UK: All work and no play is bad for boys

Submitted by anthony on Tue, 2009-03-10 22:21

Story here. Excerpt:

'An “unashamed feminist”, Tyre was brought up to worry about the achievement of girls. She was astonished to discover that it is now boys who are falling behind. “Evidence of this trend is everywhere,” she says. “People think there's something wrong with boys, but I'd say that's not necessarily true: it's what we expect of them instead.

“When you talk to boys about school, they say it's girly, that it's lots of ladies talking,” says Tyre. She argues that boys are badly served from pre-school onwards. They are not allowed to run around and not taught by enough male teachers. There has also been an educational shift away from play towards learning and targets at an earlier age.

She is convinced that reading and writing skills are the key to life and educational achievements, but says that boys are falling way behind in these skills. This is partly because they start to read later than girls, and never recover from that earlier deficit. But it is also, Tyre argues, because boys are given the wrong books to read.'

Like0 Dislike0

Comments

This is so true,

Here in the US everything that boys like about school is getting cut (recess, PE, hands on science). Everything is 'sit still' and 'comply' with all the other kids.

Test-prep has taken over education and in my state, the universal state test (which is given in every grade starting in 3rd) is very 'female friendly'. By that I mean that it is graded on your ability to explain (talk) rather that accuracy. The test relies heavily on written explanation (girls tend to write-out longer explanations than boys) and is subjectively hand-scored. Girls out-score boys on this state exam at a 2 to 1 passing ratio. The schools have discontinued the traditional standardized tests that boys do better on.

I decided I would homeschool my boys, especially when I learned that my local grade school does not even offer PE until 3rd grade. US federal government has rules about how much PE time schools are required to provide, but most schools are out of compliance and no one seems to care.

Since I am a full time college student this is very difficult, but I have the help of my parents and family. Thankfully my dad takes my boys along whenever he fixes things. They talk about how things work and he lets them use his tools.

My boys do martial arts 3 times per week, and we go on family bike rides every chance we get. We get together with other home school families and do a lot of outdoor and hand-on activities. They are active and/or outside for several hours each day!

I am so glad I don't have some teacher breathing down our necks, calling to tell me that my boys have 'ADD' or something.

As far as reading and math goes, I incorporate it in through out the day, and read to them every night. My boys are right on target as far as academics go.

I am angry that the schools do not do more to help boys, but I also do not understand why most parents do not realize what is going on. The homeschool parents are quite aware of the educational crisis with boys, but other parents just don't get it.

Like0 Dislike0
Submitted by Kris on Wed, 2009-03-11 22:00

I've kept my son in the education system. Although I'd actually love to homeschool him, it's not something we can manage. However, I as his father have taken a front seat in educating my son. I consider his school education to be reinforcement of facts, rather than teaching. All of his real education; reading, math, phys-ed, art, etc. comes from me; and happens before he needs to know it in school. He is ahead of his classmates in almost all areas, in some cases far ahead. His teachers don't have much to complain about. And when they do; I can challenge them because I know what he's capable of. It's a lot of work, but so far it seems to be working. (knock on wood). I shudder to think of the children whose parents actually rely on the education system for education.

Like0 Dislike0
Submitted by alen on Thu, 2009-03-12 12:11