Are boys left to their own ends to struggle through an unfriendly anti-male environment?

Question

What are your thoughts on the following statement?

"From the time she starts, girls are encouraged and favoured by the 80% plus female teachers. Boys are left to their own ends to struggle through an unfriendly anti-male environment. all the way through the educational system, they are subjected to anti-male propaganda and discouraged from pursuing high academic achievement as they favour females only. the majority of university students are women, as all universities have clearly demonstrated, they favour female applicants."

http://antimisandry.com/98christianj-on-misandry

Answer 1

The education system is putting boys at a disadvantage and there are many clear evident of this. It is unfortunate that people continue to ignore the issue.

http://www.pbs.org/parents/raisingboys/school02.html


http://web.mac.com/wcbii/GenderDif/Welcome.html

"""""""""On average, males score higher on standardized tests while females make higher grades in school. This is true for the 2004 SAT test takers. The combined mean score for males is 1049 and 1005 for females. Males taking the test have a mean grade point average of 3.19, females 3.35."""""""""

As you can see; boys scored higher than girl in SAT and other test but they are falling behind girls in schools. There is definitely something wrong with the education system, and they are affecting young boys.

Answer 2

So why aren't more men becoming teachers, then? If it's the mean ol' sexist female teachers, then why are men not doing their part to lift up the male students by pursuing a career in teaching? Should masculists do the right thing and become teachers? Also, it would be nice to have some sources that indicate girls are "favored" over boys. otherwise, I will have to "assume" this is just an assumption, based on the erroneous idea that just because most teachers are female, they will favor other females. Actually, there was a study done not too long ago that showed that boys are actually called on more, and have their questions answered a lot more than girls.

Answer 3

Actually, males recieve more teacher attention, both positive and negative. Other than that, yes, I agree that the school system has become anti-boy.

Why would colleges favor female applicants? They DO, however, favor female athletes over other applicants, both male and female. This is due to quota systems in school sports funding. However, I don't think the schools benefit in some way by favoring girls in general. Girls get better grades in high school, which is part of why they go on to college more often.

Personally, I look at the declining test scores and grades of boys, and I see a problem that needs fixing. Feminists see only rising test scores of girls, and applaud. But boys are actually falling behind, due to the methods we use to teach in this country. I'm not sure that I agree that boys are discouraged from higher education. However, the fact that it is controversial to bemoan the fact that boys in other countries are doing better than ours in reading, and the girls have passed them up skills-wise, (since this points to a need for "boy-centered" education techniques for some students), clearly puts those boys at an educational disavantage. It should not be controversial to replace the word "boys" with the word "girls" in the following sentences:

"Since girls are falling far behind in some subjects, a national effort needs to be made to understand how best to help them achieve. Girls are dropping out of high school in large number, and are not getting the grades that their intelligence shows they could be getting."

That statement was true in the 50's and 60's - now the same can be said of boys instead. So we should be equally concerned, but boys don't seem to be a special interest group in the same way that girls are.

Answer 4

Once the positive discrimination train is set in motion, it's just left running without the driver.
I'm sure everyone has a link, statistic or study to show that: boys/girls/ethnic minorities perform well/badly under the current systems of education.
More pertinent questions relate to the under-representation of women on science and engineering courses. In some university cities (in this case Britain & Europe) you can tell what the university specialises in by observing the ratio of genders.

After this little preamble though, I would agree that urging girls on is a concern at the back of many a female teachers' mind, but then so is urging on poor kids. Perhaps it's about what is perceived as needing assistance.

Answer 5

As a teacher I think this is generally untrue. However I do believe the way many classrooms are set up favor the way girls generally learn (through discussion) and discourage the way boys learn (though exploration and movement). I know few teachers that purposely promote this environment to favor girls, but quite a few are trapped in the "old ways".

The first schools were taught by men because women were to stay home and care for the home (until the 1800's, even then many teachers would loose their job if they chose to marry). When these first schools were developed teachers knew little about the child mind and assumed it was similar to adults, which is also one reason for the harsh punishments many children endured. Sadly this theory and lack of knowledge still effects the way we teach today (sitting at a desk with paper and pencil and listening to a lecturer...which by the way, to me, is different from a teacher).

I personally try to promote all aspects of learning and learning styles. All of my students are effected by some type of learning and are able to succeed. When they can't I change the way I taught the original lesson, even if it is just for them, so they are able to.

Rio- Just a few more well known articles on the subject:
http://www.livescience.com/strangenews/060718_illiterate_boys.html
http://www.uaf.edu/northern/schools/myth.html
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/prem/200005/war-against-boys

EDIT-Juniper I agree with you. I think many believe that boys who drop out or do poor in school will be able to find jobs that include manual labor. Which may be more true for boys than girls, but should not be used as a crutch to support the continuation of poor teaching methods.

EDIT- Yes, she did delete it. Maybe she has either chosen that she reacted in defensiveness or was too uneducated about the subject to comment.

Answer 6

If that's true, then it's totally the opposite of the way teachers treated children when I attended school in the 1960s and 1970s. In those days, most teachers were also female but they openly favored the boys. They were more likely to put up with bad behavior and they were more willing to help the boys on their assignments one-on-one. Not only that, but teachers were more likely to call on boys to answer questions than girls. Now, I'm going to talk about my personal experience since I do have children in school and I doubt that person who wrote the article does. I have not seen nearly as much of this sort of favoritism, which I think is a good thing. I also have not seen my daughters being steered into taking certain types of courses, which was common practice when I was their age. I also think teachers are more fair in that they do call on girls more to answer questions. It's also nice to see girls being encouraged to take science and math courses, which they were often discouraged from doing in the past. I'm glad that boys can take home economics and girls can take shop classes. They sure couldn't when I was in school.

Answer 7

Again more lip service from feminists is all you'll ever get. Saying "ahhh that's too bad" and then letting it continue anyways. They don't care about men and they don't care about boys. They veil their true feelings behind meaningless words which aren't heartfelt. Boys are left to their own devices because "men can't be oppressed". If your white or your male you don't need help you just need to pull yourself up by the bootstraps and go. Too bad women aren't required to do the same thing.

Answer 8

Rio for someone who whines and moans so much, you sure can't take what you dish out.

I do definitely notice females get favored treatment, but they are still often looked upon as a 'minority', so that seems to make sense. It certainly seems they favor women, but I think it's fairly superficial. The message is rather clear, that as men, we're supposed to be self-reliant. Though personally I've always found schools an unfriendly environment for everyone, regardless of sex, race, or religion.

Edit: Seems Rio wisely deleted her sexist post.

Answer 9

All of western education has been infiltrated by feminist (aka hate-the-male) philosophy. Boys are not left out, they are pushed out. The question now becomes, what to do?

End Feminism Now!

Answer 10

I disagree. Consider your source before quoting them.

My sons didn't have any trouble except for the morning tardies because THEY didn't want to get out of bed. The youngest had a near perfect ACT and was senior class president. If I had thought this was so I would have home schooled them- and I hate home schooling!

Edit:

As for the way I teach it's VARK

V is for visual (reading)
A is for auditory
R is for research
K is for kinesthetic (by doing, hands on)

EDIT
I asked a colleague what his opinion was- HE said grades aren't just based upon intelligence but on doing actual work. He said he has more males who fail to do the required work.

Their grades are something they could increase. Its not just busy work. We actually want you to learn something from doing the work.