Jungen werden bei den Noten benachteiligt

[Erschienen am 21. Dezember 2007]


Jungen bekommen in der Schule nach einem "Spiegel"- Bericht auch bei gleichem Wissensstand schlechtere Noten als Mädchen. Zu diesem Ergebnis kommt dem Magazin zufolge ein Bericht des Bundesbildungsministeriums, für den verschiedene Studien ausgewertet wurden.

Mädchen passen sich besser anIn Deutsch, Mathematik und Sachkunde erhielten Mädchen demnach bei gleichen Leistungen bessere Noten als Jungen. Das liege möglicherweise auch daran, dass das sozial zumeist angepasstere Verhalten der Mädchen in die Note einfließe.

Mehrzahl der Hauptschüler männlich


Insgesamt schneiden männliche Schüler den Experten zufolge deutlich schlechter ab als weibliche. So betrage der Jungen-Anteil an den Hauptschulen 56 Prozent, an den Gymnasien aber nur 46 Prozent. Erziehungswissenschaftler sind sich relativ einig, woran es liegt, dass Jungs mit dem System nicht zurechtkommen: Die Schule ist ein klar weiblich dominiertes Feld. 87 Prozent des Grundschulpersonals besteht aus Frauen. Wenn Männer auf Lehramt studieren, dann hauptsächlich, um ans Gymnasium zu gehen.

Männliche Lehrer Mangelware

Das Problem ist eindeutig: Jungs fehlen die Vorbilder und die Vertrauenspersonen, die sich in sie hineinversetzen können. "Aber während wir darauf warten, dass endlich mehr Männer Grundschullehrer werden und anerkannte Vorbilder aus dem Boden schießen, kann in der Schule selbst weiter daran gearbeitet werden, der negativen Entwicklung entgegenzuwirken", meint Annika Lüders vom Schulbuch-Verlag Cornelsen.

An Jungs orientieren, nur wie?

Die Autoren der Studie für das Bildungsministerium schlagen die "Umgestaltung des schulischen Alltags nach geschlechtergerechten Gesichtspunkten" vor. Allerdings heißt es in dem Bericht: "Ungeklärt ist, wie ein an Jungen-Interessen orientierter Unterricht aussehen könnte, ohne die Interessen von Mädchen zu vernachlässigen."

"Nicht automatisch gegen Mädchen"

Annika Lüders schlägt zum Beispiel Minuten zum Austoben in unruhigen Unterrichtsstunden und auf Jungs zugeschnittene Aufsatz-Themen vor. Mehr Science Fiction - weniger Ponyhof, lautet ihre Devise. Oder zumindest beides zu gleichen Teilen. Lüder betont: "Wir müssen uns ganz entspannt klar machen, dass etwas für die Jungs zu tun nicht automatisch bedeutet, etwas gegen die Mädchen zu tun."

Getrennte Klassen in den USA

In den USA, wo dieses Problem ebenfalls auftritt, setzt eine stetig wachsende Zahl von Schulen seit etwa einem Jahr auf eine überholt geglaubte Methode: Sie haben die Koedukation, den gemeinsamen Unterricht für Mädchen und Jungen abgeschafft. Mädchen und Jungen werden dort in getrennten Klassen unterrichtet, damit der Lehrer genauer auf die Bedürfnisse der Jungs oder Mädchen reagieren kann.

Kinder konzentrieren sich besser

So werden in manchen Klassen Jungs nicht mehr aufgerufen, sondern bekommen einen Football zugeworfen, wenn sie dran sind. Naturwissenschaftlicher Unterricht wird den Mädchen mit Musik unterlegt. Der US-Verband für gleichgeschlechtliche Erziehung (NASSPE) erklärt, in gleichgeschlechtlichen Klassen könnten sich die Kinder besser konzentrieren und heben Erfolge bei der Leistungssteigerung hervor.

