Is MCPS systemically Biased against Boys?

[Anonymous]

I do think school is more designed for females because they tend to be more docile, can sit quietly and attentively in a seat all day. In addition, there was something I read recently about how teachers (who are almost entirely female) who don’t personally have sons themselves tend to crack down harder on boys because they do not understand their behavior. Schools should definitely keep in mind and correct this bias towards girls. We noticed overt favoritism of the girls in our kindergarten teacher’s class as well which is a big shame.

Re: girls on the run: I agree this group should either rename itself so it’s inclusive, or not be allowed to advertise itself at schools. I thought DEI was supposedly a thing at mcps?

But really I don’t understand why anyone would pay over $15+/run? People will pay for anything out here I guess.

[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.

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.

The problem with your comparison with STEM is that girls/women have traditionally been seen as not being good enough for these professions, while teaching was seen as not good enough for boys/men - because it doesn't pay enough, it's "easy," etc. (in both cases, boys/men are seen as superior).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

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.

The problem with your comparison with STEM is that girls/women have traditionally been seen as not being good enough for these professions, while teaching was seen as not good enough for boys/men - because it doesn't pay enough, it's "easy," etc. (in both cases, boys/men are seen as superior).

Excuses, excuses. We heard a million reasons why women couldn't enter field X and they proved them wrong. Why don't we apply the same to boys?

[Anonymous]

Gender bias is as real as cultural/ethnic biases.

[Anonymous]

Schools might be biased against boys, but for discipline, I would expect more punishment for boys than girls. If the stats show that girls and boys are receiving equal amount of suspensions/detention, then I think they are being too harsh with girls.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

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.

The problem with your comparison with STEM is that girls/women have traditionally been seen as not being good enough for these professions, while teaching was seen as not good enough for boys/men - because it doesn't pay enough, it's "easy," etc. (in both cases, boys/men are seen as superior).

Excuses, excuses. We heard a million reasons why women couldn't enter field X and they proved them wrong. Why don't we apply the same to boys?

You realize that women still drop out of STEM careers at shockingly high rates? The problem of women in STEM is far from over. Do not be so smug. You have nothing to be smug about.

[Anonymous]

I’ve often looked at the gender breakdown of students with disabilities in our school. It’s about 3/4 boys. That number seems pretty lopsided given that disabilities typically affect both genders in equal numbers. The main difference is that girls often are not early identified because their behavior is often less disruptive than boys. One could argue that the lack of addressing the needs of girls with disabilities is discrimination due to disability and gender.

Definitely something MCPS should look into more and address. The numbers indicate a serious problem in schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Totally agree about schools being biased against boys, but when it comes to youth sports, boys definitely have the advantage and it's pretty petty to be pissed about Girls on the Run.

No, you. If you had a boy who needed confidence building and found such a program exists but your child was purposely excluded because he's a male, you'd be pretty disappointed too. Imagine "straights on the run" or "Caucasians on the run" being an acceptable program.
It's exclusion based on a protected class: sex. They shouldn't allow that. Especially when schools push it/host it/advertise it.

DP. There is a confidence building running program for boys as has been pointed out. If you think it's important and needed, but your school doesn't have it, you should step up and lead it. If your only interest is in tearing down things for girls, then feel free to keep whining about it on the internet.

DP

That’s not the point. The point is that the school is actively offering and promoting a program for girls without offering an opportunity for boys. That would not be allowed in any other context. The PP is correct.

Youth sports orgs like BCC Baseball use public facilities to offer programs that overwhelmingly serve boys. They have priority for using fields because they have been around longest.

[Anonymous]

Interesting discussion. I’m a teacher also also a mother of sons. I’ve found that the ways boys misbehave in my classes are much more physical — pushing, hitting, grabbing things — than the ways girls misbehave — such as being off task, talking, relational aggression. I will definitely admit that I am more likely to send a student to the office for physical aggression. So it’s more often the boys. Maybe male teachers have more patience with boys’ hitting but I sure don’t. If you don’t want them to go to the office then teach them to keep their hands to themselves.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Interesting discussion. I’m a teacher also also a mother of sons. I’ve found that the ways boys misbehave in my classes are much more physical — pushing, hitting, grabbing things — than the ways girls misbehave — such as being off task, talking, relational aggression. I will definitely admit that I am more likely to send a student to the office for physical aggression. So it’s more often the boys. Maybe male teachers have more patience with boys’ hitting but I sure don’t. If you don’t want them to go to the office then teach them to keep their hands to themselves.

