Richard Reeves, President of the American Institute for Boys and Men, suggested that boys start school at a later age to mitigate gender disparities in education during a Thursday evening panel hosted by NYU’s Berkley Institute for Civil Discourse and Civic Solutions.
Berkley Institute director Patrick Egan and NYU psychology professor Tessa West joined Reeves at the event, which took place at the Global Center for Academic and Spiritual Life and centered around the lack of academic and civic engagement among young men. Reeves’ organization designs policy to address issues harming the well-being of men across the United States, and in 2022, he published “Of Boys and Men” — selected by The Economist and The New Yorker for their Best Books lists —tackling the same issue.
Reeves discussed solutions to men’s declining college enrollment rates, as well as their absence in fields like healthcare and education. He said that the United States should develop alternative education pathways for men — like delaying their entry into kindergarten by one year by default or establishing more technical high schools and apprenticeships — to ensure they could succeed academically.
“The sorts of skills that you develop in adolescents — especially a lot of puberty — are rewarded in GPA, and girls just get them early,” Reeves said at the event. “On average, a 16-year-old girl is older developmentally than a 16-year-old boy.”
Reeves also pointed to young men’s rising suicide rates as evidence of a mental health crisis. He advocated for colleges to establish men’s-only resource centers on campus to improve their wellness.=
“Suicide is four times higher among men of all ages — it’s a highly gendered risk factor for public health,” Reeves said. “The aggregate number is about 50,000 a year in the United States. Of those, about 40,000 losses will be of men.”
An hour into the event, Egan opened the floor for guests to ask questions. Attendees asked about the role of the patriarchy in men’s issues, how male educators could support their male students and how the U.S. asylum system responded to violence against men.
The Berkley Institute, which launched in November, held the event as a part of its theme for the 2026-27 academic year, “The Changing Lives of Boys and Men.” The institute, which aims to connect students across the political spectrum through panels and discussions, will announce its inaugural group of student fellows in the coming weeks, Egan told WSN.
Egan also emphasized the non-partisan nature of men’s welfare.
“Both Republican and Democratic governors have been working with Richard to think about initiatives they can undertake in their states on these very challenges,” Egan said. “The fact that there’s interest across the political spectrum is a good sign that this issue itself can be a way to bridge divides.”
Contact Zachary Karp at [email protected].