Mary Pipher's "Saplings in the Storm" and William S. Pollack's "How U.S. Schools Are Stifling Male Students"
Mary Pipher's "Saplings in the Storm" and William S. Pollack's "How U.S. Schools Are Stifling Male Students" are two writers that are very different but at the same time striving to get to the same goal which is to improve the lives of young children. They go about getting the same results two very different ways. Pipher is a female psychologist who concentrates on the adolescent development of females in today's society. Pollack is a male psychiatrist who writes about boys and the developmental stunting by schools in the United States. Their audience seems to be the same group of people, that off parents, but different kinds of people, parents with girls vs. parents with boys. This would point out that both writers seem to be trying to reach a friendly audience, but this is not apparent in the approaches they take.
Pipher's tone in her piece seems to be more of a concern about the fate of young girls in today's society as she would say it. She takes this tone to try to be more emotionally attached with her audience. For example in one instance she's talking about Polly and how she felt when she started her period, "This left Polly confused and shaky."(Pipher p.240) Including Polly's personal emotions on the situation allows you as the reader to understand emotionally what she is going through. Also to try to get her audience more in touch with her the author she adds direct anecdotes about herself, "Recently I sat sunning on a bench outside my favorite ice-cream store."(Pipher p.241) This adds to the intimate tone she try's to keep throughout the whole piece. She's not just a database of information, but more of a intelligent concerned individual. She wants it be different, she wants a change and she wants this change to come quickly before they loose all their individualism and when she talks about these things her tone slightly changes almost allowing the reader to hear the importance of the situation in her writing, such as "Something dramatic happens to girls in early adolescence. Just as planes and ships disappear mysteriously into the Bermuda Triangle, so do the selves of girls in droves."(Pipher p.241) You can hear the sincerity, the importance of this situation to her in her writing. At the same time she doesn't give any examples of what can be done to remedy this problem.
The difference between men and women is a very controversial issue, while there are obviously physical differences; the problem is how the genders are treated. It is stereotypically thought that the men do the labor work and make all the money, while the women stay in the house, cooking, cleaning and taking care of the children. While this stereotype does not exist as much in the 21st century, it was very prevalent in the 1900s. By using many different literary tools such as character development, symbolism, and setting, Alice Munro’s Boys and Girls and John Steinbeck’s The Chrysanthemums challenge this controversial topic of the treatment of women versus men in the 1900s.
Mary Pipher, author of the book Reviving Ophelia, has made many observations concerning young adolescent girls in our society. She wrote this book in 1994, roughly eleven years ago. Although some of her observations made in the past are not still accurate in today’s world, there are many that are still present in 2005. The primary focus of Pipher’s comments is to explain how young girls are no longer being protected within our society.
Have you ever wondered what protects our right to an education free of sexual harassment and equal opportunity in school activities? Title IX does that.
A child’s first day of school is often viewed as a rite of passage; the first step on the road to a happy and successful life. This is true for most children from affluent families who live in the best school districts or can afford expensive private schools. But what if a child’s first day of school is nothing more than the first step on the road to poverty and possibly even illiteracy? The documentary Waiting for “Superman” addresses many issues in a failing school system and the innocent children that system leaves behind. Although the documentary spends little time suggesting parents’ roles in their children’s education, it clearly shows that we must make changes to help children from low-income families and improve the teacher’s unions.
Adolescent girls growing up in today’s society endure many more hardships than in previous years. Adolescence is no longer a time of endless sunny days spent on the back porch with a glass of country time lemonade and a smile extending ear to ear. Adolescence for girls is now generalized as a dark and depressing period of life that often seems hopeless and never ending. Mary Pipher PH.D tries to illustrate just how drastically life has changed over the years for teenage girls through her best selling book “Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls”. Although Mary Pipher was once a clinical psychologist, she articulates very well for everyone to clearly understand her ideas and perspectives. One way she is able to transfer her ideas to her readers without losing any of the emotion and feeling is by using actual quotes by her adolescent girl clients. I feel this is a very effective way to keep the readers attention and to convey the reality of the problems many teenagers are trapped in. I agree with Pipher that our society has changed for the worse even though we are persuaded to think that we are moving in the right direction. Yes, equal right movements have been placed in the law, but the respect that people once had for women has been eliminated. Comparing girls’ true selves to the Bermuda Triangle, Mary Pipher goes to great depth to explain what a mysterious trend this has become. No one can reason why these girls can no longer appreciate anything in life when just a few years before a spittle bug could have kept them mesmerized for an hour. Pipher recalls early in the book the image of Shakespeare’s Ophelia drowning herself due to failed attempts to please both her father and hamlet. She states that adolescent girls are similarly drowning in confusion as they try to sort out details in their life, and decide whom they really want to please. I really liked how Pipher points out that during the most stressful time during girls lives, our society stresses the importance of cutting the emotional ties with moms and dads although this is the time when parental guidance and support would most likely be needed, but maybe not appreciated at the time. However, some parents can actually impact the girl’s choices negatively by insisting that they grow up too fast or to confine to the norm.
