Judith Warner weighs in on the NYT article. Her concluding lines:
It seems to me that, from an early age, men seem to be quite clear about what expenditures of energy are worth their time. Like kids with A.D.D. (the majority of whom are boys), they’re able to spend great amounts of attention and energy on things they find interesting, but show considerable signs of challenge when it comes to tasks they find boring or personally unprofitable.
Is this really a problem? Women would probably say yes. But I doubt, somehow, that men are going to put a lot of energy into fixing it.
Is it a problem? Of course not! Success is all about figuring out what's important and what's not. People who go to fancy business school programs call this "time management," I believe. If your instinct is to "do as told" at every possible turn, of course you are going to get lapped by those who can distinguish between what's truly important and what's merely busywork. Busywork does not the stuff of success make.
Just read what seems like the 90th article on how females outperform males in college. No argument from me. The article cites all sorts of reasons why this might be, and most of them strike me as making sense (including: female college students are more mature than their male counterparts, female students feel more pressure to perform because they lack the "old boy" network for post-graduate jobs, etc.)
But really, the article sort of dances around the idea that girls are just more obediant than their male counterparts. In my personal observation, it's easier for me to make girls pay attention, participate in class, complete assignments, etc. I con't know how much is motivation on their part, and how much is just a tendency to do whatever the person in charge tells them to do (not that I'm really in charge of anything when it comes down to it, but it seems like more of the girls think I am). With the boys, I encounter more of the "why should I do this?" attitude.
In any event - none of this strikes me as a cause for particular worry. I did enjoy, however, the quote from the young lady who had just broken up with her boyfriend because he was playing too many videogames. Her new rule - no dating guys who play videogames. Sounds pretty smart to me.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/09/education/09college.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5094&en=9e7c68c097d2ec04&hp&ex=1152417600&partner=homepage