Why do boys usually do worse in school than girls?

EternalNothing · 2012-10-07T21:03:00+00:00

I completely disagree with the top posts.

It comes down to the general structure of most education nowadays is more rewarding for the psychological of females. There have been numerous studies on this. It wasn't as obvious for a long time because of other bias that overrode the discrepancies but now with the school systems balancing out and such its more prominent. There are several TED videos and much other research on it.

It basically comes down to the sit still, listen to a lecture and takes notes, is easier and more rewarding for females.
However, men need more active and engaging learning models. This is why they often excel at sports, or video games. Far more active, in addition to more competition and challenge.
When education learning is more active, challenging, and real time competitive(not the 1 test every 4 week, type of competitive) then men can actually start to excel quite a bit.

There is definitely some nature vs nurture influence but I am not saying that the future will hold 'boys schools' vs 'girls schools' but there is indeed a difference for most(not all). Schools in the future will eventually reflect this so that there is better distribution of learning models and formats for particular students.

First of all, grade/age systems needs to go away completely, because some students excel in math but slow in english in others.
Second of all, we need more various formats of learning instead of a plain 1 teacher, classroom full of people lectures..
Such as more group projects, more computer based learning, more instant feed back, more real time activity, more stimulus, faster paced, video lectures(where you can rewatch areas you didn't hear or didn't understand).

With computers and other formats, we need slightly more customized learning, not necessarily for each individual, but for groups of individuals with different types of learning.

There are plenty of brilliant people who suck at taking tests. There are tons of skill sets, intelligence, and many other things that are not ever tested in traditional paper tests, simply because of the fact that its impossible to test certain things on those types of tests. How do you truly 'grade' someones creativity or artistic skill? Math and english is easy, or even can you draw straight line. But the straight line method is bullshit because there are tons of artists out there who have major shakey hands who've found ways to make beautiful art. So who is to judge?

The problem isn't with the boys or the girls in any subject. The problem always is and always has fallen on failed, out dated, and limited educational models.

Equa1 · 2012-10-07T16:25:36+00:00

I didn't do homework, I didn't do projects, I didn't pay attention in class - I aced the tests.

I was a C student all throughout high school - but when it came to math and the sciences, the teachers knew I was the smartest in the class. I consistently got the highest test scores. I spent the majority of high school kicked out of class for being "disruptive".

I was a C grade student who aced the tests. My thought process was - why would I do hours of homework/projects a night, when I could just ace the tests already.

Tldr schools don't challenge the students who are bored

Edit - spelling

2012-10-07T15:42:08+00:00

It is likely partially attributable to non-cognitive skills more common in girls such as organization, dependability, and self-discipline as well as a tendency for boys to be a bit more rebellious. Struggling boys often require more discipline which isn't always there.

http://sitemaker.umich.edu/bajacob/files/where_the_boys_aren_t.pdf

People have argued that the education system has been redesigned in the 30 or 40 years in favor of girls and at the expense of boys. Not sure if that is true. Christina Hoff Summers makes this argument in "the war against boys." She also argues that segregating by gender would be better for everyone. I think she makes a persuasive point.

Secondly, there is evidence that intelligence follows an x linked pattern which results in an IQ distribution that has greater variance in males than females. That is males score farther away from the average on both the high range and low range than females. Since education is more or less designed so that people of average ability and above should succeed, more girls tend to be above the minimum level of ability. Conversely, in areas where the minimum intellectual requirement is set to be very high (that is on the far right of the distribution), there also tends to be more males for the same reason. Although the people on the far right are a relatively small minority of the population, male and female.

JamesRyder · 2012-10-07T15:31:03+00:00

School just doesn't cater to boys and is too quick to label them with having disorders like ADD when really they are simply bored and energetic. This video by Ken Robinson is excellent and illustrates the problem somewhat:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG9CE55wbtY

2012-10-07T19:30:13+00:00

There was a study in the UK I believe where teachers graded their students' papers and and a seperate group of teachers were used as a control and didn't know the students graded them. Guess what happened.

EpicJ · 2012-10-07T15:26:27+00:00

Because boys tend to have more learning difficulties Males are more likely than females to have both severe learning disabilities (average ratio 1.2 males: 1 female) and mild learning disabilities (average ratio 1.6 males: 1 female

zyk0s · 2012-10-07T15:38:34+00:00

A few things:

1) Learning starts at kindergarden and elementary school, where a disproportionate number of educators are women. A good number of these women have gotten degrees in sociology, anthropology and women studies, which we know carry a strong feminist bias. So right from the start, the educators are more likely to have a gender politics agenda against boys.

