????視頻游戲。克里斯?奧洛夫森寫道：“我有兩個兒子，一個14歲，一個15歲。除了你在文章中提到的那些因素外，我最大的擔憂是視頻游戲。因為正是視頻游戲導致年輕人缺乏工作的動力和主動性，結果使他們在經濟上始終停滯不前。”她希望看到有更多人站出來，研究視頻游戲導致閱讀減少，進而影響學習成績的情況。

????K – 12教育體制偏向女孩。羅伯?雷森薩勒直言不諱地說：“是哪個傻瓜認為，正在成長階段的小男孩們應該每天在教室里坐6-8小時的？” 對于過度強調大學學位，也有讀者提出了批評。

????微生物學家劉平輝（音譯）提到了日本——為無力讀大學的高中學生提供職業教育體系——如工程與機械、商業與會計、農業與林業，甚至漁業等專業的職業教育。通過這種教育，日本青少年“在美國學生剛剛開始擔心如何支付大學學費的時候，就已經開始尋找工作了，”他寫道。

????大衛?丹森同樣認為：“不斷孩子們灌輸這樣的觀念：如果你沒有大學學位，你就是生活中的失敗者。這是一種錯誤的信息。食品雜貨店里的食物是由一名卡車司機配送的，而他不太可能有大學學位。店里的機械設備也是由沒有學位的人負責維護的……中學后的培養非常關鍵……但請嘗試從更宏觀的角度考慮問題。”

????有讀者發現，在學校時，男性在科學與數學專業上仍要勝過女性。而且在高薪酬的工業職位上，男性仍占主導地位。造紙工程專業畢業的科里?普朗特發現，男性主要從事工廠工作，如技工、管道安裝工、焊工和鋼鐵工人等——這些工作每小時的報酬達到28美元。“你或許認為這些工作很快就要消失了，實際上并非如此，”他說，一家機修店為了跟得上訂單的進度，正在全國范圍內招聘足夠多的機械師。

????女性在財務上的成就。古斯塔沃?A?杜蘭明確表示，他對于最近女性的經濟收益表示支持——他女兒擁有斯坦福大學（Stanford）的研究生學位——不過，他發現越來越多的男性卻退居幕后，回到家中。杜蘭寫道：“我發現許多四十多歲的女性成了家里的頂梁柱，而他們的丈夫卻整天無所事事。我認為，未來二十到三十年里，這將變成一種更大的趨勢，除非我們的社會能更嚴格地要求男孩子們遵守紀律，負起責任……男人們同樣也要對自己負責，這樣他們才能幫助照顧好自己的孩子和愛人。”

????肯定性行動。T.J.威爾森對許多讀者的觀點表示支持：“不過，作為一名撰稿人，竟然沒有提出任何肯定性行動，這讓我非常意外。很多大企業實施強迫性的‘指導原則’，迫使他們歧視男性……例如，我聽說在某個州，有一家大公司規定，80%新聘獸醫必須為女性。”羅恩?戈達德抱怨稱：“一直以來，我和我兒子們從美國公司得到的信息是，我們是第二選擇。”

????不論讀者們持有怎樣的觀點，大多數人都希望能就這個至關重要的問題展開更多討論、更多研究，以便引起更多人的注意。（財富中文網）

????譯者：劉進龍/汪浩

????Video games. "As the mother of two boys ages 14 and 15," writes Chris Olofson, "my biggest fear is that it's the video gaming, in addition to the factors you mentioned in your article, that is causing the lack of motivation and initiative to work and thus get a firm hold on the economic ladder.'' She wants to see more research on how video games lead to a decline in reading and thereby college performance.

????A K-12 education system biased toward girls. As Rob Ritzenthaler bluntly put it: "Who was the nut that thought that boys should sit at a desk for 6-8 hours a day while they were growing up?" Some readers also criticized the emphasis on obtaining college degrees.

????Microbiology professor Pinghui V. Liu cited Japan's system of vocational schools for high school students who can't afford college -- offering engineering and mechanics, commerce and accounting, schools of agriculture and forestry, and even schools of fisheries. With this kind of schooling, teenagers "can start looking for jobs at the age when American students are just beginning to worry about how to pay for their college education," he writes.

????Likewise, writes Dave Danson, "the constant message to your our young people that they are going to be a failure in life without a four-year degree is the wrong message to send to parents and young people ... The food in your grocery store was delivered by a trucker who most likely did not have a degree. The store mechanicals are maintained by someone without a degree ... Post-secondary training is vital ... But please try to look at the bigger picture."

????Several readers noted that in school, boys and men still outpace women in science and math. And they still dominate in high-paying industrial jobs. Corey Planter, who graduated with a paper-engineering degree, notes that men mostly fill factory jobs as millwrights, pipe fitters, welders, and ironworkers -- paying up to $28 an hour. "You may be thinking that these jobs are rapidly disappearing, however they are not," he writes, noting one machinist shop that was on a nationwide search for enough machinists to keep up with his orders.

????The financial gains of women. Gustavo A. Duran makes clear he supports the recent economic gains of women -- his own daughter has a masters from Stanford -- but he sees more and more men taking a backseat. "I am now seeing many women in their 40s being the main breadwinners while their husbands diddle [around] daily in odds and ends," Duran writes. "I think this trend will just get larger as we move on the next two to three decades unless we as a society become more demanding of our male children to be disciplined and accountable ... Men need to be equally responsible for themselves so that they can contribute to taking care of their children and their spouses."

????Affirmative action. "I was surprised, however, not to see any mention of affirmative action as a contributor," writes T.J. Wilsson, echoing a number of readers. "With so many major employers obliging 'guidelines' pressuring them to, effectively, discriminate against males ... For example, I read that a major employer in one state had guidelines that some 80% of its newly hired veterinarians be female." Ron Goddard complained that "every step of the way my sons and I were put on notice by corporate America that we were their second choice."

????Whatever their perspective, most of the readers who responded wanted more discussion, more research, and more attention to this vital conversation.