Are Women Teachers to Blame for Boys' Low Test Scores?
In "The Mind of Man" by David Thomas, the academic performances of both men and women are scrutinized. He quotes an old calypso song "Man Smart, Woman Smarter" (120). But is this true, and if it is true, why are women generally regarded as being smarter, especially in their primary and secondary education?
Dr. John Nicholson, author of "A Question of Sex", states that men and women are different in the types of mental tasks they perform (120). Times magazine states in an article published in January 1992, that "Males excel at rotating three-dimensional objects in their head. Females prove better at reading the emotions of people in photographs" (121). The author of the article is referring to the fact that maybe our brains are put together differently.
Girls and boys performances in school are much different. The girls get the high grades and the boys leave. Why? Is it just because their brains are different? David Thomas argues that there has to be other factors involved. It can't just be brain function. He suggests that the social aspect in these studies must also be looked at and considered.
He looks at how boys speak up more in class and girls remain quiet. He states society has often viewed a girl who speaks out as "hectoring and domineering" (121). He also points out that boys get punished more for their behavior. Tony Mooney wrote in the Independent on Sunday: "Women teachers find boys too noisy, too aggressive, too boisterous" (121). By this he means teachers favor girls over boys because boys are not acting like the girls. And the majority of primary school teachers are women. Mooneys own son remarked how the female teachers shouted at him more than the m...
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... but how do the students learn to respect and get along with one another when finally put together? It seemed to work for David Thomas, but even he states it could be different for anybody.
So there is not one answer to why boys perform lower than girls in certain areas. It is a combination of social, economic, and neurological factors. Even with this combination every student has a different experience and circumstance. I learned quickly not to base whether or not my child will get a good education based on a school and its reputation. For in every school there are good teachers and bad teachers (both male and female) and it all depends on which one you get.
Work Cited
Thomas, David. "The Mind of Man." The Presence of Others; Voices and Images That Call for Response. Ed. Andrea Lunsford and John Ruszkiewicz. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2000. 120-124.
In contrast to the positives, high school athletics can be seen in a negative light. “Concussions [from athletics] cause structural brain damage” (Solotaroff 7). Even though nobody is said to get a concussion in Friday Night Lights, they are very frequent in football and in other sports today. They occur all the time in football especially. In addition to that piece of nega...
On their third stage of development minks are ready to breed when they are about 10 weeks old, this happens January all the way to April. Males and females will mate with different minks. Generally female minks are in heat for a period of 3 weeks. After they have mated...
Students and researchers can learn a lot from observing the mink; unexpectedly I was able to find many similarities between the mink and a human. Humans and Minks are very close in class, which explains their similarities in anatomy. Indeed although these two organisms have a lot in common there are major differences amongst these similarities. The similarities are due to the fact that both humans and the mink are mammals. The differences are due to the differences in environment, habits, size etc... One example is the fact that minks and humans both have lugs of similar shape but different lobes. Each of these similarities and/or differences benefit both the human and the mink, in their own unique way, with each structure having its own function. Overall the mink is a very complex animal and so is an individual.
In the article “Should Kids Play Football” from the Scholastic Scope on February 2015, writer Jennifer Shotz discusses both issues of the benefits and dangers of playing American football. For example, Jennifer Shots mentioned that tens of thousands of young football players get concussions every year. She states that most players return to the game after they are healed but some never return because their concussion was too severe to their health. On the other hand, the writer also discusses how football isn't the only sport that encounters concussions. The rules of football are always changing and each new rule provides a safer way to play the game. For example, the writer notes that Pop Warner has reduced the amount of practice time dedicated
Sabbatini, R. (n.d.). Are There Differences between the Brains of Males and Females?. "Brain & Mind" Magazine - WWW Home Page. Retrieved April 14, 2011, from http://www.cerebromente.org.br/n11/mente/eisntein/cerebro-homens.html
Since football’s inception, it has been considered a manly sport. Young boys have been encouraged by their parents to participate in the game. For many boys, it is considered a rite of passage. However, football is a dangerous sport. A study conducted by the Center for Injury Research and Policy found, “an estimated 5.25 million football-related injuries among children and adolescents between 6 and 17 years of age were treated in U.S. emergency departments between 1990 and 2007. The annual number of football-related injuries increased 27 percent during the 18-year study period, jumping from 274,094 in 1990 to 346,772 in 2007” (Nation 201). These reported injuries include sprains and strains, broken bones, cracked ribs, torn ligaments, and concussions. A concussion usually happens when a player takes a hard hit to the head or is knocked unconscious on the playing field, and if not diagnosed and treated quickly, a concussion can result in death.
