Studies have long shown that boys in the United States and around the world do not read or write as well as girls. There are several reasons, according to the common wisdom.
But a new study finds that the problem cuts across socioeconomic lines and pins part of the blame squarely on schools, whose techniques cater to the strengths of girls and leave boys utterly disinterested.
The research, by psychology professor Judith Kleinfeld at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, finds that nearly one-quarter of high school seniors across the United States who are sons of white, college-educated parents have woeful reading skills, ranking “below basic” on a national standardized test.
I’m not really certain why anyone wants to be a teacher anymore. In general, public or private, teachers are glorified child-minders unless you’re really upscale.
In separate research that Kleinfeld is also preparing for publication, she has possibly gotten to the root of the problem.
“Here’s a fascinating fact,” she said. “There is no literacy gap in home-schooled boys and girls.”
“Why? In school, teachers emphasize reading literature and talking about character and feelings,” she said. “This way of teaching reading does not turn boys on. Boys prefer reading nonfiction, such as history and adventure books. When they are taught at home, parents are more likely to let them follow their interests.”
Teachers stay motivated for a while — till the reality of purse-strings, politicians and populist school boards sinks in. I’m not convinced that home-schooling by itself produces much more than additional economic strain on a family making do with less income. But, families will continue to be called upon to provide education in depth until the whole process is seriously revisited by something more than election-time slogans.
Thanks, Joshua.
Teachers are more than just child-minders. That label is an insult to all teachers who are working their hardest for the children they teach. Yes, some people who are teachers really shouldn’t be, but there are so many amazing teachers you have just written off.
#1…..he’s not writing them off, and he wasn’t insulting teachers abilities. If you read all of Eideards comments you would have noticed he was addressing what teachers have become due to the constraints put upon them by others.
Our P.C. society and the lawsuit mentality, combined with the sectarianism of our society have placed ropes and gags around our teachers abilities to teach.
When we started realizing that girls were being short changed and took a different turn to teaching, no one paid any attention to boys. Now when men/boys aren’t allowed to be just what they are, men/boys, the powers that be can’t figure out why these kids are turning out basically uneducated.
A few years ago they did a study that showed that girls do so much better in a classroom of only girls, without the *intimidation* of boys. That started the call for gender seperation in the classroom. What no one seemed to notice from the study was that boys also benifitted from not having girls in their classrooms and that they learned at a much higher level.
All rules have exceptions, but the one about how boys and girls learn differently is generally true, no matter how hard the Feminists or PC crowd try to say differently. Boys and girls ARE different, and not just in the outer bits department.
Jon — I guess if I hadn’t [as a matter of habit and policy] edited out the 1st paragraph I originally wrote, you may have concluded differentally. Because I wrote about the wonderful teachers I had when I was a kid. They fell into 2 categories:
1. My teachers at a local elementary school — in a poor neighborhood in a New England factory town. They may have not been any better funded than today’s lot; but, they were a highly respected segment in our city.
2. My parents who disapproved of the absence of budget or support for education and worked their butts off during little “discretionary” time to include weekly walks to the Carnegie Library and books and a reading schedule that was year-round.
My cynicism is rooted in 50 years of watching little or no improvement in parent-teacher support for education; diminished political support for anything but child-minding [regardless of sloganeering and semantics]; and a craft union theory of struggle which encourages collaboration more than insurgency on the part of education activists.
I love teachers. I admire the few who stay with it. We live in a nation with many more ex-teachers — than teachers.
I thought the conventional wisdom was that boys were statistically more engaged in advanced education from high-school and upwards because of developmental differences at younger levels and social changes later on.
Incidently, these days I find it tough to read a newspaper or watch the news and get any “main point” anyway. It seems like it’s mostly a lot of yelling.
Well then, I guess you have to give all the credit to working parents when kids pass their exams. And in my case in French – a language I don’t even speak.
RBG
As to the article…
DUH!!
Boys prefer reading nonfiction, such as history and adventure books.
Since when has this been true? I’m 25 and I’ve only really started to read non-fiction books (for pleasure, not counting school books) in the past couple years. I’ve been an avid reader my whole life, but in high school I would always prefer fiction.
#7….it’s a generalization. But it’s based on surveys of what kids read or claim they read.
Schools like to hand out drugsd like Ritalin to boys that are a little restless. Then any sort of aggression or competition gets stamped out, including games like dogeball. Anything where boys do better than girls is a sign of discrimination, so they change the curriculum again. Look at the PSAT where they decided to double the verbal score so girls could close the gap. Nevertheless at the top of hard science fields, it’s still boys coming on top. When Lawrence Sumemrs points out that maybe it’s genetic, he gets fired.
#9: Ritalin can only be prescribed by a physician, not by a school nurse (though a school nurse often has to dispense meds at lunchtime). I have a daughter with ADD, and that was the protocol for her medication in public school. She’s in college now and is doing fine, but can’t handle more than 3 classes a semester.
On boys reading books: In high school I always read the book for the story. When asked inane questions about the feelings of the characters, I usually pointed out that fictional characters don’t really have feelings, though the author might, then talked about the author’s feelings. It was usually enough to get the answer right.
My favorite reading in high school days (60s) was science fiction (especially Clarke, Asimov, and Heinlein), Tolkien, and books with plots I could relate to, like Tom Sawyer/Huckleberry Finn. I liked Shakespeare’s plays also. I didn’t mind writing reports about those books and plays either.
#10 in reference to Ritalin.
Before we moved to our current location, the school counselor asked for a conference in reference to my son. We were told that he was ADD, and given the name of a doctor who could help us. We were also informed that if we did not take action on this, he would be kicked out of school.
Instead of following her directives, we went to our family physician and asked his opinion. After a 10 minute interview he said that our son was not ADD, and the local schools do this kind of thing all the time. There are doctors who will prescribe based on nothing but the schools opinion. The school gives the opinion because it makes the children easier to deal with.
Our son is performing much better now. I left the industry I was in, in order to spend more time with the children, and we moved to another state. While he’s not making straight As or anything, he’s still performing much better in a smaller school district.
The point, however, is that many parents would have just gone to the doctor they were told to meet with, and placed their children on the drug….as they were told they must do.
I know that you are all wondering – yes, it is happening in New Zealand, too.
And I just thought that boys fared less because high grades meant to Fathers that their kids were gay *g*
Also the public schools get compensated more for “problem” or “special ed” children than normal children. So there is a bias to find these children and help them. (because there is money in it.)
There was a recent study where they compared public school kids and kids that got a voucher. The voucher kids were slightly ahead. What a lot of people missed in the study was that the voucher kid’s schools spent helf as much as the public kid’s schools on education. (on a per child basis adjusted for special needs kids)
Maybe the problem isn’t purely a monetery one.