The Boy Can't Help It

	posted by Adam on Wednesday December 19, @01:00PM from the boys/young-men dept.
	I don't normally post messages from egroups, but this one is a exception. The writer makes the case that "special needs" kids (almost all of whom are boys) suffer due to the fact that there are no role models for them, and this is why they're put in the "special needs" section. It makes for quite a convincing case, so click this link to read it.

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heart breaking (Score:1) by nagzi (nagziNO@SPAMPLEASEphreaker.net) on Wednesday December 19, @05:43PM EST (#1) (User #86 Info) Reading this sort of thing is very heart breaking. I only had one male teacher in elementry and that was in my last of elementry. I was also put in a "special needs" class in grade 3. For grade 4 my parents had enough with that elementry school and we moved, so I could goto a different one. And I ended up getting a 95% grade average, now is that a child with special needs?

Re: The Boys Can't Help It (Score:1) by essex9999 on Wednesday December 19, @08:34PM EST (#2) (User #511 Info) I wonder if the problem is the result of the lack of male teachers or rather a change (much for the worse) in attitude among teachers and in the education establishment. When I was in elementary school in the 1960's, all of the teachers were women. The only man at the school besides the janitor was the principal, and even that changed by the time I was in 6th grade. (It was assumed and expected that our "male role models" would be our fathers.) And yet, the teachers took natural boyish behavior in stride. Sure there were discipline problems, but they were handled individually. There were no "special needs" programs for children who were not obviously disabled, mentally or physically. This was not an impovished, deprived school district lacking in resources. It was Montgomery County, Maryland, one of the most affluent school systems in the country. Women have always been predominant in primary education, at least in the US, a fact which is unlikely to change in the foreseeable future. I think the problem is not women teachers per se, but rather teachers who now expect little boys to behave like little girls. I hope articles like this one can help to highlight the problem and bring some common sense and realism back to teaching.

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