Are our schools being 'feminized'? If so, does it matter?

----------------------------------------------
Your comments: Resident granny, huh. What a lovely thing to say and thank
you.
I had mixed feelings about it as well but it's certainly
a different perspective and I appreciate your running with
it.
There does seem to be a trend lately of women bashing (or
is it lately). We make choices and then are criticized for the
choices we make. We succeed and we're blamed for
succeeding.
My girls aren't old enough for that kind of
reading yet. When I went to school (50's) we read one woman author
from 7th grade to 12th and she was writing under the name George
Eliot.
The only poet was Christina Rosetti (one short
poem).
If the women outnumber the men now in literature, maybe
it's our turn.

Reply

It seems to me (a middle-school teacher) that it is less the material we read (which I would say is split about 50/50 between male & female authors), but rather how schools are set up to allow "female" behavior to be more successful than "male" behavior.

Girls tend to do better at sitting quietly, following instructions, and connecting things. Boys tend to do better at more project-based, kinestetic activities (I do not mean ALL boys or ALL girls; this is a massive generalization). Our school systems are set up for the girls to be the successful students and the boys to be put on ADD medication, because they are "hyper". THEY ARE JUST ACTING LIKE BOYS ACT!

That being said, I would say that by 8th grade, the gender issue becomes less of an issue. Boys really calm down (credit those hormones for making everyone shameful, regardless of gender), and the playing field evens out.

Reply

Boys are discouraged from writing about what they know. They want to write about cops and robbers, cowboys and indians. Things that involve guns. They want to read books about sports, but all of this is discouraged by the PC crowd who want to make boys be kindler and gentler.

When it comes to science you can interest boys more in "grossology" than environmentalism.

Reply

I read in another study some time ago that girls were trailing boys because the girls sat quietly while the boys were the ones most called on in class. I wish I could remember more of it but it's been a while.

When did kind and gentle become epithets?

Reply

Jason -- maybe I wasn't a *proper* boy, but I certainly never wanted to read about sports. Or "grossology". (Although I'm not sure how that would differ from a lot of environmentalism anyway.)

Reply

Schools that aren't girl friendly are a painful place to be if you're not on the Mrs. track. I was in all honors class in high school and graduated two years early, yet my guidance counselor kept telling me I was going to be a failure at life because I wasn't taking home ec. You see, if I didn't take home ec, I wouldn't have the proper skills to be a good wife and mother. And she constantly reminded me that no decent man wanted a woman who was publicly smart. Unlike Ann, I didn't go to school in the 50s. I graduated high school in 1997.

I have a son and I think if he's good at academics, he'll be praised for it, instead of being directed to hide it. No one will try to keep him from taking the classes he wants to because those classes will make him a failure at being a husband and father. If he's the only one to ace a test, he probably won't hear the teacher make any surprised remarks about his gender.

As for the overactive boys, I think maybe part of that is because many schools are going to more instructional time at the expense of recess. I think we probably had an hour of recess total when I went through elementary school and I don't remember anyone having ADD. By the time my brother came through, they were down to 20 minutes and it seemed like everyone was on ritalin.

Reply

Caitlin makes a good point. It's hard for boys to learn if they're not allowed to burn off excess energy at recess. Even there, the boys are told they have to act more like girls. No cops and robbers because that involves guns. No tag because it makes the person who's "it" feel bad. No dodgeball because somebody could get hurt.

As for ADD and Ritalin. I don't see how it helps boys to learn. It's hard to learn anything when you're too doped up to think straight.

Reply

It's a widely known fact among the Early Childhood Educational community that ECE programs (birth-age 7) are highly feminized. It's largely due to Western culture, and what we all are comfortable seeing in the classroom, (as opposed to meeting children's actual developmental needs.) Did anyone see the section on Japanese preschools in Raising Cain? Very interesting. Another extreme in dealing with aggression, indeed, but the American diet of denial and repression of all things aggressive in the classroom certainly isn't working.

Reply

Thanks for sharing the article by Katha Pollitt.

I can almost hear Pollitt chuckle with grim glee that girls are now "winning" in the education game, because, after all, don't they deserve it after *cue violins* so many years of suffering through patriarchal sexist educational institutions?

Needless to say, she completely misses the point of programs like Raising Cain and authors like Michael Gurian, who are, at least, trying to answer WHY boys are FAILING in vast numbers in our public schools. They never, to my knowledge, mention the fact that it's because they're reading more female authors (Pollitt's main argument)... they think it has more to do with the basic learning differences between boys and girls and who thrives in present-day classrooms because of that. I'm not sure if they're correct, but I do know that there is a problem, and I don't, unlike Pollitt, think our educational system some sort of competition between boys and girls and by golly, girls deserve to be ahead now!

Pollitt doesn't even address some of the things that boys face today in the United States: Boys receive 70% of the Ds and Fs given all students. Boys cause 90% of classroom discipline problems. 80% of all high school dropouts are boys. Millions of American boys are on Ritalin and other mind-bending control drugs. Only 40% of college students are boys. And three out of four learning disabled students are boys.

I guess if we are to believe Pollitt, these statistics are because "boys focus less on school because they think they'll come out ahead anyway." And really, who cares, since they can drop out, become plumbers and make a lot of money anyway! These seven year old boys should just shape up and stop being so sexist!

Does she realize the full inanity of her argument? Is she pulling our collective leg? Why can't she admit, at least, that there is a problem here that needs to be addressed?

Reply

No comment on the article but Radcliffe is SO NOT the "Girls wing of Harvard". Radcliffe was integrated into Harvard at least 20 years ago, and is now a Institute for Advanced Studies at Havard University. Harvard College is the undergarduate school, Harvard University encompasses Radcliffe, Harvard Business, Law, Medicine, Dental, etc.

http://www.radcliffe.edu/index.php

Reply

Apparently I'm not the only one who thinks our public schools have been "feminized" too much. Read about this Schoolboys' Bias Suit. http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2006/01/26/schoolboys_bias_suit/?p1=MEWell_Pos1Apparently I'm not the only one who thinks our public schools have been "feminized" too much. Read about this Schoolboys' Bias Suit. http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2006/01/26/schoolboys_bias_suit/?p1=MEWell_Pos1

Reply

I'm in school to become a middle school teacher right now and, although I don't have the practical knowledge of the teacher-commenters, I've learned a lot from my teacher-husband and our friends.
We've been discussing how the issue of "learning styles" is not really focused to teach children how they learn. Most people/students learn kinesthetically, but most teachers teach to the verbal learners. If we, as teachers, can empower our students to understand how they learn best AND teach to all of the learning styles, all children will benefit.
There are studies (I'm sorry, I don't have them handy but we've discussed them in my graduate program) that show a clear bias toward boys in school. It is still a fact and it would be irresponsible to overlook that fact. I think Katha was stretching it a bit, however, it's getting people talking about this important issue. Right?
And I'll just say that...if we want better education for our children with more individualized learning and smaller class sizes, then we have to have better funding. Funding will create the opportunities for boys and girls, but we also have to strive to do the best with what we have right in front of us.

Reply

Our schools are not being feminized, they are being equalized and for a society that has a deep sexist roots, thats a difficult change to manage smoothly. I think people are focusing way to much on gender and not enough on learning styles. We will never acheive true equality between boys and girls, men and women if we keep drawing gender lines.
If drawing racial lines is a bad idea then wouldn't drawing gender lines also be a bad idea?

Reply