Female Teachers and The Teaching of Boys

[zanzibarmum]

I know the teachers on the site will not agree but does the largely female (most single with no kids?) teaching force struggle to understand our boys and engage them in learning. What are the views of parents.
As a mum of both girls and boys my experience is that many normal, well behaved boys get a raw deal from some of the teachers though it is not of course something you raise with teachers for fear of getting your head bitten off - I know my own sister who's a teacher had a go! Views

"With regard to female teachers, I think it depends how female they are. Boys certainly don't need an emotional weakling"

Is this a definition of the feminine qualities?

Haven't spent time in the classroom but have attended ds's weekly music class for the last 2.5 years. No distinction between girls and boys at 2 but now at 4.5 they couldn't be more different. Girls set still, pay attention and do as they are told. Boys fidget, fiddle with musical instruments, don't pay attention unless they are told to by the teacher and only enjoy the class if they get an opportunity to run around (which they did for one song when they had to take turns on a drum).

I've ended up quitting the class as I got fed up with the teacher praising the girls week after week and telling off the boys for not sitting still all the time. IMO sitting still seems to come easier to girls than boys but the (female) teacher didn't seem to take account of this at all. I must say I have been really surprised at the difference between boys and girls at this age.

hench = big, strong, someone you don't want to mess with, often also used (by DD & friends anyway) as general term of approval, though not necessarily when applied to a woman, as it can imply they are larger than usual...
I assume it derives from henchman.

I know cory that post made me whince.

I love teaching boys alway have done, but I like male company too. I am lucky that in my school I teach all of the top sets and in years ten and eleven teach some utterly charming, very intelligent witty boys. In my tutor group I tend to find my boys easier, I have a little circle of boys who will pop in in the morning to chat over a cup of tea, they are so helpful and have made life for me settling into a new school so much easier.

Of course I enjoy teaching girls as well, but I do find generally that if you tell a girl of she will remember it and bear a grudge whereas a boy will jusy shrug it off. That is of course a generalisation, I have a bot in year 9 who still hasnt forgiven me for telling him off weeks ago.

twinset - I'd love to disagree but I've realised that I hold several grudges against my own teachers. Dating back 20 to 30 years!

MollieO - my ds has been going to music lessons since he was 2 and it's nothing like your description. I'd say he's the most compliant, judging from the end of term session when we parents get to sit in. Of the other children, some are well-behaved, some are a bit more lively, no obvious split along gender lines.

So true (generally).
I am terrible for bearing grudges narrows eyes at zanzibar

Just kidding

No noticeable split until this year but now there is a huge difference. I got fed up listening to the teacher praising the girls and never the boys (they weren't all running wild but do tend to fiddle with their xylophones more than the girls!).

lol edam, I still have not forgiven my german teacher for calling me a little tart.

My Art teacher sellotaped my mouth when I was 15! Cow.

Thanks RustyBear!

Definitely wasn't being used positively by this student (& I am a well-upholstered 6', so could well be reference to size) but feel quite empowered now

at "I think it depends how female they are. Boys certainly don't need an emotional weakling"

Interestingly, my experience of the sort of mqale student who is reluctant to respect a female teacher (which is not to say you can't win that respect if you know what you're about) has even less respect for male teachers who are perceived as being insufficiently authoritative - it's as if men are 'expected' to effortlessly control the class.

It sounds like I teach a right bunch of Neanderthals! It's actually quite subtle, but it's fascinating to watch.

I was a snappy cow on Thursday to a class, (I apologised to me them today before everyone piles in to jave a go) and I heard one of the boys mutter "It must be her time of the month" You had to peel me off the ceiling

I find mature male students (particularly ones over 60) are the worst for being emotional and holding grudges.

Younger students usually less self-centered.

When you teach a lot of boys you probably can make some gross generalisations and I agree with Raven about boys being grade driven. When grouped, boys are fiercely competitive, a little arrogant and therefore I am probably more verbally direct and challenging with boys. I have also taught all girls and if I replayed the same conversation they can read into it the subtext that they are crap at the subject. I also think that girls place more pressures on themselves to be perfect and you have to be careful in what you say not to acerbate that. Not many of my male students strive for absolute perfection although they might think they are Mr Perfect!

