Girls benefit from more rigorous courses headline in The Guardian

[OhamIreally]

I've returned to this headline several times over the course of today. It appears to have now changed to "Girls fare better than boys under more rigorous courses" which at least implies some level of participation in their own success.

I've read for years theories that girls do better with coursework as they are "more diligent" than boys and I suspect these new "rigorous courses" were expected to "redress the balance" as it were.

I feel really cross about this headline and the implication that the format of an exam can be seen to benefit one sex over the other and that's the underlying reason for the disparity in results.

Exams were designed by men for male convenience. Only a man, who didn't have to face sanpro changes and menstrual cramps, would make candidates sit for three hours and answer questions in writing to decide whether you pass or fail a course.

Real life is more closely approximated to by coursework projects any way. I don't work for two years and then submit the products of my labour in a three hour session, I submit my work daily.

Presumably they were ‘more rigerous’ courses in needlework, cooking, hairdressing etc because we all know that any female interested in physics, maths, engineering, ICT, technology etc is really a boy.

So they switched back to old fashioned exams for GCSEs and A levels in England to ‘right the ship’ (put boys back on top) and girls are outperforming boys in the new exams? Well done girls!

www.theguardian.com/education/2019/aug/22/gcse-results-more-rigorous-courses-appear-to-benefit-girls

Fortunately there are plenty of girls who know they're girls who are good at all those subjects, birdsfoottrefoil.

So... boys used to be better at exams and girls were better at coursework but now it seems girls are better at exams too? Apart from a slight discrepancy on maths and physics... maybe just a bit more stereotype threat/stereotyped peer pressure to go on those then.

If the girls carry on at this rate they might just have to acknowledge the girls are smarter or simply more diligent.

Errol I knew I was a girl when I took technology, physics, maths, metalwork, etc. and many others do too. But does The Guardian know this?

Who knows? Or cares

And.... here's the Telegraph weighing in with a headline which names the only two subjects the girls ^aren't> beating the boys in, though saying they're closing the gap.

^^ www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/08/22/gcse-results-day-2019girls-closing-gap-boys-maths-physics/

The piece isn't bad but the headlines so often seem to give a begrudging spin somehow.

Errol, yes, begrudging and in the case of the Guardian little acknowledgement of the girls' active participation in their own success.

The more I think about it the more I think that headline was prepared in advance with the word "boys" and hastily amended when it became clear it wasn't the case, rather like Anne Boleyn's famous pre-prepared announcement of a "prince" at the birth of Elizabeth I, and that's why it doesn't make sense.

I think the "boys do better at exams" myth arose because a lot of men didn't realise that girls always outperformed boys at the eleven plus; it was just that those results were suppressed to produce even numbers attending grammar schools.

which at least implies some participation in their own success

This reminds me of when my English teacher said that he preferred teaching girls because they were more “docile”.

As if girls are just passive recipients of our education, obediently doing what we’re told, without any active engagement or intellectual curiosity of our own.

Whatever will people do now that they can’t fit boys and girls into these neat little Mars/Venus boxes? Oh my word, they might have to admit that girls might possibly be, you know, be intelligent, curious and enjoy learning! Sacre Bleu!

The Times is a bit better

Girls close gender gap in science and tech

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/gcse-results-2019-girls-close-gender-gap-in-science-and-tech-ppbtvkwcp?shareToken=cbd1273f6ad4f6871ed12385a54291cf

Although I have some quibbles with some of the piece.

Kestrel wow I didn't know that! I read recently that Tokyo medical school manipulated exam results for years to restrict the number of female students and ensure more men became doctors but I had no idea Grammar schools did that.