Great article about the context of boys failing in education

[BasilBabyEater]

www.huffingtonpost.com/mobileweb/soraya-chemaly/boy-crisis-in-education_b_1655282.html

Brilliant article. Thanks for the link Basil.

Thanks Basil. Really interesting article. There's a really good book called Learned Optimism which also talks about how girls are more prone to depression because of the messages they get in school. Boys are told they need to try harder next time and results are blamed on 'typical boy' short term things like mucking about, but as girls aren't doing this they are given the message that they just aren't very good at maths / spelling / whatever.

Thanks for the link, Basil.

Thanks for the link. My take on it is that both education and the wider society shouldn't fail male or female. Pitting one against the other is unhelpful IMO.

Teenage boys would do so much better at school if they laid off the Internet porn.

And before Internet porn was around? :)

Eclectic, I agree. It annoys me how the genders are pitted against each other, and this starts with the intense labelling of everything as either "boy" or "girl", from toys and clothes to hobbies, from personal traits to jobs.

I think that is the point that the article is making: that the lack of male teachers is down to a segregated workforce in general and this comes from the intense channelling of boys and girls into different occupations, as well as a lack of family friendly work practices.

Once that problem is sorted and women are integrated into the workforce AND primary school teaching is appreciated for the bloody hard job that is then we will have lovely happy harmonious inclusive workplaces, both in the educational and non-ed sectors.

And then I'll be able to stop moaning and have a cuppa

I look forward to that time, messy :)

Before Internet porn was around boys used to do better than girls in exams.

Seriously crackfox? Is there any evidence to suggest that?

I mean causal evidence not a correlation.

Schools are massively influenced by society. I knowloads of 13/14/14 yr old boys all obsessed by World of War craft (ok I know it us not porn but they wouldn't tell me about that) and waste hours a day on the Internet. My 15 yr old nephew stays up late at night playing and then wakes up early to play before school - funnily enough he isn't doing as well academically as he should be.

There has been a massive revolution regarding the Internet. Do you honestly think it is not effecting teenage boys? Seriously?

I am not thinking anything, I'm looking for evidence.

Well said Eclectic... boys against girls at school is so unhelpful - have to say my 6 year old DS despite my constant opposition to it, is always trying to complete with girls. However he did say one day.. boys are stronger but girls are`better' (I took that to mean a wide variety of things but it was from his observations at school )... very interesting topic - use of internet totally unrelated IMO.

Great article, thanks for the link

I work with young children and our management team have started collecting separate data about boys' attainment, because boys are doing 'worse' than girls and obviously that cannot be right I was sitting in a meeting today looking at all this data about boys and feeling very uncomfortable about it, but unable to be sure about why. Anyone got any thoughts about why treating boys as a special case is unhelpful?

I don't think it's unhelpful to help boys and girls in whatever way they individually need. I thought the article came across as unhelpful. Bein treating equally means both sexes having their needs met at school.

But EclecticShock, I don't think it's helpful to put children into the 'boy' box or the 'girl' box. Absolutely agree that children have individual learning needs but I don't think it helps anyone to stereotype based on sex e.g. boys need more time outdoors than girls do (according to a colleague of mine)

Spot on again Eclectic - having individual needs met is key.
Not addressing an educational need because they are aboy' or a girl' is wrong.
My DS is wonderful at maths and science not great at reading or writing - my mum is a teacher and many other teacher friends have said ... that is because he is a boy.. well I don't care if he is a boy or a girl - he needs to improve and needs more help with his reading and writting.

'my mum is a teacher and many other teacher friends have said ... that is because he is a boy.. '

Agree with you avenueone - I'm sure you're wondering what you can do to help him, not hand-wringing about how his gender may have caused the problem. Which is utter rubbish by the way. Study after study shows that the greatest predictor of educational attainment is parental expectations - if your parents are fully engaged and expect you to succeed, then you will do better than if parents are laid-back and hands-off (or can't be arsed!). So it's important that you expect him to do well at reading and writing, so that you can be pro-active in supporting him.

I agree lotto, I said "individual". Stats will always be based on gender or age etc, they have to group by something. Plus boys and girls may have different learning styles ordure to their gender. Plenty of evidence to suggest so.

That should say... Due to their gender.

Lack of male teachers is a problem, children learn well when they can identify with the model. Also brains work differently depending on gender sometimes. I know I'll get flamed for saying that but you cannot dismiss the differences in needs between girls and boys... Peer influence... Society expectations etc.

Eclectic, there's also lots of evidence to show that how children learn is based on the sort of activities they are encouraged to engage it at a young age. For example, boys who are given lots of construction-type toys are more likely to develop hand-eye co-ordination and spatial skills, than girls who are given different types of toys (dolls for example). I think it's mistaken to assume that boys and girls learn differently because of innate gendered abilities - many adults respond very differently to children based on their gender, due to our own social conditioning and children will respond to our expectations.

Completely agree lotto. Still means children need elpnbased on their individual requirements.

Children need help based on ...