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Essays on the gender difference in education
Sex differences in education
Effects of gender on education
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It’s Not Their Gender
Do humans let their gender define their capability to learn? In the “The Gender Gap at School,” David Brooks talks about how “Male reading rates are falling three times as fast as among young women’s” (Brooks 391), because teachers are not providing equal reading interest in both genders. However, gender does not play a role in males capability to succeed in their education for reading. “The problem with gender is that it prescribes how we should be, rather than recognizing how we are” (Adichie).
All children are made differently, but the gender does not play a role in how well they do in school. For example, “upon entering school, girls perform equal to or better than boys on nearly every measure of achievement, but
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It just turns many of them into high school and college dropouts who hate reading” (Brooks 392). Here is an example of slippery slope, the author is predicting males drop out due to hating reading. This last statement makes the manuscript undependable because there are more relevant reasons males drop out.
For some students, dropping out is the culmination of years academic hurdles, missteps, and wrong turns. For others, the decision to drop out is a response to conflicting life pressures -- the need to help support their family financially or the demands of caring for siblings or their own child. Dropping out is sometimes about students being bored and seeing no connection between academic life and "real" life (Furger).
The argument David Brooks delivers about the gender gap at school regarding males reading comprehension is irrelevant. As students beginning their education they need to be able to create their own study set, regardless of the material. Despite, "what field males are interested in, they will have to read. And the better they can read, the easier it will be for them to learn new subject matter and to effectively communicate their knowledge"
The causes of reading difficulties often arise because of learning disabilities such as dyslexia, poor preparation before entering school, no value for literacy, low school attendance, insufficient reading instruction, and/or even the way students were taught to read in the early grades. The struggles that students “encounter in school can be seen as socially constructed-by the ways in which schools are organized and scheduled, by assumptions that are made about home life and school abilities, by a curriculum that is often devoid of connections to students’ lives, and by text that may be too difficult for students to read” (Hinchman, and Sheridan-Thomas166). Whatever the reason for the existence of the reading problem initially, by “the time a [student] is in the intermediate grades, there is good evidence that he will show continued reading g...
“Gender disparity” refers to the differences between the percentages of men and women obtaining college degrees. Hulbert coveys the different ways in which young boys and girls process information. Women tend to be better at reading, writing, and verbal skills, while men tend to better at math and sciences. By sixth grade, young boys tend to lose interest in literature and are often struggling in subjects such as English and reading, while young girls are often losing interest in math and science by sixth grade. Boys perform consistently below girls on tests of reading and verbal skills. By high school, girls tend to score in the middle or average; however, boys tend to score either really well or rather poorly.
Men and women are not made equal. At least this is what Deborah Tannen believes in her article “How Male and Female Students Use Language Differently.” Tannen is a professor at Georgetown University, and is often highly revered for her work in linguistics. The article is meant to show the differences in communication learned at an early age by boys and girls. However, in the article, Tannen shows lack of direction with thought and evidence that should be apparent in the work of someone on the collegiate level.
Their shock was a result of the common belief that literacy is solely the ability to read and write. According to the dominant culture, if one cannot read or write at an expected level, he or she is considered illiterate and thus must be caught up to speed with the rest of society. Consequently, when the majority of students failed the entrance test, they were viewed as illiterate and unable to communicate properly because they did not have adequate language skills, as explained by the “skills discourse” (Barton 160). However, a newer perspective on literacy is that it is not just based upon one’s ability to read and write in the dominant language. Instead, it is based upon people’s abilities to communicate in a variety of ways; these multiple methods of communicating with the world manifest themselves further and change as people experience more and change themselves. In the context of education and this new perspective on literacy, written works are not the only form of literacy in the classroom. Instead, teachers consider other forms of literacy familiar to students and use those forms to mold well-informed and self-sufficient students (Barton 206-208). Perhaps if Harvard had not labeled their prospective students as literate or illiterate based on writing and reading skills, the entire issue of abolishing versus
High school can be tough for many teenagers. Some students may feel as if the classes they are taking are boring or the material being taught will not help them later on in life. These students begin to not show up for class and then their grades start lowering drastically. Next, these students come up with the idea that dropping out is the easiest and fastest way to escape all the stress that is caused by academics. However, they need to start looking at the bigger picture and asking themselves if quitting school is going to help them reach their personal goals. Most people want to live a life filled with laughter and have the least amount of trouble as possible. Dropping out of high school will not bring joy to anyone, it will only affect the dropout and also our society in a negative way.
