Boys Being Discriminated?

Thoughts on the subject?

Actually, colleagues of mine at University have been researching this for over ten years, and there seems to be very strong evidence showing that young boys are being discriminated against in school, especially in kindergarten and primary school, thus creating a quitter’s attitude later on in their academic pursuits.

I would gladly offer some references but they are primarily in french and do not know how helpful they would be to you…if you can get your hands on the study by Ferguson, Lloyd and Horwood: teacher evaluations of the performance of boys and girls, 1991, you could find some useful info. The ghist of it is that teachers tend to systematically evaluate more favorably the work of girls over that of boys.

[quote]GaMeOvEr305 wrote:

Thoughts on the subject? [/quote]

I have been discriminated against, bump me up to a 4.0

This Anglin guy sounds like a whiny little bitch. I’m sure his 2.88 or whatever is due to discrimination rather than him spending too much time screwing around or anything.

This is an interesting debate, I have heard some attribute this supposed discrimination to the fact that there has recently (in the past couple decades) been an effort to improve the academic acheivement of girls, as previously they had been lagging behind boys in this respect, the theory being that the teaching and reinforcement techniques used to change this imbalance failed to change as the statistics related to acheivement of girls and boys changed.

I lived in Milton for a couple of years. It is the most pompous, stuck up, spoiled rich kid town in Mass. This doesn’t surprise me at all. I don’t see what the big deal is about. The kid wants more male teachers. So what. If a girl said she wanted more female teachers everybody would sympathize and accomodate.

As a father of two boys, one in school. I’m already seeing problems like those mentioned in this article:

My parents were both teachers. Teachers are now told exactly what to say, how to teach and forced to adhere to those guidelines. They have very little freedom to change things to make it fit each class or student as an individual. Add onto that the newer teachers who now enter the workforce understanding that most of this is done for them and you get subpar educations that have no clue how to teach an individual. You can’t really blame teachers for this as the entire education system is now geared towards numbers. Numbers in classrooms and numbers who pass tests. No child left behind?

[quote]Professor X wrote:
My parents were both teachers. Teachers are now told exactly what to say, how to teach and forced to adhere to those guidelines. They have very little freedom to change things to make it fit each class or student as an individual. Add onto that the newer teachers who now enter the workforce understanding that most of this is done for them and you get subpar educations that have no clue how to teach an individual. You can’t really blame teachers for this as the entire education system is now geared towards numbers. Numbers in classrooms and numbers who pass tests. No child left behind? [/quote]

When did your parents get out of the classroom/quit teaching?

I live right next to Milton in Quincy, MA. Girls definitely dominate the top spots at our high school… it’s really because of video games and other stupid things boys do though.

[quote]Vintor wrote:
I live right next to Milton in Quincy, MA. Girls definitely dominate the top spots at our high school… it’s really because of video games and other stupid things boys do though.[/quote]

Perhaps the point is that those “stupid things” are exactly what makes them boys and shouldn’t be avoided or turned into negatives if the goal is for them to succeed.

A few thoughts:

“…girls are rewarded for abiding by the rules, while boys’ more rebellious ways are punished.”

That’s fucking life. Follow the rules or suffer.

“Grading on homework, which sometimes includes points for decorating a notebook, also favor girls”

What kind of high school teacher is giving points for decoration? That’s retarded.

“From the elementary level, they establish a philosophy that if you sit down, follow orders, and listen to what they say, you’ll do well and get good grades. Men naturally rebel against this.”

That is the way life works. You don’t get to run around and act like a clown in college or in the boardroom either.

“He also urges that students be allowed to take classes on a pass/fail basis to encourage more boys to enroll in advanced classes without risking their grade point average. He also wants the school to abolish its community service requirement, saying it’s another burden that will just set off resistance from boys, who may skip it and fail to graduate as a result.”

This is just whiny crap.

“Gerry Anglin, Doug Anglin’s father, said the school system should compensate boys for the discrimination by boosting their grades retroactively.”

This guy needs a kick in the nads.

Bottom line, life is never fair. Maybe some of the rules are arbitrary, but that doesn’t make them unfair.

[quote]doogie wrote:
A few thoughts:

“…girls are rewarded for abiding by the rules, while boys’ more rebellious ways are punished.”

That’s fucking life. Follow the rules or suffer.[/quote]

That much I agree with. That is no different from when I was in school and you got grades for conduct (like E, S, or U).

[quote]
“Grading on homework, which sometimes includes points for decorating a notebook, also favor girls”

What kind of high school teacher is giving points for decoration? That’s retarded.[/quote]

I also bet that this isn’t the whole story. If she got a higher grade because her shit was neat and well typed as opposed to written in pencil with dog pee on it, I can understand the higher grade.

[quote]
“From the elementary level, they establish a philosophy that if you sit down, follow orders, and listen to what they say, you’ll do well and get good grades. Men naturally rebel against this.”

That is the way life works. You don’t get to run around and act like a clown in college or in the boardroom either.[/quote]

Agreed.

[quote]
“He also urges that students be allowed to take classes on a pass/fail basis to encourage more boys to enroll in advanced classes without risking their grade point average. He also wants the school to abolish its community service requirement, saying it’s another burden that will just set off resistance from boys, who may skip it and fail to graduate as a result.”

This is just whiny crap. [/quote]

I also agree with this. Abolish community service? That is one aspect I wish more kids were involved in. It may take some of their focus off of simple selfish desire.

[quote]
“Gerry Anglin, Doug Anglin’s father, said the school system should compensate boys for the discrimination by boosting their grades retroactively.”

This guy needs a kick in the nads.[/quote]

No doubt. I wish someone would have done that for me in college. I could have slept all of the way through those years and still graduated with honors.

The point of view that I do agree with is that YOUNG BOYS may need a different approach to learning. I am referring to elementary school when kids are much more active and inquisitive. I think reducing physical activity is a mistake. I think those kids should be outside more. If they aren’t involved in some activity like something “boyscout” related, I think that would be a good addition to education. I think boys need more hands on development when initially learning. I think all of the stuff you pointed out, however, is pure nonsense being raised by parents who want to blame the school system for their own poor parenting.

[quote]Professor X wrote:

The point of view that I do agree with is that YOUNG BOYS may need a different approach to learning. I am referring to elementary school when kids are much more active and inquisitive. I think reducing physical activity is a mistake. I think those kids should be outside more. If they aren’t involved in some activity like something “boyscout” related, I think that would be a good addition to education. I think boys need more hands on development when initially learning. I think all of the stuff you pointed out, however, is pure nonsense being raised by parents who want to blame the school system for their own poor parenting.[/quote]

I agree. Young boys have to have a recess time to run around and burn off energy. I think young boys have different learning styles than young girls, and those styles have to be addressed. This guy is just a whiny little wuss.