Your view on a specific subject....?

Question

It seems the government is doing everything they can do to help girls in maths and science, but not focusing on the real issue and letting boys fall further behind in everything else. We're blaming boys for them failing, shouldn't we be fixing the education system to help them? It's a fact that most girls in school are doing better in grades than boys. Now there are more girls than boys in college.. your views on this, what do you think should be done. If you don't have anything nice to say don't say anything at all. Thanks

Maybe i "generalized" a bit. I'm not saying boys ARE failing in school, Girls are smarter than Boys. It's just me witnessing first hand in my own school i am in year 11 and generally, teachers are favoured towards girls. Tera explains it very well by the ratio of women:men in college. I believe the schooling system was created for girls. The amount of female teachers as opposed to male teachers is becoming equal now, but male teachers are exactly the same as some of the favouring female teachers. I see girls at my school physically abusing boys and the boys accepting it as if it was compulsory... a confusing world we live in eh?

haha and kessie shut up :)

And i forgot to mention, my classes generally get younger kids sent to our class because they are acting up. It's always boys, we get about 7 in a school week. It is sad to also have a principle who highlights on a full school parade, which we have about 1500 students, and she says to all of them, "boys you need to get better grades, are you stupid? you always look scruffy with your long hair and un tucked shirts, your not getting as many awards as girls" Yet she has no desire to do anything about it.

Answer 1

Gosh, that is a toughie.


I think the most important thing to do is involve the parents of all the children and enlist them to BE parents and work with their children at home.


Schools can't do everything for everyone. That is just a sad fact of life.


Frankly, as a parent of two teenagers, I have seen some amazing teaching to both sexes and the only ones who are falling behind are the children (boys AND girls) who don't want to be there because education is not a priority in their family. That is the REAL problem that should be issued. Once we have that solved, the other issues become moot....but getting the parents to all behave like responsible people? That is a serious problem. Solve that, and you're in aces.

Answer 2

A most interesting dilemma, that is for sure.

Traditionally girls have not been encouraged to pursue subjects like math or science. Now, in order to appear socially conscious to male/female inequalities, there is a push to encourage girls to go after degrees and jobs in the sciences. I have no problem with this. In fact it is a good move.

However, perhaps politicians have gone too far in one direction. I agree that the education system needs some work to try and ensure that those folks who belong in college can go to college...no mater what sex, or race they come from.

I do not have a problem with schools having more girls than boys right now. It used to be the opposite and it was for many, many years. Life has a tendancy to balance itself out eventually.

"Boys fall further behind in everything else" is your comment. I doubt that is true and it is a very broad generalization. If boys are failing, perhaps their parents should be trying to get them more motivated to study. Because passing exams is gender neutral.

Answer 3

Change is seldom accomplished without the swing of a pendulum. There was a time in the recent past when the conditions you now write about were reversed. Now we are experiencing the attempt of society to make changes in the system. At first, these changes seem insignificant, as the result of social inertia. But once the inertia is overcome, that extreme effort seems to be overwhelming and the pendulum swings as if out of control. But if you visualize social systems as a reflection of the resistance in natural or mechanical systems, the dynamics of change become readily apparent. Provided that you don't have a bias to filter out that understanding.

All this is said for this reason. Every change in every social system requires conscious effort to calibrate those changes. The degree of success in the changes are determined by the level of consciousness engaged in that process. As long as there is conflict, as would be expected but can be minimized, the process of calibration will only take longer for a state of equilibrium to be achieved. The question each of us have to ask ourselves is, "am I contributing to the process of calibration or deterring it.

We can only answer that question for ourselves, as it is a matter of personal responsibility.

Shingoshi Dao

Answer 4

Actually, the US government is doing everything they can to screw up the education system for everyone. No Child Left Behind is forcing teachers to teach to the standardized tests and not have any kind of flexible or enriched curriculum. The education system need a serious overhaul in general.

As far as specific initiatives aimed at girls and ingoring boys, I am not aware of any specific governmental policy, but if you know of one, please dont hesitate to post a link to it, or some info about it. If something like that exists it should be either altered to include boys or eradicated.