Another reason we drop out of college is that we want to be independent. A lot of news has been saying that students are sensitive during the adolescence. Because of adolescence, they may think that school is “nothing”, it is just a waste of time. Also, facts have been saying that more and more students are being independent related to the school. A good reason that they are independent is that they want to have their own money. However, when we don’t know how to say no and face whatever problems may cause, we often use to drop out of college to avoid difficulties.
Ryle (2013) claims the gender schema theory is constructed on the frameworks of both cognitive development and social learning theory which seeks to explain how individuals become gendered in society. The theory was developed by Sandra Bem (1981) arguing that cultural influences predominantly impact how children establish and develop their ideas about what it means to be a man or women. The theory proposes that to learn such definitive information
...Gender stereotypes do not only target women, contrary to popular belief. The largest issue facing boys and, ultimately, young men in our society is the amount of emphasis placed on women whether it be through literature, propaganda, or equality. The modern society tends to place so much emphasis on women’s suppression that the majority of citizens forget about men’s equality. School-age boys should be given the option to read male-oriented literature rather than that of the feminist era. Women’s rights propaganda should either be eliminated or that of men’s rights should be added to counteract all of the negative things said about them. Finally, young men should have the right to choose their learning environment, whether it be in a classroom or outdoors. All of these things should be incorporated into society in order to end unfair discrimination against young men.
Driessen, G., & van Langen, A. (2013). Gender differences in primary and secondary education: Are girls really outperforming boys. International Review of Education, 59(1), 67-86.
Every 26 seconds one of our kids drops out of high school, that's 1.3 million students each year. The main reason for dropping out, the failure to succeed. Society puts an insurmountable amount of pressure on these kids to succeed, however this can actually be extremely detrimental to the students and children.
Rumberger, Russell. “Dropping Out: Why Students Drop Out of High School and What Can Be Done About It” (Dec 19, 2012)
Forty minutes left in this boring classroom. The teacher at the front of the room babbles consistently about everything that revokes my interest. I cannot sit still in this uncomfortable plastic seat. I understand why students loathe the thought of going to school. However, simple boredom minutely compares to dropping out of school. According to the book Dropping Out : Why Students Drop Out of High School and What Can Be Done About It, “Public high schools in the United States reported that 607,789 students dropped out in 2008– 09” (Rumberger 1). Common consequences for those students consist of detriments such as decreased pay, low availability of applicable jobs, and low self-esteem. I know of only rare cases where high school drop outs emerge prosperous in the modern economic world. Graduation of high school is crucial to increase chances of success. The student’s background, school performance, and personal choices can cause him to consider or even go through with dropping out of school.
Women, Girls, Boys and Men today face a variety of different issues in contemporary american society. Many of the problems that they face are regarding gender and cultural issues. Today we say that both genders are equal but in reality they are really not. We have both girls and both falling behind in school because of these cultural issues. According to David Brooks article titled “Honor Code,” the reason why boys especially, are falling behind in education is because of the way the education system is set-up. He states that schools today proclaim that they are diverse, but in fact they have become “homogeneous,” they only cater to students who are “nurturing, collaborative, disciplined, neat, studious, industrious and ambitious.” He says that those who do not fit in with those categories are left behind, they become disconnected and eventually withdraw completely from their education. It has become a huge problem in the U.S, where colleges are lowering their admission standards just so they can admit more men. Mr. Brooks says the problems with boys is that they are naturally aggres...
The causes are almost certainly many and consistent. What seems inescapable is the conclusion that dropping out of school is one of the important factors related to the difficulties of people. The causes of dropping out reveal families in trouble. All too often, families with areas of high pressure are characterized by single parents, lack of parenting skills, and substance abuse. The most common causes of dropping out are money, family, and time management.
Dropouts in school have been an important topic in education since the number of students that are dropping out has been increasing over the years. There is more than one reason students decide to leave school before graduating from high school. In the Gate Foundation report, they do a survey to investigate the main reasons of why students of age 16-25 years old drop out of high school. According to the Gate Foundation report, they are five main reasons why students are dropping out of school. Almost half of the students in the survey responded that one of the major reasons of dropping out of high school was because classes were not interesting or boring. It is true that if a person does not feel interested of learning something, then it can