Boys and Girls
July 22nd, 2009When I was in college, I worked at Johnathan Daniels elementary. By some odd chance, there was a first grade class that was all boys. The teacher and I were always astounded by how well everything went. In her words, “Maybe that whole ‘gender separated classroom’ idea wouldn’t be the wrong way to go.”
Boys are three times as likely as girls to need extra help with reading at primary school, and 75 per cent of children supposedly suffering from ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) are male. “We are losing boys at a rate of knots, particularly in literacy,” Palmer says, “because at some point in the past 30 years, masculinity became an embarrassment.”
Research by Simon Baron-Cohen, a respected Cambridge professor, that began as an investigation into autism, puts a solid case for biological male/female differences in the brain, with boys tending to be “systematisers” and girls “empathisers”. This explains why boys generally are less keen on reading and comprehension, and lag behind girls in literacy. A lot of boys find it easier to explain the workings of a watch than to discuss how a character in a story is feeling. “But now,” says Palmer, “apart from the very bright ones, boys aren’t even doing better at maths and science.”
Hmm.
And I cribbed it from here.
July 22nd, 2009 at 8:24 am
So … are you saying that we should be separating boys and girls or that we should introduce *new* ways of teaching to reach the less-than-bright boys. Or, are you saying we should teach two types of curriculum: one for boys, which allows them to research how things work, leaving “feelings” for the girls? Or, are you saying that boys need to pony up and hit the books?
July 22nd, 2009 at 3:05 pm
What about the genius level girls who are left to a guidance counselor who suggests taking interior decorating?
Perhaps do we need to have the kids reading better books? books that they don’t have to think about how the characters feel, but they KNOW how the characters feel, because they feel it themselves when they read it? Possibly it’s some of our books that have been emasculated, and the kids as an effect. The whole damn world is so concerned with not hurting anyone’s feelings and giving everyone a gold star for farting, that they don’t even realize that some of the best things out there aren’t coddled and wrapped in cushy blankets, but are REAL and have all the elements of real life…tragedy, horror, failure, death, and God forbid, the little guy doesn’t always come out on top. This afternoon I’ll put together a list of books that I think everyone should read before they’re fifteen, and if they can’t read them by then, then DON’T F***ING LET THEM THINK ABOUT GRADUATING FOR PETE’S SAKE.
I worked for a multi-millionaire who couldn’t spell the word “journalism”. WTF?!
July 22nd, 2009 at 9:42 pm
Hey Eric,
I’m not 100% certain what I’m suggesting right now. I think what I’m suggesting—and Lindsey has correctly pointed out that there are more problems than we know what to do with. I think what I can say is “there are problems.”
Which is a massive, “no duh” statement. My thoughts are that, more than girls, boys like something that resembles “training”—but I’m not sure what that would look like. I think it would be more skilled based, and it would be perhaps more firm than we currently have.
Or maybe just separate. Maybe they would do better if they didn’t need to compete with the distaff half of the population, for whom the rules and expectations just seem to come easier…?
And, perhaps, there’s some truth to Lindsey’s idea that we’ve taken the “danger” out of school so much, the reality, the guts, that there’s no attraction to it. Maybe we don’t focus on the things we should—climbing trees and starting fires. Certainly, it’s the moments when things exploded in chemistry or were “real” that I remember from my classes. And I’ve always tried the “blood and guts” approach in my own classes…
I’m not sure. But yeah—higher standards. Prove you can do the work. These are not bad things. I’ll let you know how it works…
July 25th, 2009 at 7:18 pm
Linds,
Are you still interested in putting together that list? I know at least two other interested parents.
Thank you.