All boys. Watching the boys grow up has been fascinating. One of the many life lessons observed was that....boys are idiots.

Example. The twins have been active in theater and dance. We went to a dance recital tonight in fact. I've long marveled at how much more mature the girls are then the boys. The difference is amazing. We'll go to one of these plays or dance things a couple times/yr and I'll see snapshots of the girls that I don't normally see....us not having any girls. Down there on the stage, the girls so obviously have their act together. The boys stand around like a bunch of dullards.

After a play or dance recital the kids will all come out into the lobby where their families are. Out there in the lobby it becomes clear, for the first time, that the girls in the play that showed such poise and adorableness, are actually years younger than I'd thought. That wasn't a 16yr old, it was someone's 12yr old. The little (apparent) 12yr old that would have made any adult's eyes tear up due to be overwhelmed by adorableness, turns out to be 10.

But the guy's who seemed such stiff dullards, just turn out to be stiff dullards.

Example: We'll go to one of the kids band concerts and the kids will want to go out to ice cream afterwards. So we'll be at one table, a pack of boys, to include ours, at another table, and a pack of girls at a 3rd table. The girls are carrying on reasonable conversations and we can all overhear the boys acting like idiots.

Girls mature faster than guys. I sure don't remember that happening when I was a little kid, but holy shit is it obvious as a parent.

But it used to be that the boys caught up. But there's less catching up going on now, I fear. Video games are killing the boys. So the chicks are starting to rule the world. Don't get me wrong, I like chicks. I have always liked chicks. But it's a bummer to see guys underperforming so.

In HS I was pretty oriented on cross country and track. The boys teams were pretty big and the girls teams consisted of less than a handful. Fast forward 40yrs. I was at the 9th grader's cross country banquet last Fall. The girls team was huge and highly successful. The boys team was small and not successful. Holy shit!

I'm all for girls kicking ass and taking names. But it's really a bummer to see the boys turning into such slugs. Anyone that cares to look at the stats will see that % of chicks in professional careers are growing and the % of guys in professional careers is dropping. I bet that trend continues. Maybe 30yrs from now chicks will own 2/3rds of all professional positions and guys will be primarily in the trades. Who would have predicted that?

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Books @ Amazon
"If only he had used his genius for niceness, instead of Evil." M. Smart

My daughter is in 2nd year AP Physics with 6 guys. She had to go to the middle school yesterday to give the kids a music concert. What did the boys do? They posted videos of themselves having a paper airplane fight in class. (It's the teachers planning hour totally voluntary). Who do the boys have to thanks for talking the teacher into even having the class? You guessed it. My daughter.

2nd year physics in HS? That's really cool. A lot of folks struggle in the electricity and EM content because it's all so much harder to visualize than the simple mechanics/heat/energy of the first class in physics.

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Books @ Amazon
"If only he had used his genius for niceness, instead of Evil." M. Smart

Yep. She's graduating this month. We're proud of her.

I have a son in 7th grade and the boys rule that class. Sports, academics, theater, band are all dominated by boys. Of the classes top 10 students, only two are girls. Honor roll? Dominated by boys, 41 boys in the class 32 on the A or B honor roll. The 6th grade and 8th grade class are more evenly split with the 8th grade having a slightly stronger edge of girls. Last year's 8th grade class, now Freshmen, it was all about the boys.

Sounds like a local thing, maybe it is your school. Our school has avoided the pitfalls many larger schools fall into where girl power is implemented at the detriment of the boys. The only place the girls rule in our middle school is student council. Of course that's because the our student council is nothing more then a dance planning committee and the boy's have no interest.

Every school is different, every town is different and every class is different.

I'm coaching flag football currently for 3rd and 4th graders. I have a girl on my team. She is the only girl in the entire league. I think its great and out of the 10 boys on our team, she is probably the 5th or 6th best player. I am so impressed by her and look forward to seeing how she progresses as a person/athlete in the coming years.

You can only push a kid so far. Our son was quite shy but is smart and worked reasonably hard at school. Not athletic. But he didn't sweat things. He finished third year of engineering software last spring and is now working through a co-op year with Intel. He is living on his own in a major city but it took some encouragement. The academic stuff he did all on his own. But he seems low stress.

Daughter has higher marks and is very athletic but gets stressed. She is just finishing highschool. Girls are pushing harder but paying a price for it. They may end up ruling the world but not sure how much fun it will be for them. I am a family doctor and for every one boy with anxiety issues there seems to be five girls. The boys need a bit of encouragement and restricted screen time. The girls need parents that show them that happiness does not necessarily flow from achievement.

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They constantly try to escape from the darkness outside and within
Dreaming of systems so perfect that no one will need to be good T.S. Eliot

I agree. Too much structured stuff going on in schools. Parents relieving their stress about their kids future by organizing stuff or encouraging kids to do organized stuff maybe?

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They constantly try to escape from the darkness outside and within
Dreaming of systems so perfect that no one will need to be good T.S. Eliot