Gender Differences

William__F0ster · 2016-12-09T19:42:12+00:00

A couple of days ago I was on the bus on the way to work. Two young boys who were, my guess, 8-10 years old were sat a couple of rows back talking animatedly.

Obviously, this is not a word for word transcript but this is pretty much what I caught them saying:

Boy A: ... and, and, Miss is SO unfair!

Boy B: I know! I know!

Boy A: Like, right, when she asks a question and I put my hand up and I get the RIGHT answer - I don't get ANY merits. But then when JANE DOE puts her hand up and she gets it completely and totally WRONG, then Miss says: 'That's a good answer, Jane. Although it's not quite right ...' and then Miss tells her what the CORRECT answer is - and gives Jane a Merit!

Boy B: I know! I know!

Boy A: But I NEVER get one even when she sees me and even when I get the RIGHT answer!!!

Boy B: I know! I know!

Boy A: I'm NOT going to put my hand up ANY more!!!

Boy B: Me neither!!

It is, of course, incredibly easy to dismiss this - the evidence, such as it is, is reconstructed and I have no solid proof to give you that it ever took place - I mean it did; I was there, but you get the point.

Besides, 8-10 year old boys are hardly reliable narrators, especially when feeling hard done by.

But all that said, I think there is a solid truth here that even the most sceptical ought to be able to recognise:

Elementary and primary school teachers are overwhelmingly female, overwhelmingly educated to degree level (obviously), and overwhelmingly trained in turn by earlier generations of women much like themselves;
But the ones that go on to get Ed.D's and PhDs and who become trainers of the trainees are not infrequently women who have in turn been trained by the kind of people who earnestly see the world in terms of a structural dichotomy between oppression and privilege;
It does not take all that much imagination to grasp that many elementary and primary school teachers (whether male or female) see themselves as doing the secular equivalent of 'God's work' by consistently encouraging girls - who, after all, they believe do not inherently lack ability, but who have been 'programmed' to believe they lack ability - and at the same time consistently ignore boys - on the grounds that as beneficiaries of 'privilege' they will succeed whatever.

Now imagine that kind of drama played out in state schools since the mid 1980s at least.

Now imagine how that kind of drama might have impacted boys up to the present day.

Now look at OP's figures.

Who fucking knew?

CatManDontDo · 2016-12-10T13:56:39+00:00

As a male teacher, who teaches only male students I am thoroughly convinced that single gender education is imperative. I used to be completely against it until I became part of it. You cannot teach boys the same way you teach girls, and vice versa.

Boys naturally want to compete as individuals and and as a team, in mixed gender we see that as them being over competitive and aggressive but when they are isolated from the girls it is probably the healthiest most effective learning I've ever seen. They aren't afraid to ask questions or get wrong answers, they're more likely to try something they'd fail at.

Also the ADHD thing is one of my personal issues i actually wrote a research paper on overdiagnosis in elementary age students working on my masters.

Female teachers do not have the training or experience to work with boys because like someone mentioned they were trained by female teachers who preached the same thing they are "girls are special and need help, boys have privilege so stick them in the back and ignore them." We will just medicate them instead of letting them express their individual characteristics it'll be perfect for when they are faceless drones in the army, or corporate sector that we can just discard.

For example I have a 7th grade student named Tim. By all accounts Tim should be medicated, heavily. He never completes his work and is constantly in trouble for talking, or moving around and all his teachers complain that he should be on medicine or in a self contained special education class. Guess who is my favorite student and has the highest average in my 6th period class? Tim.

I don't yell at Tim or force him to sit in the back, or send him to the office for every little thing. If we are doing class discussion I let Tim keep up with important things in the whiteboard, or if I want us to move the desks to a different formation Tim naturally acts as my foreman and helps the others. I never have a problem with him but none of the teachers ask me how he does well in my class, or why he's not a problem for me. Why? Because I teach health/physical education and according to standards and policies my grades don't even count.

Sorry for the rant

TL;DR single gender education is a huge plus and then a diatribe about AD/HD.

rbsanford · 2016-12-09T20:07:00+00:00

Don't males also have higher rates of autism? And mental illness/disorders in general?

hackableyou · 2016-12-09T19:37:28+00:00

How can 44% of guys get bachelor's but 45% of guys have graduate degrees?

Gumbercules_III · 2016-12-09T20:06:57+00:00

I thought I included this information along with this image but this data is from Philip Zimbardo's TED talk, "The Demise of Guys". Link is below.

https://www.ted.com/talks/zimchallenge#t-46078

inspiron3000 · 2016-12-10T11:48:33+00:00

http://www.educationworld.com/a_news/us-boys-continue-outperform-girls-advanced-math-and-physics-627879327

Title	Gender Differences
Author	Gumbercules_III
Upvotes	61
Comments	15
Date	December 9, 2016 7:17 PM UTC (9 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/MensRights
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/MensRights/comments/5hfp14/gender_differences/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/MensRights/gender-differences.936108 https://theredarchive.com/post/936108

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