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.

Reading of itself. And writing. And the listening part of the speaking and listening (althugh the speaking is often a problem too).

I DO teach English. The texts mentioned are just some choices.

As I say the majority of my GCSE resit class are boys.

And the majority of my A level classes are girls includng several without any boys.

Aaaagh, vowed to stay away from this thread - and cheer on Motherinferior from the sofa!

BUT
What is the proposed solution?

Good teaching IMO/E already encompasses a variety of learning styles and should be differentiated for the children in your class.
There are already vocational equivalents for the GCSE/A Level qualifications.

Perhaps boys should start school a couple of years earlier as they are so thick need more time to mature. Think any anecodatal differences I could have noted between average girls and boys at GCSE time is down to maturity. But how does that work?

FWIW I think we start school too young for everybody here. And I do think there is lots wrong with our education system (though I'd argue it's the stereotypically 'male' results driven nature that's wrong). But the biggest problem is how we view education in this country - and so yes, of course, if women are succeeding it must be devalued.

I would like to know over the country how many boys non selective private secondary schools there are in comparison to girls' We have been looking for our son as we have the inevitable doubts over the 11plus and there are a plethora of nice independant day schools for girls who are a bit nice-but-dim and hardly any for boys...why? Are average boys not making the grade so the indie schools are fearful of accepting them for stats purposes..there is one school in the area (indie school) which is co-ed, and 4 girls' schools - the co ed school is 80% boys and looking to recruit more girls.....

I don't think it helps saying boys are 'so thick' - whether crossed out or not.

Why are so many of us girls beating our boys up on here?We want a fair education system to both sexes and its not at the moment

Demand? As I understood it girls tend to do better in single sex education and boys better in mixed (private selective schools exceptional but this is certainly evident when you look at the boys' equivalent to a girls' state school in the same LEA) and parents generally choose accordingly.

I think it's much more complex than saying it's just not fair. There's more factors at work than just what happens in school - what happens at home, social class and ethnicity, society in general, representations in the media, subject variations, natural and stereotypical differences...

I am absolutely positve there is demand out there for independant boys schools for nice-but-dim boys with supportive parents as there is with girls' schools. My deputy head said to me the other week that if she was going to start up an educational business in the area we are in it would be exactly that.

Agreed FC

Solutions:

1.) Later school starting age.
2.) More male teachers esp at primary school
3.) Degendering certain activities vital to academic achievement e.g. reading and competition and physical activity.
4.) Involving men more in their children's education.
5.) Defluffying the primary school classroom and allowing more opportunities for physical activity, kinaesthetic learning, competition, quizzes etc esp. in early years.
6.) More positive male role models for boys (and girls).
7.) Improving boys attitudes towards masculinity and sexuality so they feel less restricted to certain types of behaviour and less inclined to punish beahviours currently considered not masculine.

etc.

In no particualr order.

I apologise. It seemed amusing to me at the time...

But still, what is it that would make it 'fair'?

Ah, X post will read now

OK, so we have a culture where white boys are becoming increasingly disaffected from reading and writing. And, apparently, explanations. And thinking. And boys are so inept that this starts being ingrained by the time they're four and a half...

As far as I'm aware out of the only 2 male characters on Coronation Street who have been to universtiy 1 is gay and the other is Ken Barlow

Long time since I've watched EastEnders but last time I did no men and the only two women were both mad.

So get more great big butch gay blokes into the teaching system. Make paternity leave compulsory - hell, enforce a maximum four day week on fathers. All good ideas, IMO.

Don't agree that stripping out all Girly Literature (incidentally Romeo and Juliet was written by a bloke. Quite well-known, he was) is a good thing though.

Add to FC's list

1. Less emphasis on opinions and more on fact (not completely just to balance this out)

eg Old CSE questions

(i) Describe the Sonata form and show which bars correspond to the development in the dominant key

GCSE question

(1) What makes this piece of music appropriate to be used for dance?

It's not about them being 'inept' and really that's precisely the sort of perception which is contributing to the problem.

They are different. They learn in different ways and have different brains. At 4 most boys are not ready for the sort of formal education which for some reason we seem to think is appropriate in this country. It demotivates them and puts them off where they might well cope perfectly well in anotehr couple of years.

I didnt know Romeo and Juliet was written by a bloke - thank you

Here here FC

Less emphasis on opinions? This whole damn thread is founded on opinions. I've asked for facts (I'm a woman. I'm so damn womanly I write for women's mags, dammit); so has Edam (she's a woman. I know she is, I've met her, definitely a woman).

That GSCE question's not based on opinion; it's based on ideas of musical structure, and of social customs. Is it in waltz time, or four/four, to start with? You relate that back to known customs of dance. The answer isn't just 'oh it makes me feel like waving my arms around in my leotard'. It's as analytical as most of the (fairly Leavisite, this being a long time ago) textual analysis I used to do with literature.

Agree motheri.

About the butch men I mean. Butch men (gay and straight) reading.

You are joking about R&J, aren't you?

Apart from anything else there's a dearth of male talent in the staff room and I have a (female) colleague who badly needs some.

Fc I think we probably have the same kind of views on education generally (and I am a teacher too - Drama/English) but I just hate this male/female divide. And agree with just about everything Motherinferior has said.

I really hope I can see my two chidren as different people and not oh, dd is like that because she is a girl, and ds is like this because he is a boy. Am not 100% but believe that 'gender difference' is on a spectrum and most is down to how we interpret behaviour.

Basically that question is asking - why do you think this piece of music is good for dancing to - yes it is a little (only a little - pityful really) analytical but the wording and the emphasis within the wording (not that i want to draw this out too much as its only an example of a GCSE question) is not straight to the point - detracts from the obvious meaning behind the question

We have given facts and statistics from various websites and we have anecdotal evidence from those at the frontline (ie the teachers)

I am glad you enjoy writing for womens mags and thats great but everyday of my career i see the imbalance in the educational system and it irks me that