Reply to 60% of girls say they want college, only 46% of boys

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Having a boy really opened my eyes to this issue. My well behaved, introvert, academically inclined DS is completing college a semester early with nearly perfect gpa, and even he ran into the bias against boys in the educational system. He had some wonderful teachers through the years, but he had some that clearly just didn’t like boys. I had friends with boys who were naturally rowdier who really struggled with it.

It has nothing to do with how they do on their academic assignments, but teachers who expect boys to act like girls and penalize them when they don’t and then wonder why they don’t like school. My son has had a great academic career, but I regret not sending him to an all boys school through at least middle school. [/quote]

I don't have any sons, only daughters but I do agree there is sort if a bias against boys. Lots of teachers are female so that might be one of the reasons. Also I have no doubt that boys raised in divorced families with no fathers or a father figure has had an impact. Bottomline, we need more male role models.[/quote]

[b]How come boys used to thrive in the classroom then? Back in the baby boomer generation.[/b]

They were class presidents, leaders,  valedictorians. This was in an era when teachers were female and classroom rules were very strict and prescriptive. Today, students are allowed to make noise and roam around in class. Back then they had be still and quiet.

So, how come boys were more successful academically back then? [/quote]

Because back then society (and thus teachers, principals, the entire system) assumed that they would become executives, managers, doctors, lawyers, and all of this translated into how boys were treated in the classroom. In the last 15 years things have shifted, we gave girls the same opportunities, the collective expectation of what they could do and could become matched our expectations of boys. Except girls have more work ethic in elementary and middle school. And the expectations + the work ethic = really really strong girls who started believing they could run with and outmatch the boys. In middle school I asked my DD if she thought any boy in her class was smarter than her in math (I asked because studies at the time indicated that once the math got hard, girls started retreating in the STEM classes). She flat out said no. We have never paid attention to the work ethic of boys. Not in the boomer generation (because they could ride the patriarch wave) and not now (because we focused on the girls). But we need to, because the boys are falling way behind the girls. [/quote]

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