Are you an ally for boys in school? How much recess do kids have per day? How much PE do they have per day? What are you doing to incorporate the different styles between boys and girls? If you are not helping address these issues, you are part of the problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Interesting discussion. I’m a teacher also also a mother of sons. I’ve found that the ways boys misbehave in my classes are much more physical — pushing, hitting, grabbing things — than the ways girls misbehave — such as being off task, talking, relational aggression. I will definitely admit that I am more likely to send a student to the office for physical aggression. So it’s more often the boys. Maybe male teachers have more patience with boys’ hitting but I sure don’t. If you don’t want them to go to the office then teach them to keep their hands to themselves.

Are you an ally for boys in school? How much recess do kids have per day? How much PE do they have per day? What are you doing to incorporate the different styles between boys and girls? If you are not helping address these issues, you are part of the problem.

Teachers have zero say in how much recess or PE kids get. As the mother of boys I am definitely aware of “styles” and interests, but I’m going to draw the line at allowing them to hurt one another.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’ve often looked at the gender breakdown of students with disabilities in our school. It’s about 3/4 boys. That number seems pretty lopsided given that disabilities typically affect both genders in equal numbers. The main difference is that girls often are not early identified because their behavior is often less disruptive than boys. One could argue that the lack of addressing the needs of girls with disabilities is discrimination due to disability and gender.

Definitely something MCPS should look into more and address. The numbers indicate a serious problem in schools.

As a woman who had undiagnosed adhd +, and a parent of 2 children with adhd +, it's not the schools job to find students with disabilities. The shocking disparity is the fault of the psychology industry, not the schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Interesting discussion. I’m a teacher also also a mother of sons. I’ve found that the ways boys misbehave in my classes are much more physical — pushing, hitting, grabbing things — than the ways girls misbehave — such as being off task, talking, relational aggression. I will definitely admit that I am more likely to send a student to the office for physical aggression. So it’s more often the boys. Maybe male teachers have more patience with boys’ hitting but I sure don’t. If you don’t want them to go to the office then teach them to keep their hands to themselves.

Hitting is one thing but I don't believe that does justice to the problem. Thanks to Zoom, many of us sat and listened to teachers praise every half hearted effort of girls. Prop them up as examples of good work while simultaneously scolding boys for their work, for not speaking sweetly enough, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Totally agree about schools being biased against boys, but when it comes to youth sports, boys definitely have the advantage and it's pretty petty to be pissed about Girls on the Run.

No, you. If you had a boy who needed confidence building and found such a program exists but your child was purposely excluded because he's a male, you'd be pretty disappointed too. Imagine "straights on the run" or "Caucasians on the run" being an acceptable program.
It's exclusion based on a protected class: sex. They shouldn't allow that. Especially when schools push it/host it/advertise it.

DP. There is a confidence building running program for boys as has been pointed out. If you think it's important and needed, but your school doesn't have it, you should step up and lead it. If your only interest is in tearing down things for girls, then feel free to keep whining about it on the internet.

DP

That’s not the point. The point is that the school is actively offering and promoting a program for girls without offering an opportunity for boys. That would not be allowed in any other context. The PP is correct.

Youth sports orgs like BCC Baseball use public facilities to offer programs that overwhelmingly serve boys. They have priority for using fields because they have been around longest.

What? That is not true at all. I have a son who plays baseball for BCC and a daughter who plays softball for BCC. There are plenty of organizations that serve girls’ athletic teams. Field hockey is a sport that overwhelmingly attracts females.

Your post makes no sense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’ve often looked at the gender breakdown of students with disabilities in our school. It’s about 3/4 boys. That number seems pretty lopsided given that disabilities typically affect both genders in equal numbers. The main difference is that girls often are not early identified because their behavior is often less disruptive than boys. One could argue that the lack of addressing the needs of girls with disabilities is discrimination due to disability and gender.

Definitely something MCPS should look into more and address. The numbers indicate a serious problem in schools.

As a woman who had undiagnosed adhd +, and a parent of 2 children with adhd +, it's not the schools job to find students with disabilities. The shocking disparity is the fault of the psychology industry, not the schools.

Federal laws include Section 504 and the IDEA puts the responsibility to identify students with disabilities and their needs on public schools that accept federal funding. There’s a wide discrepancy based on financial resources for parents to pay for private assessments.

As is, MCPS data shows boys are identified more than girls. That shows a probability of bias that impacts the child find process.