MSN Encarta: Boys vs. Girls Maximizing Your Child's Potential

Submitted by WakeUp on Fri, 2008-05-09 23:03

Article here about segregation in classrooms based on gender.

From the article: "According to Gurian, at the elementary school level, for example, boys tend to lag in language arts (history, social studies and reading)."

From the article: "Many teachers also have caught on to the advantages of letting boys be boys, which means encouraging physical movement. Short of letting them run screaming through the school yard, teachers can assign boys tasks, such as passing out papers or cleaning the chalkboard. If you have an especially active son, ask the teacher if he can play with a softball while working at his desk."

From the article: "Girls especially benefit from the mixing of methods, and teachers can change things up in the classroom, encouraging writing, role-playing and other activities -- even in math classes -- to help girls absorb the material."

What's next? Back to white kids in one room and black kids in another? Which race would have to clean the chalkboard and pass out papers?

Also, this article makes boys with A.D.D. sound like stupid cats with a balls of yarn who need to be distracted while girls need to he helped. Why not actually help the boys, too, AND teach the kids to play nicely in mixed classes?

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Comments

I'm a little confused by the comments by the submitter, as my impression is that many MRAs are in favor of separate classes for boys and girls. Currently, mixed gender classes have tended to favor the learning style of girls at the expense of boys, as the education system has become influenced by feminism in recent decades. Many examples show that boys have improved test scores when they are taught in their own style in all-boy classrooms.

I agree that the article could have described boys in a better way and that there should also be opportunities for boys and girls to learn to interact and respect one another, but the analogy between separating boys and girls with separating whites and blacks is misleading.

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Submitted by mens_issues on Fri, 2008-05-09 20:30

I suppose some MRAs do agree with separated classrooms. I for one don't. To clarify, I'll say that segregating based on anything (race, gender, ethnicity, religion) is the opposite of teaching people to play fairly and nicely. What happens when those same kids grow up and get jobs in American politically correct diverse work environments? Also, I agree that the girls learning style is favored in classrooms (and females have higher college graduation rates), which is one reason why I submitted this article. I compared gender to race because any segregation is against my beliefs. Males are made aware of our behavior and attitude towards females starting at a young age, and so should girls. More to the root of the issue is a lack of male teachers in my opinion. Mainly having female teachers in the system means having a mainly female learning style even if not all of the teachers are necessarily sexist.

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Submitted by WakeUp on Fri, 2008-05-09 21:11

"I'll say that segregating based on anything (race, gender, ethnicity, religion) is the opposite of teaching people to play fairly and nicely"

Yes, because that has worked soooo well for us so far. Play fair and nicely, yeah right, only if you are male.

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Submitted by Garak on Sat, 2008-05-10 00:50

There is another issue and it cannot be solved by segregating boys and girls into separate classes.

Approximately 85% of K-12 teachers are women, and they have graduated from educational colleges that have little or no curriculum about boy's learning styles.

So, what good would it do to put an entire classroom of boys in front of a female teacher who has no education in understanding boys' learning needs?

Clearly we need more men teachers. But young men learn early on that they are perceived as potential pedophiles, and so abandon the field of teaching because it is too risky.

One of the interesting tricks that feminism has pulled off is to represent that the genders are "the same," all the while creating and funding programs to advantage women and girls.

If you take an average twelve year old boy and make him sit still at a desk all day, deny him recess or other opportunities to be active -- of course he is going to feel like he is in prison.

Girls on the other hand love the docile regimentation of the classroom and the herd mentality and the attention from the teacher.

I truly don't know what the solution is, but it has to involve better education of teachers about boys' learning styles and how to incorporate gender "diverse" instruction into the classrooms.

You would think that some feminists in favor of gender equality would advocate that, but they don't.

What I really wonder about is the feminist moms. And how they feel about their sons' experiences of institutionalized discrimination.

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Submitted by Roy on Sat, 2008-05-10 02:27

Since when have the public schools given a dump about helping BOYS?
I thought that the whole point was to support, nurture and coddle girls while disenfranchising and feminizing the boys, so that women will have all the power and men little or none, in the future.
Y' know, the whole; "We woMEN are takin' over!!!," "It's OUR turn!!" jazz.
(Have no doubt that IS the feminist agenda.)

I mean people are easy to control as long as you keep 'em STUPID.

Hmph..., Ask anyone in the MEDIA.

See ya.

Thundercloud
(A.K.A. Phoenix)

Ladies, remember; you can't preach EQUALITY while claiming SUPERIORITY. Dig?

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Submitted by Thundercloud. on Sat, 2008-05-10 16:36

would be best for boys? Until you have some points to make, discussing changes with educational bureaucracies is pretty futile. If you have some points to suggest, on the other hand, they have to refute you and justify the refutation. Gives you means for discussion, and ways to take the discussion public.

What about home schooling cirricula? Are there any specifically designed for boys and/or girls?

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Submitted by TomP on Sat, 2008-05-10 21:39