Answer 5

Boys and girls learn differently. Currently, the education system is geared towards the girls' learning abilities, thanks to feminist controlled teaching professions, reforms, etc. One way of improving the situation is having boys-only schools (which have proven to be effective in improving their education), although it's not promoted and don't expect it to be either. Believe me, the very idea of boys succeeding gets feminists pissed off; this is why they are neglecting the entire issue of boys falling behind, dropping out, etc. and instead focusing on the smaller, less relevant issues (as you pointed out, the male v female ratio in math/science).

Basically, they want women to dominate. Which, as I've pointed out before, will only harm society on the whole eventually.

Answer 6

There have been all kinds of studies on this phenomenon. I remember a Newsweek cover article on it.

Have you considered that it might have something to do with the lack of male role models (no father for so many kids, many kids don't have extended family ties)? It is a terrible thing for a boy to grow up without a father.

Answer 7

The government is doing almost nothing to get girls into math and science. To change that, we would need to make basic alterations in how the fields are perceived, including an alteration of our perception of womens and mens bodies, the value of brain vs. beauty, the relative importance of marriage, etc.

Second, it is not a fact that most girls in school are doing better than most boys. Maybe in your small circle, this is true. But boys, have, on average, higher GPAs then girls.

There are not more girls in college. Some colleges have slightly more women, but that's because there's slightly more women than men at that age range.

What should be done is to encourage everyone to be better in whatever field they prefer, and to remove the gender barriers that push women away from math and science (with their preference for "logic" and "coldness"). What should be done is to create schools where it is not necessarily better to be outspoken and loud (something boys are trained from infancy to do and girls are trained not to do). What should be done is to create academic and scientific jobs that allow both men and women to still care for children and their spouse, instead of asking people to sacrifice everything for work (and, on average, disadvantaging women).

Answer 8

A lot of women who are in college (myself included) are what you could say are "displaced homemakers." Women who are much older than the average college-age student, who have found themselves faced with having to train for a career so that they can financially support themselves and their children after a divorce or separation. This is an observation that I've made during the time I've been spending in college. There are women, like me, who after years of staying at home raising kids, find themselves in a situation where they need to be breadwinners and have no job skills- so they end up back in school. Technology is changing so rapidly that someone without computer training, or specialized job training will not have an easy time finding the type of job that one could support a family with. You can't make a mortgage payment and raise children on a Burger King salary. DSHS/ welfare programs are paying for up to one year of college education in professional-technical programs, to help displaced women with children train for a job so that they can support themselves without state assistance. The local work force or labor force agencies also offer worker re-training and displaced homemaker job training/educational opportunities to those (men and women) who qualify. This may be what's tipping the scale when it comes to the ratio of women in college. It is also true that women in the category of "displaced homemaker" (and who are now attending college to gain those job skills) have great motivation to excel and succeed in their education. The well-being of the family depends on it. This might account for the grades. Older college students also seem to have greater maturity and less "distractions" when it comes to their learning. They aren't worried about school dances, or who's on the basketball team, or running for ASB president, or who's wearing the latest fashions. They are more focused on receiving a good education. This may also account for the grades. The fact that the men who are coming out of divorce situations typically already have established jobs or careers may be the reason that not nearly as many men go back to college after a divorce or separation.

Just a theory. But it makes some sense in light of what I have personally witnessed firsthand at the college I'm now attending and the social service agencies I have been working with.

EDIT: The principal at that school sounds absolutely horrid and sexist, too. I would imagine that the boys are really not doing as badly with their academics as she says. If she really says those things, she's a witch. Probably can't take her word for it that things are exactly how she paints them to be. She sounds like a seriously bad choice for a principal. She shouldn't be working with kids at all! Does she really say those things???

Answer 9

The government should not have anything to do with this. It really should be up to each individual school board.The government should not be involved in ANY way as to the teachings of a school (unless it is local government) It is up to us (voters and citizens) to elect the correct officials for our local school boards that will carry out our desires as to what problems in the school need fixed.

Honestly, If you feel there is a problem, take it to the school board at their next meeting. They have to publish the date and time of it.

Answer 10

At times the government is like a huge giant, who has human attributes, who can make mistakes, the same time overlooking what we see as being obvious. Having said this there comes a time when another human has to make his own way without approval, except that of his own.