Bürgerrechtler sind entsetzt

Doch nicht alle sind von dieser Methode überzeugt. "Wie sollen wir unseren Kindern vermitteln, dass Klischees und die Diskriminierung von Geschlechtern der Vergangenheit angehören, wenn wir sie im Unterricht trennen", fragt die Vorsitzende der US-Frauenorganisation NOW, Kim Gandy. Die einflussreiche US-Bürgerrechtsvereinigung ACLU droht sogar mit einer Verfassungsklage.

Mehr Männer an die pädagogische Front

[Muncner Merkur, 07.12.2007]

Landkreis – Erst die Mutter, dann Kindergärtnerinnen und in der Schule schließlich meist weibliches Lehrerpersonal. In ihrer Entwicklung werden Knaben hauptsächlich von Frauen geprägt. Die schulischen Leistungen der Buben sind trotzdem schlechter als die der Mädchen. Zufall?

Über 95 Prozent des Grundschullehrer-Nachwuchses sind weiblich. Trotzdem sieht Walter Rädler, Lehrer an der Grundschule Frauenneuharting und Oberndorf, genügend Platz für männliche Kollegen. Den Mangel an Lehrern führt er auf die Bezahlung zurück. ,,Zwar verdient ein Grundschulpauker gar nicht schlecht, dennoch wird ein Gymnasiallehrer einfach besser bezahlt", so Rädler.

Trotzdem: In Frauenneuharting scheint die Welt noch in Ordnung zu sein. Momentan sind dort drei Männer angestellt. Insgesamt sind es nach Angaben des Schulamtes Ebersberg landkreisweit 31 Lehrer. Ein Drittel davon allerdings Religionslehrer, die Teilzeit arbeiten. Somit besteht ein Großteil des Personals aus Frauen. ,,Das in meiner Schule ist wie Lottogewinn. Wir brauchen mehr Männer an der pädagogischen Front. Sie können Buben möglicherweise besser motivieren", sagt Rädler.

,,Letzte wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen haben gezeigt, dass die Buben in der Schule immer mehr den Anschluss verlieren. Sie werden vor allem beim Übertritt systematisch benachteiligt." Die Mädchen seien in der vierten Klasse um ein Jahr voraus. Deshalb wäre eine Verlängerung der Grundschulzeit sinnvoll. Rädlers Beobachtung scheint sich in den Zahlen des bayerischen Kultusministeriums zu bestätigen. Der Bubenanteil an den bayerischen Hauptschulen liegt derzeit bei 55 Prozent. Eine Mitschuld hat offenbar der Rückzug männlicher Lehrer.

,,Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen haben ergeben, dass Männer mehr disziplinieren, Frauen mehr moralisieren", weiß Rädler. Aus Entwicklungspsychologischen Gründen mache es Sinn, wenn Schüler als auch Schülerinnen von beiden Seiten etwas mitbekämen.

Stay-at-home fathers may harm boys’ education

[The Times, November 23, 2007]

Rosemary Bennett


Fathers who give up their jobs to care for young sons could be damaging their education, research suggests.

Boys who have been looked after by their fathers for 15 hours a week or more are less prepared for school than those brought up by their mothers. They also struggle to keep up once they get there, it concluded.

The study, which drew on data from 6,000 families in Bristol, found that daughters were unaffected when mothers and fathers swapped traditional roles. The results were the same regardless of how wealthy the family was.

The findings come as the Government is encouraging fathers to take more time off work to help to care for their children. They are entitled to two weeks’ paternity leave, three months’ parental leave and can work part-time.

Elizabeth Washbrook, research associate at Bristol University and author of the report, said: “When in charge, fathers may be more inclined to see their task as fulfilled by monitoring the child and seeing to their physical needs, and so less inclined to devise creative activities that develop the child’s intellectual skills.”
She said that when it came to daughters, it was possible that fathers were making more of an effort or that daughters needed less external stimulation. The report discovered that the problems with paternal care only began when the child turned one.