2) Evaluation is based on fuzzier criteria and on more appearance than in the past. It has been shown that boys perform better when the rules are well established, i.e. that boys perform slightly better at reason-based tasks and girls at expression-based tasks.

3) This fuzziness of evaluation opens the possibility for educators to evaluate the kids based on their subjective criteria. This puts boys at a disadvantage.

4) Expected discipline vs. enforced discipline. In previous generations, boys were known to be rowdy in class, so a stronger stress was put on discipline to keep them in line, with appropriate recreation time to get channel their energy. Now, the discipline is expected, i.e. the educators won't explicitly try to enforce order, rather they will softly ask for it, and when some boys refuse to fall in line, they are simply diagnosed with ADD and put on drugs.

5) As stated earlier, girls are slightly worse at reason-based skills and disciplines which is evidenced by their lower representation in STEM fields. Corrective programs have been introduced to help girls with learning math and sciences from a young age. The same programs don't exist for boys who have trouble with reading.

6) Outside the education system, there is evidence that young boys suffer from fatherlessness to a higher degree than young girls, and this results in lower discipline and learning deficiencies. Fatherlessness has been going up in the general population, so it is no wonder its symptoms are also visible in schools.

2012-10-07T15:58:15+00:00

School before college is mostly indoctrination anyway. Your time in primary school is totally controlled by people who are often incompetent. There is usually an actual bell. Many of the "explanations" of historical events you are made to repeat are misleading or untrue. If you are unpopular gym and recess can be psychologically damaging. I think doing worse in such a repressive environment may actually be a good thing.

memymineown · 2012-10-07T16:22:20+00:00

Many of these answers are pretty good but we shouldn't forget how pretty much every idiot in every sitcom and children's show is a man.

C0CKPUNCHER · 2012-10-07T17:11:24+00:00

A corpse with a knife sticking out of it is good proof of murder.

We have the smoking gun. Government explicitly and vocally set out to help girls do better at school with various transformations to the education system. Then it happened exactly like that.

Were is the fucking mystery.

(Equal rights sometimes is a zero sum game).

The boys who do badly at school do not hesitate to say school is antagonistic. There has been research that shows teachers give girls higher marks just for being girls, female teachers especially. Moreover I think boys are not protected from bullying just like adult males are not protected as much as adult females.

When black people do badly at school we aknowledge that they face discrimination and say we should help them. When boys do badly we blame the victim.

JockeVXO · 2012-10-07T22:18:38+00:00

Here are some of the possible factors found in a study made by a Swedish teacher and professor:

Flickors bättre klassrumsuppförande, även om Skolverket betonar att "närvaro, flit, ambition, läxläsning, lektionsarbete med mera inte ska vara en grund för betygsättningen".

Girls' better behaviour in the classroom, even though the Office for Education (loosely translated; Skolverket is the State authority on education) stresses that "attendance, diligence, ambition, completion of homework/prep, work done in class, etc... are not factors for grading.

Lärarna kompenserar vid betygsättning medvetet eller omedvetet det förtryck och den orättvisa flickor sägs erfara genom att pojkar dominerar och "tar plats i klassrummet".

The teachers, when grading, deliberately or not compensate for the oppression and the injustice girls are said to experience due to boys dominating and "taking up space in the classroom".

De flesta lärare är kvinnor och att de kanske tenderar att värdera den högre som liknar en själv.

Most teachers are women and they may tend to value those who look like them more highly.

Now, I've gone to school in Sweden. I grew up in the nineties and early noughties, and some of it reflects my own personal experience.

It's also been found that boys receive lower grades for the same or better results, if the teacher knows the sex of the pupil.

This YouTuber has some videos on the subject. Can also be found here.

Sacoud · 2012-10-08T00:40:43+00:00

I had this one female teacher that absolutley despised me and I didn't know why. I was always well behaved and I was the smartest in the class. I remember one time I finished my art work and I asked what I should do next and she announced to the class that art was over as Sacoud had finished and that we will now do Maths. Shit like this happened all the time and unfortunately I had her again for a whole year when I was 10. My grades plummeted and every single male in her class was miserable( was only 7 of,20 girls), one was actually banned from doing art because he accidently sat on what he made.

I don't think I'm doing a great job of expaining what this bitch was like but she would crucify all the boys while the girls could do whatever they liked. I found that my last point occured all the way through the school system, it was assumed that all boys were stupid and trouble makers.

My grades sky rocketed when I went to university.

Mine_is_nice · 2012-10-07T16:16:59+00:00

Could the fact that girls mature physically before boys have any impact on this?

TheRealPariah · 2012-10-07T20:46:05+00:00

Modern "schooling" rewards things which are generally female characteristics. They punish things which are generally male characteristics.

2012-10-07T16:28:25+00:00

Children should start school at 7.

