Teachers and education system bias towards girls

[asdmumandteacher]

What do you all think? I am a teacher (secondary) of 14 years and feel the secondary curriculum (and primary too) is heavily weighted towards girls' natural skills and less so to boys' skills. I have taught all girls for most of the last 14 years in selective (grammar)and high schools (the equivalent of secondary moderns) and i have two sons. We are forever hearing about girls outperforming boys (when in O level days twas the other way around and the 1967 Plowden report sort to redress the balance) I think it has gone way too far in the other direction.

or at least it should be...am confusing myself now!

Well, I'm not sure any agreement has been reached at all. You and several others may have well have posted it. Others are still harping on general gender differences. Today.

I think there's just a limit to how many times you can say some boys but not the middle class ones or the Chinese ones and acutally white working class girls are underachieving too.

Sometimes you ahve to generalise. Boys in general are being outperformed by girls but this masks huge variation between social class, ethnicity and between subjects.

We all know that but don't beother to post it every tiem.

Glad your son goes to dance lessons asd.

You know, I took my dd to a ballet recently and when she told some friends of ours they started giving my dp a hard time about whether HE'd gone to see the men in tights hee hee sort of thing. He didn't actually.

Point being gender stereotypes and perceived masculine and femininte activities are still alive and kicking in men of all ages and will be for generations to come. Though educated etc etc thi sman didn't choose a partiuclr nursery because when they went to viist it there was a little boy dressed up in a dress!

And you still here a lot of no son of mine etc etc. Behaviours more rigid for boys than girls IMHO - now ok for girls to wear trousers and play with cars and do science moe or less . Much harder for a boy to wear a skirt, sew, etc

Not resignation about it. There have been initiatives to increase male teachers recently but they have had little effect. On the whole, I support such initiatives as I much prefer reasonably balanced work environments. But recent research did show that the sex of the teacher had no effect on the learning of boys. That's a bit of recent research I do remember.

Haven't read the whole thread but agree with the OP. Which is why I send my DS to a boys' school, with special emphasis on engaging with the way boys learn - apparently it is no joke that they have Very Short Attention Spans (well we knew that, didn't we?)

it was totally his suggestion and he loves it! Am very pleased and hubby took him last week and sat and watched while he did it (some of my pupils were dancing in there too and made fuss of him)We are both really pleased he has suggested a hobby (as well as his love for rugby) as everything else has been our suggestion to him.

To go back to the thread title, I think there is a bias in a society against girls or anything perceived as girly (rather than an education system bias towards girls). And this is by far the bigger more concerning issue as so many things in life are perceived as girly.

This is a really interesting and important debate. I agree with Fivecandles, who seems very fair especially as she has girls herself. There's no point saying that the gender gap doesn't matter any more than saying that the pay gap later on doesn't matter. We all benefit from well educated and motivated boys- aren't most of the prisons in this country filled by poorly educated semi-literate men?
I have summer born boys and so far haven't found too much of a disadvantage at primary level, but that's partly because I have pushed them a bit myself, as I was aware of this gender and birthday disadvantage. In my own personal experience, boys can be good at "girl" things like handwriting but they perhaps need extra praise and help.

It is really making me laugh when people post sanctimoniously 'nobody is apportioning blame' when the title of the OP's post is "Teachers and education system bias towards girls"!

children have fairly short attention spans. Research has shown that children work and learn better when a lesson is chunked into sections. This broadly benefits all children, not just boys. The current education system reflects this.

Er, I also have girls! Two of them. And a boy. I feel very cross at the idea that my son should get more praise than my daughter for the same things.

Well that is what I have been saying.

I said quite a while back that the behaviours which are considered masculine
being physically active, aggressive, strong, rebellious, sporty, dominant etc etc are often (considered) highly undesirable in the classroom and will often prevent boys from learning and achieving. Unlikely to get them jobs any more either.

Whereas qualities traditionally considered feminine - obedience, quietness etc etc the opposite in both respects.

I agree Rose that we all benefit from well educated and motivated boys

It's funny pointy because I think there is a bias against boys!
Regarding Quattro's post, there seem to be an awful lot more single sex secondary schools (both state and private) for girls. In the Tunbridge Wells area, for example, loads of schools for girls and hardly any for boys.

Do you really think it so strange and modern that 'aggression' and being 'rebellious' is 'considered undesirable'? Do you think there was ever a golden age for boys in which all the male teachers thought 'oh goody, a rebellious, aggressive, strong, dominant pupil! How very marvellous!' No, they beat them with sticks until they were suitably obedient and quiet!

Sorry that's in response to what pointy was saying about girly behaviour.

mabanana the title of the OP is questioning whether there is some sort of systemic bias which is not necessarily conscious or intentional.

It's hardly about blaming women and girls and calling them naughty etc which is what you are suggesting

And as the link I posted earlier suggests it IS quite possible that there is just that through coursework for example - an unintentioanl and unplanned bias in favour of girls' achievement.

'Blame' an 'fault' is not helpful to discussion. It's much more complex thatn that. Sicne we're dealign with complex deep rooted and often unconscious stereotypes, power structures, tradionas and atitutdes.

Mabanana the debate is not on such a superficial and obvious line i believe - as FC has said it is more complex than that

hang on - how do you know what the op was questioning in such detail? You are not the op, candles

in cahoots, you two

Don't get your point mabanana. No I don't think it's strange. My point is that there is often a huge conflict for boys between being 'manly' and winning the approval of their peers and academic achievement. I see it all the time in the classroom.

Some boys are faced with a farily clear choice between being bullied by their mates and doing well at school or doing badly at school and winning the approval of their mates.

No she isn't but she understands from a teaching perspective what i am trying to get at i think

Of course i am not as articulate as a music teacher than an English teacher but if i could compose a piece of music to get my underlying thoughts across i would!lol!!

FGS, 'bias' is not the same as blame or criticism. Get a dictionary.

The only person talking about blaming women or al problems being their fault is you.