But Adrienne Burgess, research manager for Fathers Direct, said that choice was a crucial factor. She said that problems occurred when fathers had to look after their children because they had lost their jobs and the mother might not be happy about the situation. “It does not appear this research has factored that in,” she said.

She said that there were other concerns about the lack of a support network for fathers, which often led to loneliness and isolation. Mothers tend to form strong local networks, socialise together with their children and swap tips about child rearing.

Getting boys' education 'right'

Titre du document / Document title
Getting boys' education 'right' : the Australian government's parliamentary inquiry report as an exemplary instance of recuperative masculinity politics = Obtenir une 'bonne' éducation des garçons : le rapport parlementaire de l'enquête du gouvernement australien comme exemple de la politique de récupération du masculin

Auteur(s) / Author(s)
MILLS Martin (1) ; MARTINO Wayne (2) ; LINGARD Bob (3) ;
Affiliation(s) du ou des auteurs / Author(s) Affiliation(s)(1) The University of Queensland, AUSTRALIE(2) University of Western Ontario, CANADA(3) The University of Edinburgh, ROYAUME-UNI

Résumé / Abstract
This paper focuses on the Australian federal Parliamentary Inquiry into Boys' Education, Boys: Getting it Right, which is shown to be an exemplary instance of recuperative masculinity politics. The paper demonstrates how, through a variety of rhetorical strategies, its anti-feminist politics are masked and how the report works with essentialised differences between boys and girls. The argument is demonstrated through a focus on a number of the report's recommendations, including the call for a recasting of current gender policy, the need for creating so-called 'boy-friendly' curricula, assessment and pedagogical practices, and for employment of more male teachers. The report draws on populist literature and submissions from the boys' lobby, as well as practice-oriented submissions to the neglect of theoretically oriented and (pro-)feminist work. As such, the significance of the construction of masculinities to boys' attachment to and performances in school is totally neglected, limiting the value of the report's recommendations for improving schooling for both boys and girls.

Revue / Journal
TitleBritish journal of sociology of education (Br. j. sociol. educ.) ISSN 0142-5692

Source / Source
2007, vol. 28, no1, pp. 5-21 [17 page(s) (article)] (2 p.)

Langue / Language
Anglais

Editeur / Publisher
Taylor and Francis, Abingdon, ROYAUME-UNI (1980) (Revue)

Mots-clés anglais / English Keywords
Gender difference ; Gender ; School ; Male domination ; Boy ; Male ; Educational Policy ; Australia ;

Mots-clés français / French Keywords
Essentialisme ; Différence selon le sexe ; Genre ; Ecole ; Domination masculine ; Garçon ; Masculin ; Politique de l'éducation ; Australie ;

Localisation / Location
INIST-CNRS, Cote INIST : 22239, 35400015931000.0010

Jungen sind hier nicht mehr erwünscht – Debatte über Verweiblichung der deutschen Schulen

[OpenPR, 13.11.2007]

Wissenschaft, Forschung, Bildung
Pressemitteilung von: medienbüro.sohn

Bonn/Neunkirchen-Seelscheid – Jungen haben in der Schule immer öfter das Gefühl: „Wir sind hier nicht mehr erwünscht“. Verhaltensweisen erfolgreicher Mädchen werden zum Maßstab für männliche Schüler genommen. Die Debatte über schlechtere Noten der Jungen und über deren Ursachen wurde zum Beispiel schon im Landtag von NRW geführt, und die Wirtschaftswoche
www.wiwo.de machte das Thema vor kurzem sogar zur Titelgeschichte. Doch auch auf lokaler Ebene nimmt man sich des Themas an. So fand jetzt ein Gesprächsabend „Jungen“ im Antoniuskolleg (AK) www.antoniuskolleg.de in Neunkirchen statt. Wie der Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger www.ksta.de berichtet, wolle das Neunkirchener Gymnasium „Eltern und Schüler für das Thema sensibilisieren und nach Gegenstrategien suchen“. Es herrschte Konsens darüber, dass Jungen dann erfolgreicher sind, wenn sie sich an der Schule wie Mädchen verhalten. Insbesondere die Verkürzung der Gymnasialzeit mache es den männlichen Schülern immer schwerer, Schritt zu halten, da immer mehr Zeit für das Auswendiglernen, Stillsitzen und am Schreibtischsitzen nötig wird. Der Entdeckungslust und dem Bewegungsdrang gerade von Jungen wird nicht mehr genügend Rechnung getragen. Die Bedürfnisse der Buben werden nicht mehr gebührend berücksichtigt. So zeige die Attraktivität von Spielen wie „World of Warcraft“, das etwa 20 Prozent der Schüler spielten, dass „Jungen Sehnsucht nach Unbekanntem und Unerforschtem, nach Verantwortung und Selbstbestätigung, klaren Strukturen und klaren Problemlösungen hätten, die ihnen die Realität möglicherweise nicht bieten könne“.

