to be totally bored hearing this same old trite trotted out

[curryfreak]

Get this all the time from parents of boys.
How difficult they are, how much more of a handful they can be in relation to girls, how much they eat in comparision to girls ffs,- who cares.
The one though, that has been in vogue for a while,(courtesy of daily mail headlines and the like) is how terrible boys are faring in the education system, and how these dreadful female teachers are feminising the poor little mites,- how they have no male role models, because there are so few male teachers (particularly in primary schools)
Yawn yawn yawn...
Simple facts are girls have been on the backfoot for years. Nobody gave a toss, when they were lagging behind educationally, and in some cases activly discourgaed from taking subjects which were considered male dominated.
Boys are having to wake up to the fact that their sense of entitlement is no longer acceptable.
So, thoughts.

Absolutely agree Perfectstorm. I earn a lot of money and DP earns little. The evolutionary gain in the time it took me to earn far more than my DP meant nothing other than I now work getting up to 15 hours a day.

I still want the best my DS could attain from the schooling system though. I'm not bitter

lol Hunker.

Actually I agree with that too PerfectStorm. More of a problem that rose from equality than equality itself. Sick of the mortgage market.

I have two girls and one boy. In general boys do seem to struggle more with the set up of nurseries and schools and saying they have to put up with it because it just their turn is ridiculous!. My little boy deserves just as many chances, just as much help as my little girls regardless of whose "turn" it is.

Very interesting! Never mentioned feminism once. Seems some posters are fairly obsessed with it though!

I have a boy and a girl.

Boys are doing worse than girls at school. Boys in primary schools seem to have more than their fair share of social problems.

I am not sure what your argument is. It seems to be that the problems of boys in schools, and the speculation over what causes those problems bores you, and that in some sense small boys deserve to be miserable in school because of the sins of their fathers.

I would like it if children were happy in school; I don't know why so many boys are unhappy and not achieving at school, but I'd like more research and effort into finding out why and then doing something about it.

I actually don't think a higher salary in later life makes up for childhood misery.

I hate the constant sloppy use of 'sense of entitlement' on MN lately. Particularly as this has been yet another thread where someone seems to be suggesting that people shouldn't feel entitled to a decent education, when actually education is a basic human right and has been recognised as such since 1948. It is legitimate to feel entitled to equality in education! I know that this is not your fault OP, but someone on another thread was going on about the 'sense of entitlement' of parents who expected their children to be educated despite them not manning a PTA stall.

I wish MN would save 'sense of entitlement' to refer to people who are demanding the rights to spend all day making 17th century tarts while being transported in their own private train carriage, rather than apply it to people who just want a basic human right like education or housing.

I love the phrase 'competitive victim syndrome;' it is stopping me from flouncing.

well isnt this all very provocative start topic.sit back.watch thread

next time try harder

You might not understand the concept of feminism, Curryfreak, but it is what underpins your OP.

attention seeking

"Never mentioned feminism once."

Erm...yes you DID? Not using the exact term doesn't stop something being feminist. Going into some detail about female oppression and inequality is feminist. It's kind of the raison d'etre of the entire flipping women's movement.

You have got to be a troll. Nobody could actually be quite this monumentally, painfully stupid, unless discussing Michael Jackson's purity of soul.

You never mentioned the word feminism yet your post talked about the historic hardship of women and that girls were discouraged from male-dominated subjects etc. I wonder how on earth that made us consider feminism in this debate or should I say debacle?

There are less and less male teachers, fact. Just check statistics. Teaching is a low status profession, perhaps not compared to sewer cleaners but certainly compared to a doctor or lawyer etc. The university entry requirements are less and a majority of teachers have a 2.2 or lower degree class. Not a huge majority but a majority all the same. Of course, the pay is less.

The op has a point, we keep hearing how the school system favours girls etc but no one wants to tackle the fact that 99% of CEOs are male, that men earn a third more than women, that far more wwomen live in poverty than men etc. Those stats are damming.

sorry to be pedantic scottishmummy but I think what you mean is "attention seeking loon"

Ooooh! I can finally do this without worrying about harming someone in genuine crisis!

My mumsnet dreams are now fulfilled.

aye!stand corrected i concur with your observation

Do you (anyone that is) feel that education was so different for boys in previous decades, or was it just the threat of a walloping that made boys work at school. I don't think that school was any more boyish, active, hands-on in the 50s than it is now. If anything it is better at that now. I would think that boys are probably happier at school now than they were in my dad's day.

ah yes, larks. Now we come to the nitty gritty. Hard evidence, there is none.

dear god the only point op has is the poker in her arse

Interesting that you only seem to post in AIBU OP.

Why are 99% of CEOs male? We have the babies - someone has to look after them, men are better blaggers with more confidence and can escape from looking after them...i know its very coarse but...whaddya think of me theory?

btw I have a 2:1 (I was .4 % away from a 1st in my degree grrrrr - I was highest scoring female in my year). I don't know any teachers who had thirds or just pass degrees but thats only my experience.

I don't know Larks; I think it is hard to compare. I think that boys are labelled as having behavioural problems more than girls are, and I suspect that having such a label does not make you happy. I don't know if that has changed over time or not.

who have thrids or pass degrees....its late!

Gawd messed that up as well - gonna give up

It's actually quite competitive to get on postgrad courses. However, it's quite easy to get on to a 4 year education degree course. When I worked at a uni, they were always trying to fill up the BEd course.

teachers are fantastic people vocationally gifted dont care about degree classification. i care about a passion and vigour to teach and enjoy and celebrate children