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Title IX for our boys: Column
Article here. Excerpt:
'Stereotyped as "naughty," boys quickly learn that they are thought of as dumber and more trouble than girls. And that has consequences. "When boys aged seven to eight were told that they tend to do worse at school than girls, they scored more poorly in reading, writing and mathematics tests than those who were not primed for failure. And telling children aged six to nine before a test that both sexes were expected to do equally well improved the boys' performance." But the message that boys get is that they're not as smart.
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The way boys are treated in K-12 also impacts how they do with regard to college. According to a recent study of male college enrollment, it's not academic performance, but discipline that holds boys back. "Controlling for these non-cognitive behavioral factors can explain virtually the entire female advantage in college attendance for the high school graduating class of 1992, after adjusting for family background, test scores and high school achievement." Boys are disciplined more because teachers -- overwhelmingly female -- find stereotypically male behavior objectionable. Girls are quieter, more orderly, and have better handwriting. The boys get disciplined more, suspended more and are turned off of education earlier.'
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Title IX for Our Boys
In the 22 years since the infamous girls' self esteem study, female primary school teachers have had support for being especially hard on boys.
This borders on deception.
The easiest way to get girls' grades to go up relative to boys' grades is to lower the boys' grades.
This means that there's no real progress for girls and negative progress for boys.
Sadly, it also means that teachers don't have to make any more effort than that to be seen as supporting girls' ambitions and goals.
They haven't learned much except how to justify prejudices and stereotypes.
This makes them greviously inadequate role models for our children.