„Es ist höchste Zeit, einer Verweiblichung der Schulen und einer bewussten oder unbewussten Diskriminierung der Jungen an den Schulen entgegenzuwirken“, bestätigt Udo Nadolski, Geschäftsführer des Düsseldorfer Beratungshauses Harvey Nash
www.harveynash.de. „Unser Bildungssystem es diskriminiert häufig Jungen, weil es das oft stillere und angepasstere Verhalten der Mädchen zur Norm macht. Es fängt schon vor der Schule an. 60 Prozent der Kinder, die von der Einschulung zurückgestellt werden, sind Jungen. Woran liegt das? Sind Jungen dümmer als Mädchen? Die Ursachen sind wohl eher an anderer Stelle zu suchen. Frauen dominieren mit über 95 Prozent in den Kindergärten. Es mangelt also an männlichen Rollenvorbildern. Manche Jungen bekommen zuhause, im Kindergarten und in der Grundschule (über 80 Prozent der Lehrer dort sind weiblichen Geschlechts) keinen Mann zu Gesicht. Vielleicht tritt ein Mann in Form des abwesenden Vaters, der von der alleinerziehenden Mutter getrennt lebt, oder als ‚cooler’ Medienheld ins Leben des Kindes. Nur an den Gymnasien ist das Verhältnis von weiblichen und männlichen Lehrkräften ungefähr ausgeglichen. An allen anderen Schulformen dominieren die Frauen.“

medienbüro.sohn
V.i.S.d.P: Gunnar SohnEttighoffer Strasse 26a53123 Bonn Germany
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Body Image and the Appearance Culture Among Adolescent Girls and Boys

Body Image and the Appearance Culture Among Adolescent Girls and Boys: An Examination of Friend Conversations, Peer Criticism, Appearance Magazines, and the Internalization of Appearance Ideals.

by: Diane Carlson Jones, Thorbjorg Helga Vigfusdottir and Yoonsun Lee

This research evaluates the contributions of three dimensions of appearance culture (appearance magazine exposure, appearance conversations with friends, and peer appearance criticism) and body mass index (BMI) to internalization of appearance ideals and body image dissatisfaction. Four hundred thirty-three girls and 347 boys in Grades 7 through 10 responded to several measures on a self-report questionnaire. The results of path analyses indicated that Internalization mediated the relationship between Appearance Conversations With Friends and Body Dissatisfaction for both boys and girls. In addition, Internalization, Peer Appearance Criticism, and BMI made direct contributions to Body Dissatisfaction for boys and girls, although the strength of the relationships varied by gender. The proposed mediated relation between Appearance Magazine Exposure and Body Dissatisfaction was confirmed only for the girls. The findings provide needed information about the contributions of the peer appearance culture to internalization and body image disturbances for adolescent boys and girls.

Single Sex Education

[Razoo, November 10, 2007]

In Australia, achievements of children in single-sex environments were 15-22 percentile ranks higher than those of children in co-educational settings. Single-sex education allows students of both sexes to learn in a relaxed, sex-specific environment.

