Learning the Hard Way

EDWARD W. MORRIS is an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Kentucky and the author of An Unexpected Minority: White Kids in an Urban School (Rutgers University Press).

• Acknowledgments1. Introduction2. Respect and Respectability3. The Hidden Injuries of Gender4. Too Cool for School: Masculinity and the Contradictions of Achievement5. Rednecks and Rutters: Rural Masculinity and Class Anxiety6. Clownin' and Riffin': Urban Masculinity and the Complexity of Race7. "Girls Just Care about It More": Femininity and Achievement As Resistance8. Friday Night Fights9. ConclusionAppendix. Research Methods: Process and RepresentationNotesReferencesIndex

"Differences in school performance related to gender represent one of the more enduring discussions in education and psychology. Explanations have ranged from differences attributed purely to the way young people are socialized, to differences that are fundamentally biological. Based on an ethnographic study of poor students in two schools Morris has synthesized an explanation making economic circumstances, something described as 'place,' a critical element in shaping gender differences. Recommended."(Choice) "Morris's study offers fresh insights, showing boys' underachievement in schools to be a hidden cost of their insecurities about the shifting foundations of men's power and privilege. Learning the Hard Way points us toward a humane and egalitarian path in schools and society." - Michael A. Messner (author of It's All for the Kids: Gender, Families and Youth Sports) "In a detailed and compelling analysis Ed Morris helps us understand how masculinity is implicated in the academic under-performance of black males. Morris shows us that what's needed is a whole new way of thinking about and understanding masculinity." - Pedro A. Noguera (New York University) "Learning the Hard Way is solid and convincing. Morris shows us working and lower-class boys who are capable of doing good academic work, but who invest their energy and intelligence in sports, fighting, physical labor, or resisting the control regimes of school."(American Journal of Sociology) "In Learning the Hard Way, Morris convincingly examines masculinity in schooling by unpacking the multiple layers of race, location, class, and gender often overlooked in scholarship." (Men and Masculinities) "Differences in school performance related to gender represent one of the more enduring discussions in education and psychology. Explanations have ranged from differences attributed purely to the way young people are socialized, to differences that are fundamentally biological. Based on an ethnographic study of poor students in two schools Morris has synthesized an explanation making economic circumstances, something described as 'place,' a critical element in shaping gender differences. Recommended."(Choice) "Morris's study offers fresh insights, showing boys' underachievement in schools to be a hidden cost of their insecurities about the shifting foundations of men's power and privilege. Learning the Hard Way points us toward a humane and egalitarian path in schools and society." - Michael A. Messner (author of It's All for the Kids: Gender, Families and Youth Sports) "In a detailed and compelling analysis Ed Morris helps us understand how masculinity is implicated in the academic under-performance of black males. Morris shows us that what's needed is a whole new way of thinking about and understanding masculinity." - Pedro A. Noguera (New York University) "Learning the Hard Way is solid and convincing. Morris shows us working and lower-class boys who are capable of doing good academic work, but who invest their energy and intelligence in sports, fighting, physical labor, or resisting the control regimes of school."(American Journal of Sociology) "In Learning the Hard Way, Morris convincingly examines masculinity in schooling by unpacking the multiple layers of race, location, class, and gender often overlooked in scholarship." (Men and Masculinities)