What is learned in school, be it public or private, determines, for the most part, what position an individual will find themselves in - in the future. In “White Privilege and Male Privilege,” Peggy McIntosh, an author known for doing something that is rarely done in the white community--speaking of her race--makes references to education, to her privileged education, to support her argument on white and male privilege. Sometimes I wonder what society would look like without education; would there be any norms, or rules? Education is so deeply instituted into most Americans' lives that those questions will probably never be answered. One thing is certain; some people are able to get a better education than others.
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).
A school like Silliman University is an educational environment but still an adult sense of being. No one should be told what to wear once in an environment of adults or anywhere everyone has a stand out point in their style of clothing. College students are considered adults and should at least have the respect of coming as they are and not a made up robot that is controlled by a remote. Since college students are considered to be adults then they should have the privilege of dressing according to their desire. A dress code should not be enforced in the campus because the absence of a uniform does not inhibit the student from learning and understanding the subject at hand.
He also writes about the effect of healthy relationships with peers and the devastation that some boys feel when they discover they are homosexual. Pollack takes on the schools in failing boys in a number of ways but specifically for failing to understand the Boy Code. Boys continue to lose self-esteem as the mask of masculinity tightens and they conform to what society expects from them, interfering with their ability to learn effectively.
In each short story the character(s) the author highlights are young girls. This is first evident in the title alone in “Girl” where the title already gives the impression of a universally known stereotype as being young, and naïve. Although the title “A&P” does not suggest the same implication, within the story the reader learns quickly that the girls described in the story are in fact young, and innocent and lacking instruction just as the character in “Girl.” Understanding the characters is important because it sheds light on the reasons why they do what they do, and give reason to the plot. In which case, the characters even become the plot, such as the two short stories referenced. The girls described by Sammy in “A&P,” consume much of the story just by description, making it unmistakable their character. “...And then the third one, that wasn’t quite so tall. She was the queen. She kind of led them...” (Updike). Momentarily the reader is able to develop an image of these girls because everybody, young or old, most probably has been witness to this type of entourage throughout middle/high school. The girl being referred to by Sammy, Queenie, is oblivious to the fact she is stirring up the scene in the store, showing her naivety. Similarly, in “Girl” the fact that the young girl is being given instructions on how to behave as an adolescent girl by her mother, is reason to believe she is so inexperienced that her mother felt the instructions were necessary. The girls both have not realized the expectations society has upon the female population, nor the conseque...
Members of this society must learn what the appropriate way for them to behave is and what to expect of themselves and others. Growing up, gender roles were set on me as I played with fire trucks and cars, and my sisters played with Barbie's. The types of movies we watched were different and the types of books we read were also different. It would be thought of as bizarre for me, a male, to cry during Titanic, or to read Cinderella.
Unrealistically, the narrator believes that she would be of use to her father more and more as she got older. However, as she grows older, the difference between boys and girls becomes more clear and conflicting to her.
The teacher tossed a Styrofoam basketball to the outstretched arms of a fifth grade boy. Catching the ball was the incentive for the boys to point out missing conventions in a paragraph. The teacher projected a paragraph on the board with omitted punctuation for the students to add. The other boys in the class watched him as he went to the board to add the missing comma and then tossed the ball back to the teacher. A few seconds later, other arms shot up in the air to point out other missing conventions (Stotsky). A simple incentive of competition for the boys made them enjoy learning and actually got them to participate in class. Although single-sex classrooms can develop stereotypes for both genders, separating boys and girls can be beneficial for the students. Single-sex classes are more effective because they raise test scores, create fewer distractions, and make kids interested in school.
In the United States, many lack the skills necessary for college. Unfortunately, the education system fails to prepare some of its students for work or higher learning. Despite these circumstances, teachers and bureaucrats seek improvements to obtain higher success. In spite of the pressure for success, the current situation is not yielding the desired results. Moreover, in the recent State of the Union Address in early 2014, President Barack Obama stated the need for improved education, especially in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, or STEM fields. Yet, what should reformers pursue? Researchers have observed recurring problems to direct the improvement of education. The information presented, particularly over the past ten years, has revealed a need to involve the students that lag the most. Education risks excluding k-12 boys and minorities, as well as remedial education collegians, in higher education.
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...