Situation: The push for single-sex education comes at a time when many are realizing that American boys in particular are in academic danger and are underperforming at record rates in the current day. In addition, single-sex education seems to benefit girls as it enfranchises and emboldens them. A number of studies starting in the 1990s are showing statistical data that children from single-sex schools are outperforming students from coeducational schools. Such findings corroborate the common wisdom that boys and girls learn best when their unique learning styles and dispositions are accomodated. Recent research pushes hard against the prevailing egalitarianism of the day which insists that girls and boys are just alike and may be taught and handled in the same way. Single-sex education, the historical mode of education, thus seems the wiser choice than the relatively recent attempt at "coeducation".

Statistics: Statistics abound about the goodness of single-sex education. The strength of single-sex education shows itself in the education of boys.

According to Time magazine, the number of boys who said they didn't like school rose 71 percent between 1980 and 2001, according to a University of Michigan study. Nowhere is the shift more evident than on college campuses. Thirty years ago men represented 58 percent of the undergraduate student body. Now they're a minority at 44 percent.

Faced with such a reality, one English educator decided to break his two-gender classroom into two single-sex classrooms. The students would take the same courses from the same teachers, but boys and girls would attend separate classes. Three years after making the change, the proportion of Shenfield boys achieving high scores on standardized tests had risen by 26%. The girls' performance improved only slightly less, by 22%.

In another English school, only one-third of boys had been earning passing grades in German and French prior to institution of the program. After the change to single-sex classes, 100% of boys earned passing grades.

YOU SHOULD CARE because girls and boys learn in subtly different ways, in part because of those differences in the developmental trajectory of the brain. For those who wish to improve the academic performance of both boys and girls, there is nothing better to do than to support the cause of single-sex education and to encourage teachers to be paired up with classrooms of their sex (women with girls, men with boys). As in so many cases, the establishment is wrong--here's your chance to say so!

Der Mann in der Grundschule

[WZ-Newsline, 09.11.2007]

Norbert Sanner ist einzige männliche Lehrkraft in Hobeuken. Er sieht ein Imageproblem seines Berufsstandes.

Nicht der „Normalfall“: Norbert Sanner in seiner Klasse 4 an der Grundschule Hobeuken . . . und als einziger Lehrer im Kreis der Kolleginnen.
Sprockhövel. „Guten Morgen, Herr Sanner.“ Artig begrüßen die Viertklässler der Grundschule Hobeuken ihren Klassenlehrer. Für sie ein alltägliches Ritual und doch nicht ganz normal, denn die Anrede „Herr“ ist in Grundschulklassen in NRW die Ausnahme, auch in Sprockhövel. An den fünf Grundschulen der Stadt gibt es derzeit nur drei männliche Lehrkräfte.

Woran das liegt? Norbert Sanner hat sich darüber kaum Gedanken gemacht. Für ihn war es ganz normal, dass er in der Lehrerausbildung und dann ab 2000 im Schuldienst nur auf wenige Kollegen getroffen ist. „Ich habe ganz bewusst die Grundschullaufbahn gewählt, weil ich meine, da noch mehr bewegen zu können. Die Kinder sind kleiner und in gewisser Hinsicht noch formbarer“, nennt er seine Motive.

So denken aber offenbar nicht viele Männer. Sanner: „Der Beruf Grundschullehrer hat auch ein Imageproblem nach dem Motto: das bisschen Schreiben, Lesen und Rechnen beibringen kann doch jeder.“ Darin sieht auch Schulrat Joachim Niewil eine der Ursachen dafür, dass sich die meisten Lehrer für die weiterführende Schulen entscheiden. Niewil: „Dabei sind die Aufgaben in der Grundschule vielschichtiger.

