Grr. Why are all "bored" DSs allegedly unrecognised G&T? Teachers must tear their hair out!

[teslagirl]

Why is it that seemingly every 8 and 9 y.o. DS who announces he's "bored at school" is automatically regarded by his mother as being "very intelligent but under stimulated" by the school? Sometimes I feel I'm surrounded by it! I had 2 parents helping at the school disco who said this, separately. The DSs are both Y3- and as luck would have it, both in my DS1s class (he's Y4 in a Y3/4 combo) and HE said, when obliquely questioned that both DSs are in Maths 4 and Literacy 4- out of 5. As "very intelligent" Y3s they should surely be in 3 or EVEN 2 if they're REALLY G&T (bearing in mind group 1 is full of the brightest Y4s)!

I heard this also in the wash-up after Y4 parents evening- a few mums who told the teacher DS needed more work as he'd said he was "Bored", proof indeed that the school was evidently failing them... Surely it's cool for junior school boys to claim EVERYTHING is 'Boring'?- it's in the nature of being 8-11 esp whilst emulating the studied ennui of the older boys! It doesn't necessarily mean they ARE bored OR, if they genuinely are, let's not go assuming it's because our DS is an unrecognised G&T thus are under stimulated/failed by the school, but maybe entertain the possibility that DS can't be bothered/hasn't got the maturity to understand the value of engaging with his education! I know the DSs concerned and I don't see any glimmer of genius lurking within!

One further point- and I know this is thin ice: It also strikes me how many of the mothers concerned haven't got an O level to rub together. Perfectly nice people, all, but women who will admit they spent secondary snogging behind the bike shed but suddenly spout authoritatively on the nature of Education Theory and The Undiagnosed Genius.

I have 3 DSs so was keen for them to go to a mixed sex school. The only advantage that I can see in a single sex school is that boys are more inclined to do what is often viewed as a 'girls' subject and vice versa.

re 'Turn to page 27 and copy', it avoids thought and work, doesn't it? And God forbit that they should have to think. Or do anything.

many of my kids will not even look up a definition in a book, they want to be told what page it is on.....

The other benefit of an all boys' schools is that (and I dislike the word) but the geeks are more likely to find each other, rather than be the odd one in a class. Girls in particular can be particularly merciless to a geek. My most vocal and interesting class last year was dominated by bright, amusing and gobby geeks/brainy boys! They were a challenge but a pleasure to teach. In other schools I have taught in, they would sadly have 'learnt' to keep their heads down.

But why is it that boys have to have everything geared to them- only boy heroes in their books etc- while girls can take in a much wider range of literature (and life)? I just find it narrow. And before you flame me, I do have a ds (and a dd).

She is fine with "boys' books", he kicks up a major fuss about any story that features girls. I don't want him to go to a single-sex school where his narrow tastes would be indulged even more. The school library is already full of Superheroes and Captain Underpants. I want him challenged and taken out of his comfort zone. If he finds it more difficult to see things from the viewpoint of somebody who is not exactly like him, then that's just a skill that he's going to need to practise more- like any other skill. It's a good skill- even if it is more commonly found in girls.

And he's got to behave whatever school he goes to, so that's just tough.

But Cory, the government has recognised that boys were/are underachieving. They have tried to redress this by encouraging the sort of literature that boys read. It isn't to do with boy heroes. However they also use literature that appeals to girls as well, so it is even.

Before that (and I,m not totally sure) it was very female orientated, Jane Austen and the likes. It certainly was when I was at school.

I remember quite a few years ago, one of the reasons cited for boys underachievement in English was due to introduction of Shakespeare in KS3.

I think people are misunderstanding what we are saying. It isn't about favouring one sex over the other. It is about helping both genders achieve well.

I'm not sure they study "captain Underpants"at GCSE though . Your ds may well feel more comfortable with male orentated literature in secondary school. If he likes it, he will do well in it. Broadening tastes is good, but may not always be that easy.

My ds is doing Of Mice and Men at school. Appeals to both sexes equally, wheres Jane Eyre hich I did at GCSE could only appeal to girls

Am not complaining about the contents of the school library, fizzbuzz- am complaining about the contents of my son's brain! And dh's for that matter! Their narrowness! Their unwillingness to think outside a box!

Why is it that Mice and Men - a book by a male author about two men - appeals to both sexes whereas Jany Eyre, which is primarily about women, only appeals to women? I am not sure it is just a difference in brains or how we learn; I think the difference in attitude has a lot to do with it. Even my dh, who is a very modern and equality-minded man, seems to assume that a book about a group of women couldn't possibly have anything to say to him. It would never occur to me to reject a book about a group of men for that reason.

When my generation was at school, the curriculum consisted of mainly male authors: Thomas Hardy, Graham Greene, Wm Shakespeare, D.H. Lawrence, Golding, Christopher Marlowe etc etc; with just handful of female authors: Jane Austen and the Brontes. The difference is that when a male author writes about men, the girls in the class don't start moaning or switching off. I don't believe that Jane Austen has ever dominated the curriculum to the exclusion of her male colleagues; it's just that you notice a female author so much more...

Ha! Off to read Laura Ingalls to my ds for bedtime [emoticon for evil cackle]. Dh has already done a course of compulsory Jane Austen reading. These being the only men Providence has delivered into my hands I shall broaden their minds if I have to do it with a mattock!

(did I mention that most of my own schooling took place in Sweden where embroidery and knitting was compulsory for boys and girls)

Boys often miss the humour and subtlety in Austen (well so do girls tbh). They can engage with female characters e.g. Sade in The other Side of Truth, Esther in the Bell Jar and have previously taught Oranges are Not the Only Fruit & Color Purple to all boy groups - the initial response to the lesbianism is always amusing . However, often with teens the issue is just to keep them reading.

Oooh Laura Ingals Wilder. I love those books.

I don't know anything really about English much. I teach D&T, I'm just talking about what I,ve picked up from English colleagues

I've just taught embroidery to Y8 boys. They bloody love it{grin]. They are all obsessed with French knots ...and girls do excell at resistant materials (wood and metalwork, although I don't teach that.

A very high proportion of statemented children are summer born boys. I think there is something wrong with a system where lots of boys fail.

Boys are not less intelligent than girls, but they do develop more slowly. The English education system makes no allowance for boys who are not ready to start school. I am sure that many summer born boys would do better if they were to start school a year later.

Prehaps there should be a test of readiness that children should pass to be allowed to start school. Children who aren't ready for school should get an extra year full time in a state school nursery. They could then start reception the following year.

Obviously if a child who had already defered a year was not ready then they would have real special needs as opposed to being immature.

I am heartily heartily glad that DS is at a boys school. I do believe the education system is failing lots of boys - both bright and not so bright.

It would be interesting to have some statistics to compare the success rate of boys in the Scandinavian countries where they start that little bit later. If it is a question of immaturity (as seems not unlikely) then one would expect boys to be less disadvantaged there.

Mind you, at least in Sweden they do not get their results through exams, but through continuous assessment by the teacher (yes, even in Sixth Form!), so you would expect that to favour those students who are willing to plod on every day.

My DS who I am consistently told is extremly bright especially in maths and science never complains of being bored. Instead he states quite firmly that he HATES school and complains that it is too hard. Even when his teacher tells me to ask him about somehting extraordinary he has done it is like pulling teeth and often ends in tears cos he doesn't want to talk about any detail about school cos he hates it.

He is 8. I hated school for much of it but I was not very academic so am at a loss. Perhaps he hates being told what to do?