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.

Absolutely, me too and the implication that boys need to be taught by male teachers winds me up too but now my dcs go to school I do agree that primary schools in particular can be very, very fluffy and feminine and expect the children to be quiet and good and so on and I just don't think this is helpful for anyone.

Especially, I'd say, girls. Because their conformity (as you point out above) is taken as 'natural', so they're tacitly encouraged to get quieter and quieter and more and more 'good' - without any of the questioning that happens with boys.

Not that mine are either particularly quiet or good, I have to say.

I think MI and fivecandles together make very good points. We see the sitting still and concentrating as biased in favour of girls, but in the allegedly boy-centric days, sitting in rows and writing was the done thing. But then so was significant amounts of highly physical activity, which is certianyl on the wane. And God knows there are plenty of MN threads about how children shouldn't be forced to do sports they hate for whatever reason .

Oh, and the school leaving age was lower. And there were apprenticeships. My dad left school at 15, with no qualifications at all and no great literacy skills. He joined the gas board as an apprentice and worked for 40-odd years as a gas fitter. His outlook would be a darn sight bleaker if he left school today I think.

coursework stinks.

The teachers do it, the parents do it, kids do it over and over again - of course there is grade inflation when you have a situation where you can have multiple goes at something.

I'm not a boy, but I quite liked exams. Even if you did badly, you knew it was your own fault for not revising enough, and if you did well, you were either good, hard-working, or had a knack for winging it.

I think the only subjects where coursework has a place are the practical ones.

I think pre computers and Internet and league tables it seemed like a good idea. Not now.

Hear, hear mi.

loath coursework in the sciences.

Has next to nothing in common with 'real' science.

Just endless nit picking.

Too many kids/parents cheat.

MI, I have two sons and I have been lucky with their teachers (all female) as they are understanding that boys and girls are different. Its naive to think they all are though. Some female teachers just will not tolerate boys, not even naughtiness, just boyishness. By no means let mine rule the roost either, mine are pretty well behaved. BIG difference in energy levels and normal behaviour between my daughter and the boys though

Also most teachers know that boys prefer factual reading to the girls liking 'stories'. Yes its generalisations but its differencs that are apparent

My son is goes to an all boys private primary school. It is has a very sporty and well disciplined environment. Lessons are kept short and tailored to boys interests and class sizes small. Standards are very high but the teachers have realistic views on what boys can achieve (and are not comparing them to girls).

I was recently looking at girls schools for my daughter and I was struck by how they aren't that different from co-ed state schools.

Which, I think might back up the OP.

We've had a huge focus on raising boys' achievement over the past 5 years and for the past few years our boys out-perform the girls again (secondary).

I guess we need to start pushing the girls again!

I quite like teaching single-sex groups, and choose to do literacy intervention in this way. But I wouldn't like to work in a single-sex school: I like the variety.

..so what?
When girls go to work, they'll earn 20% less than the boys and not get into senior positions, and do most of the housework when in a relationship.
So the boys win in the end.

I find it ironic that men have designed an educational system that girls get the best results in.

motherinferior - sorry was off doing the dinner! I would like to get rid of coursework because it is not a fair system at all for both sexes

My mum had 3 bright girls who were compliant and worked very hard (lucky her!) I have 2 boys who are full of bouncy energy (one has severe asd so he will never access real curriculum anyway) and are not compliant..she says to me over and over how different boys are to girls - how my parenting experience is soooo different from hers...and boy i know it was!

MI i would never encourage the girls i teach to be quiet - ever - i totally believe they need to stand up for themselves in this day and age and will spend 90% of my time at school encouraging them to speak up

MI - i teach girls who i love all day long and come home to my lovely boys... i really disagree with you. I do believe the education system attempts to emasculate boys. You seem to have a real negativity in your posts towards boys.

fivecandles, I very much agree with your post re fluffy primary schools (especially in Foundation stage)

I'm not a teacher but as a parent of a boy and a girl who have both had the same teachers (bar one) I can see the difference in how they have been treated. And ds is my quiet, shy child, but is still a boy.

Also agree with TFM (I think it is) re school leaving age - it should be lowered not raised fgs!

I really think coursework does suit girls better (great generalisation emoticon). I have two boys, one much better at winging it for exams, hated coursework, other one more diligent but still not too keen on coursework. Coursework seems to work better on the hardworking, neat and tidy type (not always necessarily girls, but more often than not) but more importantly it so easy to cheat, parents who are medics doing science coursework, boyfriends doing girlfriends coursework, I could go on. My DS1 would certainly have benefitted from courswork being done in controlled cirumstances at school as a) he would actually have done it (being forced to) and b) would have done quite well (because is actually v bright) and c) would not have been outdone by mediocre student having been 'helped' by parent/cleverer boyfriend/girlfriend.

Actually, I don't think school leaving age should be lowered at the moment. When my dad left school there was something for him to do. He earned money, learned a trade. We don't have that now. Like I said, if he left school with no qualifications now, I don't think he'd have the life and opportunities he has had.

Sorry, I should have said if there was the opportunity to do an apprenticeship or similar.

A friend of ours left school at 15, did an apprenticeship, various other bits and bobs over the years, now has a PhD and works in a university as a researcher/lecturer.

MI, I don't think anyone is saying that girls' academic success doesn't count. Of course it does, and they would probably do just as well if the teaching methods were different. It's just that boys are doing less well when they could do better if the teaching was tailored more to the way they learn. It is very frustrating to be the mother of a bright boy who is not achieving their potential and in mixed schools they are forever being compared to the 'good' girls, rightly or wrongly, who sit quietly and do as they are told. A sweeping generalisation, but it is true in quite a lot of schools, esp primary schools.

I come from a family of girls and found it a real eye opener to be suddenly the mother of two boys (and one girl!) and to see the differences in the way they learn/behave. And my DD (now at university) is not particularly 'girly' at all, but nevertheless does get on with it and she can see the difference too in the ways boys and girls learn.

Spot on bags