Man ist nicht nur Wissensvermittler, sondern viel stärker auch Organisator und Berater der Eltern.“ Die Gefahr, dass gerade den Jungen männliche Vorbilder fehlen, Kinder, die bei einer alleinerziehenden Mutter aufwachsen, vielleicht erst in der 5. Klasse männliche Führungspersonen erleben, sieht er durchaus.
Gerade hat Schulministerim Barbara Sommer dazu aufgerufen, das Ansehen des Grundschullehrerberufs zu heben, um mehr männliche Lehrkräfte an die Grundschulen zu bekommen. „Das wäre toll“, sagt Niewil, „kurzfristig ist aber wohl nichts zu machen.“ An der Uni Dortmund etwa, wo er an der Grundschullehrerausbildung mitwirkt, seien zuletzt von 50 Prüflingen 49 Frauen gewesen, aktuell sei gar kein einziger Mann dabei.

Birgit Reinhold-Becker, Rektorin in Hobeuken, ist sich sicher, dass man neben dem Image auch die Rahmenbedingungen verbessern müsste. „Bei A13-Besoldung ist Schluss, sonst kann man nur noch Schulleiter werden. Da winken viele Männer ab, gerade wenn sie eine Familie ernähren müssen. Dabei ist die Belastung eines Grundschullehrers enorm hoch“, sagt sie.

Sie empfindet es als sehr angenehm, einen Mann im Kollegium zu haben. „Der nimmt manche Dinge nicht so lange wichtig, über die sich Frauen noch ärgern“, sagt sie. Auch wenn es um den Umgang mit Klamotten, um Sportunterricht oder Naturwissenschaften gehe, hätten Männer oft einen lockereren Zugang, der gerade den Jungs gut tue. So wünscht sich auch Judith Kurth, Schulleiterin in Gennebreck, gerade für den Sportunterricht einmal einen Lehrer. Den gibt es an ihrer Schule seit Jahren nicht.

Empfinden die Viertklässler in Hobeuken es denn als Vorteil, einen Lehrer zu haben? „Eigentlich egal“, sagt Joachim, ergänzt dann aber „der kann gut Fußball spielen.“ Eilean meint: „Lehrer haben eine lautere Stimme und können uns besser ermahnen.“

Dass Sanner in der Pause drei Poesiealben zugesteckt bekommt, nennt der Lehrer eher Zufall. „Die bekommen unsere Lehrerinnen genauso“, versichert er.

Von Günter Hiege

Friendships, Peer Influence and Peer Pressure During the Teen Years

[August 2007]

María R. T. de Guzman. University of Nebraska.

Los repetidores se multiplican

[El País, 2.11.2007]

El 42,3% de los chicos de 15 años ha repetido, una tendencia que crece sin cesar desde 1987 - ¿Claves?: la falta de inversión, la escolarización hasta los 16 años y la presión social



REPORTAJE

El número de repetidores en los institutos españoles se dispara. El porcentaje ha roto la tendencia y amenta ininterrumpidamente desde hace siete años hasta llegar al 42,3% de los alumnos de 15 años en el curso 2005-2006, según los últimos datos, recien publicados, del Ministerio de Educación. Hay que remontarse 19 años atrás, a 1987, para encontrar un porcentaje de repetidores más alto, un 44,3%.

La situación se agrava en el caso de los chicos: casi la mitad de los varones ha repetido alguna vez, y sólo el 36% de ellas. Atender cada año por segunda vez a los repetidores cuesta unos 1.000 millones de euros, asegura el secretario general de Educación, Alejandro Tiana.

Estas cifras son una señal de alarma sobre el preocupante porcentaje de repetidores (éste es uno de los indicadores de falta de calidad dentro de un sistema que no sale muy bien parado en las comparaciones internacionales) y sobre su persistente tendencia al alza. Los expertos señalan varias razones: el aumento de la edad de escolarización obligatoria a los 16 años (completado en 1999) o la llegada masiva, poco después, de alumnos inmigrantes, muchos con problemas de idioma o un nivel educativo más bajo. También existe una presión social sobre los profesores después de los mediocres resultados de los alumnos en los informes internacionales de PISA, el primero, publicado en 2001, y según coinciden los expertos, la falta de inversión.