I'm not sure it's the quality of the teachers but the angle of the teaching IYSWIM.

Am sincerely grateful that DS is in a boys school - where the angle is boycentric (think concentration spans of the average goldfish). I feel sure he would have switched off entirely in a mixed environment - whereas now he is engaged and interested and motivated to do well.

Goldfish are well known for their excellent concentration span and teachability. Can be taught to swim labyrinths and all sorts and will remember what they have learnt for months after. Which is more than can be said for most of my students- of either sex.

I don't think boys are "easier" to teach but I do think, generalising very broadly and ime, that they are often more interesting to teach.

Boys often get totally engaged in oral work and always have a viewpoint (even if they don't necessarily listen to anybody else's!) - girls often have a viewpoint but won't say it, only write it.

Boys enjoy practical learning and are up for trying new things out, getting out of their seats to work on the interactive board, running around sticking post-its on each other to show what Macbeth is feeling at particular points in the play, getting down on the floor to draw around each other in order to map out characteristics of "Skellig" and racing to be the first to find ten adjectives that are better than "nice" and sticking them in the box that the TA is holding etc. In contrast, most of the girls I teach would rather stay in their seats!

Boys can have a bad lesson on a Monday and come back on the Tuesday having forgotten all about it and raring to go. Girls will remember forever that you told them off for forgetting their Homework in Year 7, even though they are now in Yr 11!

I love all my pupils, honest - but mostly I like the boys best!

Oh and grrrrr at "teachers are so touchy".

Some teachers are better with my son than others; I don't think that is really anything to do with the gender of the teacher and might not even have anything to do with the gender of my son. Sometimes 2 people click and sometimes they don't.

I think some boys grow up with no male role models, and a male teacher could be beneficial to them and change their aspirations and understanding of what it means to be a man.

There are a number of ways that education has shifted away from boy type (that includes some girls) preferences. My ds would have been much happier in the early years if it had been less touchy-feely and more fact based. He does like competition, straightforward instructions, clear rules and to work alone (co-operation on work is distracting if your social understanding is not that great). I think these are boy traits, and schools have moved away from them, compared to when I was at school.

I am not sure that is the fault of the teachers; they are told to teach in certain ways, and to teach certain things.

My ds on the other hand is very touchy feely. But still loved his male teacher.

Cory, I do wonder how much it is really to do with gender at all. It is just about character types. My ds likes teachers that are calm, have an ordered, quiet classroom and are not effusive. That is more about being an introvert than it is about being a boy.

Maybe I can't judge, because my son has never had a male teacher!

In my limited experience of early years teaching, it seems that the expectation on boys not to sit still, not fiddle , not be physical is extreme. Girls are more 'mature' at the age of 5, more willing to apply themselves to witten work, they are generally more dexterous.

DS's current teacher has a young son herself, she is oh so more empathetic to boys' needs than the slightly prissy, not very experienced female teacher (0 kids) that he had last year.

Lots of the little girls loved her because she 'looked like a princess'. As such, her expectations regarding social ability for boys was unfair and at times undermining - but attainable for of the most girls in DS' class.

ah, coreh, she speak sense.

Goldfish having short attenmtion spans has been exposed as a myth. Perhaps, one day, so will teh idea that boys need a very different teaching style to girls

Quite frankly my son has had both crap female primary teachers and crap male primaey teachers, i a mjust glad he is now in secondary school.

and the heated problem of football.

Usually, football spills over the boundaries and instead of sticking to one part of the field, the boys monopolise the whole field and several pupils end up getting whacked int eh head by a flying ball and cannot go on teh grass at all. Which is Not Nice.

And so, every so often, the football playing needs reigned in.

If too many children are being hurt by a playground game or if the game is causing too many fall-outs and fights (whatever that game might be) it has to be reigned in, rules re-stated and then re-started.

That's just my guess at what might be going on with the football.

I have to say that my son is very gentle and not the usual image of a 'boisterous' boy, but even so, at this stage he is nowhere near as socially aware as most of the little girls his age.