Adirim, Terry A. “Concussions in Sports and Recreation.” Clinical Pediatric Emergency Medicine 8.1 (2007): 2-6. Print.
"The Mozart Project- Biography." The Mozart Project. mozartproject.org, 25, Apr 1998. Web. 22 Jun 2010. .
As we all know the brain is one of the most amazing mysteries in the world; there is a lot to be discovered. This topic hits home for me because most of my life I have always wanted to know how is the brain any different between men and women.
As an American traditional sport, football appears to be a dangerous influence upon the youth causing physical and mental restraints. In today’s society, preventative measures no longer seem to be a priority, focusing more on players and their MVP status. What worries people are possible head concussions affiliated with football itself and strategies to overcome this burden might excel by educating high school students on safety measures and forcing a regulatory guideline on students who have suffered head injuries. As serious as it sounds, concussions are not only severe to players, but can also cause long term effects.
In today’s society sports are a huge part of our culture. People of all ages watch and play all different kinds of sports. It is the American way for people to take an interest in sports and activities. They are becoming more and more popular as the years go on. One sport that is extremely popular in this country is football. Millions of people watch football of different levels including professional, college, and high school. Also many younger kids such as 7 or 8 years old are playing pop warner. This is great but considering a recent problem with this sport is the rise of concussions. The amount of concussions due to playing football is constantly on the incline and is forcing people to question the safety of the game.
The reality that boys are failing, especially through elementary, middle, and high school, strikes many as news. Richard Whitmire, author of Why Boys Fail, cites teachers’ experience that have noticed distinct differences between boys and girls. He presents multiple witnesses of boys’ and girls’ education, one of which is Kenneth Dragseth, the superintendent of schools in Edina, MN. In 2001, He noticed the disparity between the participation of girls and boys in education. He first noted the recipients of almost all academic achievements and scholarship awards were girls. Dragseth initiated specific research into the disparity between boys and girls, and discovered even more details. In a study, he further discovered that girls earned honors awards far more than men, while boys earned suspensions far more than ...
Romanticism was a reaction to the Enlightenment as a cultural movement, an aesthetic style, and an attitude of mind (210). Culturally, Romanticism freed people from the limitations and rules of the Enlightenment. The music of the Enlightenment was orderly and restrained, while the music of the Romantic period was emotional. As an aesthetic style, Romanticism was very imaginative while the art of the Enlightenment was realistic and ornate. The Romanticism as an attitude of mind was characterized by transcendental idealism, where experience was obtained through the gathering and processing of information. The idealism of the Enlightenment defined experience as something that was just gathered.
In the past decade, research showed that in the process of education in some countries, girls do better than boys, this problem was called ‘a boy’s problem’. The Dutch Ministry of Education published the study which examines the boys’ and girls’ position in primary school based on previous studies (Driessen, Langen, 2013). As a matter of fact, this problem is not a new question, and there are many discussions about gender differences. An important part of the problem is that boys’ scores are far below those of girls. In all education, based on some researchers' opinions, involving spatial and mathematical reasoning, skills, boys always doing better than girls, but in the aspects of language application and writing, girls often do better than boys (Bonomo, 2010).
... teachers to believe that boys are more intelligent than girls. Scantlebury found that teachers who do believe boys are more proficient than girls in mathematics, are more likely to reframe and breakdown questions “into a series of simpler questions” in an effort to assist the student to attain the answer. No such luxury is given to females in math classes. Teachers are more likely to restate the question and ask another student to answer; typically the student teachers selected to answer the question was a boy (Scantlebury). It’s clear that in classes which are perceived to be male oriented, teachers are willing to work more in-depth with males. Interestingly, Scantlebury found the opposite to be true in “subjects perceived as feminine.” Teachers spend more time with female students than with male students in subjects that the teachers believe are female oriented.