Agustín Moreno, docente del instituto público Salvador Allende de Fuenlabrada (Madrid), asegura que para atender bien a los estudiantes hacen falta más profesores: "No es lo mismo tener pocos alumnos por clase que tener 35 en 4º de ESO como hemos llegado a tener", asegura.
El porcentaje del PIB destinado por las administraciones a Educación bajó en España del 4,6% en 1996 al 4,30% en 2005, coincidiendo con la etapa de Gobierno del PP (en los últimos años la inversión se ha recuperado hasta el 4,8% del PIB, aún un punto por debajo de la media de la OCDE). Aunque es cierto que la inversión por alumno sí subió, de 2.843 euros en secundaria a 4.800 en 2003, si se desciende al gasto en cada comunidad se comprueba que el País Vasco, el que más invierte (más de 5.500 euros por alumno ya en 2001), es también la que tiene menos tasa de repetidores.

Así, el dinero es importante, pero sobre todo, cómo se gasta. "Hay personas que para alcanzar los objetivos necesitan que hagamos cosas muy complicadas". La profesora de Psicología de la Educación de la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid Elena Martín se refiere a la atención a la diversidad, adaptar lo que se enseña a las necesidades de cada alumno.

Algo que tiene mucho que ver con ese número de estudiantes por clase y también con medidas de apoyo específicas como la adaptación de currículos o alternativas distintas de clases y asignaturas. En definitiva, una flexibilidad que, según Martín, el esquema actual de los institutos no permite. Sin todas esas medidas, "el recurso de la repetición es mucho más sencillo", añade recordando el hecho de que de que tradicionalmente la repetición se ha utilizado como otro elemento "más de selección que de apoyo".

El sociólogo de la Universidad Complutense Rafael Feito asegura que la reforma que impulsó el PP a partir de 2002, con la idea de separar a los alumnos en distintos itinerarios según su rendimiento, "crea en la secundaria un ambiente favorable a la segregación temprana y se promueve la idea de que la educación secundaria no es para todos". La gran crítica del PP a la reforma del PSOE en los años noventa, y que hoy mantiene contra la reforma actual, es que no promueve el esfuerzo, que hay que endurecer los niveles de exigencia para recuperar ese valor.

¿No puede ser que el nivel de los alumnos haya bajado? "Esa es una lectura, pero también habría que ver si los niveles que se están exigiendo son los idóneos o no y si hay otras soluciones alternativas a la repetición", se defiende el secretario General de Educación, Alejandro Tiana.

Los informes internacionales tanto de la OCDE como de la UE desaconsejan la medida de la repetición, por cara e ineficaz, recuerda Tiana, aunque tampoco fomentan la promoción automática que tienen países modelo por sus resultados educativos como Finlandia, Noruega o Japón. "Lo que está claro es que la repetición por sí sola no soluciona los problemas, hacen falta medidas de apoyo tanto si repite como si no", asegura Elena Martín, que recuerda que la nueva ley educativa aprobada el año pasado habla de programas específicos de apoyo para los repetidores.

"¿Qué porcentaje de repetidores tendría que haber para considerar que nuestro sistema educativo funciona bien? Creo que la repetición de curso es más un problema que una solución. Si el dinero que se destina a los repetidores se orientara a medidas de prevención y apoyo a los alumnos con dificultades, la calidad de la enseñanza mejoraría", asegura el secretario general de la OEI, Álvaro Marchesi.

El mensaje de que estudiar por segundo año lo mismo de la misma manera no sirve para mejorar el sistema "va calando", considera la experta Elena Martín. Sin embargo, hay entre el profesorado conceptos distintos de lo que significa enseñar o educar, explica el profesor de secundaria Agustín Moreno en referencia a los profesores que consideran que su deber es, simplemente, transmitir unos conocimientos. Lo vincula además a la falta de formación didáctica en algunas asignaturas que se viene debatiendo desde hace años: "Estoy seguro de que si hubiera cifras de los suspensos, matemáticas e inglés estarían los primeros".

