Is MCPS systemically Biased against Boys?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Richard Reeves just wrote an essay recommending all boys be redshirted to deal with educational bias against boys:

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2022/10/boys-delayed-entry-school-start-redshirting/671238/

In short, OP, you aren’t wrong.

Yep. Great article. We need to take care of the boys too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Like everything else, there's been an over correction. When I was in school girls did not perform as well as boys. Efforts were made to correct it and here we are now.
The girls on the run thing, etc pisses me off too.

We have also run into teachers who clearly favor girls no matter what.
And bullying against boys is tolerated much more than bullying against girls.

I have a boy and a girl and I hate that the school focuses so much time an attention on ‘girls only’ activities. Agree about Girls on the Run. As if boys wouldn’t benefit from releasing some extra energy by training for a 5K and discussing issues.

There's a similar program for boys called Let Me Run (https://www.letmerun.org/). Like Girls on the Run, it's a running program and it has a curriculum - the one for Let Me Run is focused on teaching boys that there are lots of ways to be a man, that it's okay to show emotion, etc. So, basically, an anti-toxic masculinity program. But it needs parent volunteers to set it up and keep the program going, just like Girls on the Run does. So, if you're upset about Girls on the Run, you may want to look into starting a Let Me Run program at your kids' schools.

You're joking right? The parallel program of Let me Run would be a program that is anti toxic femininity (using looks as a weapon, gossiping, social gate keeping, weaponizing feelings) which girls on the run is not.

what are people talking about? I have a girl and a boy. the girl did "girls on the run" and the boy did "let me run". Both great programs. But I do agree boys are being neglected overall.

People are talking about an imaginary version of "Let Me Run" that exists in their heads so that they have an excuse to complain about girls getting something.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Like everything else, there's been an over correction. When I was in school girls did not perform as well as boys. Efforts were made to correct it and here we are now.
The girls on the run thing, etc pisses me off too.

We have also run into teachers who clearly favor girls no matter what.
And bullying against boys is tolerated much more than bullying against girls.

I have a boy and a girl and I hate that the school focuses so much time an attention on ‘girls only’ activities. Agree about Girls on the Run. As if boys wouldn’t benefit from releasing some extra energy by training for a 5K and discussing issues.

You should help bring Hero Boys Club to your school. It's the same type of program as Girls on the Run, started by some of the same people and their peers.

https://www.heroboys.org/

[Anonymous]

Yep we've seen it too. Also in our Bethesda ES, there are no male teachers and no male adminstrators. The only males working in the building are the building services and janitorial staff.

I've seen little attempts by MCPS to address the massive gender imbalance in hiring.

[Anonymous]

I'd love to see an after school reading club just for boys, or maybe a cooking club or something. (My son's favrotie summer camp last year was a cooking camp)

The point of STEM clubs for girls is to help them get exposed to things that they aren't traditionally exposed to and supported in, and areas where they are still generally performing more poorly than boys. I'd be thrilled to see similar programs for boys in areas where they have been historically neglected or often perform more poorly

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yep we've seen it too. Also in our Bethesda ES, there are no male teachers and no male adminstrators. The only males working in the building are the building services and janitorial staff.

I've seen little attempts by MCPS to address the massive gender imbalance in hiring.

What percent of the teachers in MC do you think are woke-a-doke anti boy?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yep we've seen it too. Also in our Bethesda ES, there are no male teachers and no male adminstrators. The only males working in the building are the building services and janitorial staff.

I've seen little attempts by MCPS to address the massive gender imbalance in hiring.

Are there any men on the school board?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yep we've seen it too. Also in our Bethesda ES, there are no male teachers and no male adminstrators. The only males working in the building are the building services and janitorial staff.

I've seen little attempts by MCPS to address the massive gender imbalance in hiring.

What percent of the teachers in MC do you think are woke-a-doke anti boy?

If there is one racist teacher in the school I feel that person should be aggressively weeded out. Same for antiboy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yep we've seen it too. Also in our Bethesda ES, there are no male teachers and no male adminstrators. The only males working in the building are the building services and janitorial staff.

I've seen little attempts by MCPS to address the massive gender imbalance in hiring.

It's not an MCPS imbalance in hiring. It's a gender imbalance in the number of education majors who are women vs. men. Teaching has always traditionally been seen as a woman's career (I bet teachers would be paid much better if it was a male-dominated field!). The way to address the gender imbalance in schools is to encourage more boys to go into teaching, which won't happen until we change societal expectations of men as providers and women as nurturers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yep we've seen it too. Also in our Bethesda ES, there are no male teachers and no male adminstrators. The only males working in the building are the building services and janitorial staff.

I've seen little attempts by MCPS to address the massive gender imbalance in hiring.

There is only one thing they can do to hire more male teachers: $$$$$$

Most teachers here have a spouse who makes more money than they do. Most men in the DC area can find a job that pays more than teaching or can leave and move to a cheaper place but move up in the ranks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Bradley Hills in Bethesda is terrible. The administration is totally biased against boys.

I agree. The principal there really can’t stand boys and their “energy”. I also feel bad how she really restricts any sort of active sports game they want to
play at recess implementing rules so it’s not that fun anymore.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yep we've seen it too. Also in our Bethesda ES, there are no male teachers and no male adminstrators. The only males working in the building are the building services and janitorial staff.

I've seen little attempts by MCPS to address the massive gender imbalance in hiring.

My son had a male teacher in 1st grade (MCPS). Not surprisingly, that was the only year of elementary school he actually liked.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yep we've seen it too. Also in our Bethesda ES, there are no male teachers and no male adminstrators. The only males working in the building are the building services and janitorial staff.

I've seen little attempts by MCPS to address the massive gender imbalance in hiring.

Are there any men on the school board?

Currently 2: Scott Joftus and Arvin Kim.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yep we've seen it too. Also in our Bethesda ES, there are no male teachers and no male adminstrators. The only males working in the building are the building services and janitorial staff.

I've seen little attempts by MCPS to address the massive gender imbalance in hiring.

Are there any men on the school board?

Currently 2: Scott Joftus and Arvin Kim.

A year ago: 0

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yep we've seen it too. Also in our Bethesda ES, there are no male teachers and no male adminstrators. The only males working in the building are the building services and janitorial staff.

I've seen little attempts by MCPS to address the massive gender imbalance in hiring.

It's not an MCPS imbalance in hiring. It's a gender imbalance in the number of education majors who are women vs. men. Teaching has always traditionally been seen as a woman's career (I bet teachers would be paid much better if it was a male-dominated field!). The way to address the gender imbalance in schools is to encourage more boys to go into teaching, which won't happen until we change societal expectations of men as providers and women as nurturers.

We heard the same thing in tech -- not enough "pipeline" of women so that's why STEM fields had a huge gender imbalance. So, we focused on ensuring gender balance at the college level, which is why the STEM fields at many universities are now evenly balanced in terms of students studying. The result is more women in STEM fields, since more women are being educated in those fields. We made STEM "cool" even at the grade school level, which is great.

But... no such efforts when the gender imbalance is the other way. Again, we're failing our boys.