King of Fools has a phenomenal post up about the "stealth gender gap," which references an Atlantic Monthly article, "The Other Gender Gap."
From the Atlantic:
From kindergarten on, the education system rewards self-control, obedience, and concentration-qualities that, any teacher can tell you, are much more common among girls than boys, particularly at young ages. Boys fidget, fool around, fight, and worse. Thirty years ago teachers may have accommodated and managed this behavior, in part by devoting more attention to boys than to girls. But as girls have come to attract equal attention, as an inability to sit still has been medicalized, and as the options for curbing student misbehavior have been ever more curtailed, boys may have suffered. Boys make up three quarters of all children categorized as learning disabled today, and they are put in special education at a much higher rate (special education is often misused as a place to stick "problem kids," and children seldom switch from there to the college track). Shorter recess times, less physical education, and more time spent on rote learning (in order to meet testing standards) may have exacerbated the problems that boys tend to experience in the classroom.
Which would seem to contradict the ever-present mantra in education that standardized tests are unfair to women. This seems to be primarily due to the gender gap that appears on the SAT, but on other tests, girls outperform boys on language arts sections and equal them on math. The most recent NAEP reports show 4th- and 8th-grade girls neck-and-neck with boys on math, while the advantage that girls have over boys at similar reading levels is much larger. Anyone who examined the NAEP results closely would conclude that, especially when it comes to reading (and writing), it's boys who are being short-changed.
King of Fools comments:
One key factor which is not mentioned is the continued lack of male teachers. For many decades, teaching was primarily a male profession, but now non-female teachers are rare, especially at the elementary level...
I do believe that female teachers are doing a good job. However, also believe that interaction with adult males is vital for young children, especially young boys. The need for men to serve as character examples for young people has never been more necessary, with the number of children growing up without a father in their home. I also believe that a male teacher is more understanding of the behavior and psychology of his male students. He is also (usually) better suited toward maintaining discipline in the classroom - especially with the boys.
I agree.
Posted by kswygert at January 21, 2004 04:56 PM