Are schools failing boys?
Why Boys Fail: Saving Our Sons from an Educational System That’s Leaving Them Behind by Richard Whitmire takes a closer look at the growing academic achievement gap between boys and girls.
Whitmire reports that roughly 60% of college graduates (62% and 57% of associate degree and bachelor degree recipients) are women. Ninth grade classrooms are disproportionately bulging with boys who are asked to repeat that grade. As word problems (requiring quick, accurate reading skills) become a bigger part of the math curriculum, boys are struggling in a field in which they once excelled.
Whitmire argues, “the world has become more verbal, schools have allowed boys to slip behind in literacy skills. Boys conclude that ‘schooling’ is for girls, who are proving to be more adept at absorbing these early literacy demands. Boys then seek other outlets for their energy and creativity.” You can read more from Richard Whitmire on his blog for Education Week.
What do you think? Do you think there’s a problem with how boys are taught in school? Are you seeing your equally smart little boy struggle in school, while your daughter excels? Are your kids enrolled at a school that uses different teaching techniques for boys and girls? Do you wish they were?
-Guest blogger Marc Bertucco
Tags: boys school
4 comments
My children don’t attend school. They are home educated and we practice interest led learning. But, several of my close friends, whose boys attend the city’s public schools have had trouble in the traditional school setting. I do believe the demands of the traditional school curriculum do not match the emotional needs, physical activity level and developmental schedule of most boys as they grow.
Whitmire is part of the “boy crisis” crew, but a close look at the evidence doesn’t really support him or the others. A comprehensive 2006 study from the education think tank Education Sector showed that long-term educational trends point to boys improving in most measures. SARA MEAD, EDUC. SECTOR, THE EVIDENCE SUGGESTS OTHERWISE: THE TRUTH ABOUT BOYS AND GIRLS (2006), available at http://www. educationsector.org/usr_doc/ESO_BoysAndGirls.pdf (looking at the National Assessment of Education Reports since their inception in the early 1970s). The report concludes that the popular notion of a “boy crisis” has come about because, in some important measures, girls have improved at a greater rate than boys, despite both groups improving overall. See, e.g., id. at 6 (looking at math, reading, and other subjects); id. at 10 (analyzing high school graduation rates); id. at 11 (looking at college enrollment data). As with others who have closely studied the matter, the report does find a big problem for certain subgroups of boys, particularly “poor, black, and Hispanic boys.” Id. at 9. But the overall picture painted by the concerning statistics about boys’ achievement might not be as bleak as often is claimed. See also David Von Drehle, The Boys Are All Right, TIME, Aug. 6, 2007, at 38 (surveying the data and finding that boys are doing better now than they had been in the 80s and 90s).
I put my son in parochial school because I felt he would not benefit from our local school. When I was in college, a professor told us about the tendency for boys to be held or left behind in schools. Girls are typically nurtured more, while boys (more often minority boys) are labeled as challenging and left to their own devices or shuffled into special education programs. Whether it is the curriculum or the teachers themselves, school isn’t exactly the level field it should be.
You might be interested in a slightly different take on boys in school posted at
http://invincibleprobity.wordpress.com/2011/03/28/why-are-american-men-so-dumb/
“Why Are American Men So Dumb?
Leave a Comment