Getting boys back into education
Jun 9th, 2004I've found some very good notes and a story link at On Education: Schools for a Civil Society blogged by a teacher in British Columbia that some of you may find interesting. Specifically this link goes to his notes on a presentation about boys and education, as well as an older story 'Are Boys Getting Dumber?' Here's a less confusing link.
And an excerpt …
As if educators didn't have enough to worry about, they're now growing concerned about how badly boys are doing in high school. Then again, maybe they're not concerned enough.
Pat Clarke, a former president of the BC Teachers' Federation, raised the alarm locally a year ago. After a dozen years in administrative posts, Clarke returned to the classroom in 1995 and was startled at the changes he found. Not only were boys doing worse academically, but girls were now dominating the whole school culture: running the clubs, the student council, everything.
"The boys who were good were very good," Clarke says, but 80 per cent of the students on his school's honour roll were girls. And boys were five or six times as likely to be discipline problems. The more teachers he talked with, the more Clarke realized his school wasn't just a local exception. And when he published an article in the BCTF magazine Teacher, in January 1997, colleagues all over the province wrote and phoned to confirm his impression.
Did you enjoy this article?