ErasmusMRA · 2012-10-07T14:14:35+00:00

[permanently deleted]

Bartab · 2012-10-07T14:31:22+00:00

Because boys and girls learn differently. Schools used to be relatively geared toward boys (although - not in my experience at school and I'm older than most here) but now they're pretty strongly geared toward girls.

The solution is segregation. Two different schools.

EvilPundit · 2012-10-07T18:25:53+00:00

Discrimination, pure and simple.

Sixty years ago, boys did better in school than girls. Feminists lobbied to change the education system so as to improve outcomes for girls. They succeeded.

Sixty years ago, girls were discriminated against in school. Today, boys are discriminated against.

SCCROW · 2012-10-09T17:39:41+00:00

Something I hear in these circles too - is that many young men are being raised by single women...

I wonder if that is adding to the problem - or perhaps that is the majority of the problem?

Just some food for thought...

a77887 · 2012-10-07T18:25:41+00:00

I am a teacher and the answer is actually very short and sweet:

Work.

Girls pay attention and put in the work, few of my boys bother to concentrate.

I have thought long and hard and I think there are 3 things that might be related:

a) Boys lack motivation to be the best that they can be. I have no idea how to address this, talking don't help, making classes more interesting/entertaining don't help, begging/threatening has no effect.

At the end of the day YOU must decide to go for it. Your teacher can try his best, but he cannot make that decision for you.

b) Sexualization of boys. The things they watch and talk about are ... I don't know, but I distinctly remember that when I was in school (a few decades ago) we were not sex obsessed and the level of discourse was considerably higher. We were discussing Leonardo Da Vinci, my boys are talking about pegging and porn.

c) Discipline no longer exists where boys are concerned, it is a joke.

We have abandoned thousands of years of tried and tested primate dominance behavior. Young male simians respond to immediate physical threat displays, not delayed actions like detention or demerits.

Going back to own experience growing up in apartheid South Africa. We did our homework, paid attention in class and studied for exams. The reason, we knew there would be hell to pay if we did not. And if I dared to complain to my parents about a beating I got at school, my father would beat me again. Now this might sound f@cked up today, but every child in my class passed with university exemption.

Today my boys know their actions have minimal, if any consequences...

I honestly belief that boys would be best served in boys schools with male teachers. To lessen female distraction, have more of a natural dominant teacher/mentor group and to encourage competition among peers.

titania86 · 2012-10-08T02:48:43+00:00

I'm going to school to be an educator and the only style of learning that is taught to in schools is sitting down in a classroom, lecturing, and things of that nature. Many boys don't learn well that way and would prefer a more hands on, energetic, kinesthetic method of learning. There is also really only one method of testing (standardized) that may not mesh well with everyone's learning style.

I find that the claims that female teachers somehow hate male students is ridiculous. Maybe some of you have experienced that, but that doesn't make it true for every female teacher.

Funcuz · 2012-10-07T17:27:08+00:00

Because about 20 years ago the loudest feminists who didn't have feedbags strapped to their chins keeping them muzzled starting going around convincing everybody in the educational field that there was a 'girl crisis' . Not to worry ... the answer was to feminize the schools . So that's precisely what they did .
Now you're graded as heavily on how many flowers you drew on the cover sheet of your essay as you are on the content of it . Boys don't understand that because to them it's pointless . Well , actually , it is pointless . Boys also thrive on competition and feminists went out of their way to remove it from the classroom . See , if the little girls couldn't win it was sexist but if the little boys couldn't win it was because they were stupid . So we dumbed it all down and added a healthy dose of 'pretty' to give the girls a competitive advantage . Well , except that we took the competition out of it which is why everybody gets a gold star whether they worked on a project for six months or shat it out the night before .

Oh , and no , I'm not exaggerating or making this up . It was never a secret that we tried so hard to feminize education . In fact , the powers that be were quite proud of these 'progressive' policies . It proved they cared .
People just seem to have forgotten that part .

AnthonyZarat · 2012-10-07T16:38:03+00:00

Discrimination.

ConfirmedCynic · 2012-10-07T19:24:27+00:00

Turn math into a video game, and boys will excel.

ThePigman · 2012-10-08T01:26:27+00:00

Female teachers give them less marks for the same standard of work.

Title	Why do boys usually do worse in school than girls?
Author	MrPotatoJunior
Upvotes	24
Comments	76
Date	October 7, 2012 11:08 AM UTC (13 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/MensRights
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/MensRights/comments/1130rl/why_do_boys_usually_do_worse_in_school_than_girls/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/MensRights/why-do-boys-usually-do-worse-in-school-than-girls.1011888 https://theredarchive.com/post/1011888

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