También hablan los profesores de presión social: "Desde que salieron los primeros resultados internacionales de PISA, que dejaba a España en un puesto muy bajo, he notado que el debate está ahí y que muchos profesores han optado por ser más estrictos en la evaluación", asegura Fernando Mazo, coordinador de la ESO en el centro concertado Lourdes, de Madrid.

Aquellos malos resultados del Informe PISA de la OCDE de 2000 se refrendaron en 2003 (en pocas semanas se publicará el siguiente informe). Pero ya en aquel segundo texto los expertos de la OCDE hicieron hincapié en el alto porcentaje de repetidores que presentaba España, muy por encima de la media de los países desarrollados, pero en niveles parecidos a los de Francia o Luxemburgo (las cifras no son comparables con las del Ministerio de Educación porque en PISA lo hacen mediante encuesta).
Las repeticiones se producen mucho más entre los hombres que entre las mujeres, porque ellas saben que, con el mismo nivel de estudios encontrarán menos trabajo que sus compañeros, según un estudio del año del Consejo Social de la Complutense. Pero además, ellas son más maduras en la adolescencia, precisamente cuando se concentran las repeticiones, entre 2º y 3º de la ESO (en el gráfico se puede ver el salto entre las repeticiones a los 12 y a los 15 años). Unas edades difíciles en las que antes una parte del alumnado había dejado de estudiar, pero ahora ha de permanecer en la escuela hasta los 16, en muchos casos, con la cabeza puesta en un mercado laboral boyante en empleos no cualificados.
"Allí donde hay un amplio mercado de trabajo de baja cualificación -sobre todo el sector del turismo- los chicos tienden a abandonar la escuela para trabajar y ganar lo que para un joven de 16 años es una fortuna. Eso explica que una comunidad rica, como Baleares, tenga una tasa tan alta de repetición", del 48,7%, asegura el sociólogo Rafael Feito.

La evolución de las cifras también refleja que la promoción automática (pasar de curso independientemente de los suspensos) que tanto se ha criticado de la reforma educativa de los años noventa apenas se llegó a aplicar (y ésta sólo existía de 1º a 2º de la ESO), Cataluña es un ejemplo: allí sí hubo un esfuerzo por aplicarla y la tasa de repetición es hoy de las más bajas de España, del 31,5%.

Esa edad crítica a la que se producen la mayoría de las repeticiones puede ser un factor fundamental, lo que nos lleva a la reforma educativa de los años noventa que culminó en 2000 y cuya resaca también ha podido influir en el aumento de las repeticiones. El proceso de transición, que podía perjudicar a los repetidores en 8º de EGB (al cambiar de sistema tardarían tres años más en obtener el título), pudo hacer actuar a los maestros con mayor benevolencia a los profesores entre 1996 y 1999, y luego, una vez generalizada la ESO, en torno a 1999, comenzó un nuevo "tipo de evaluación en una etapa en la que estudian ya juntos todos los alumnos", explica Álvaro Marchesi, uno de los impulsores de aquel cambio legislativo. Completada la reforma, se acabó la benevolencia.

Zahl der Schulabbrecher soll halbiert werden

[Welt Online, 19 Oktober 2007]

Bonn - Die Kultusminister haben ihren Abiturbeschluss und die Einführung von bundeseinheitlichen Bildungsstandards in der gymnasialen Oberstufe einmütig als "bahnbrechend" bezeichnet. Die Bundesländer hätten ungeachtet ihrer eigenen Vorstellungen über die Gestaltung von Schule gesamtstaatliche Verantwortung bewiesen, sagte der Präsident der Kultusministerkonferenz (KMK), der Sozialdemokrat Jürgen Zöllner (Berlin), am Donnerstag in Bonn. Die Kultusminister beschlossen zudem einen Maßnahmenkatalog, um die Zahl der Jugendlichen ohne Hauptschulabschluss in den kommenden fünf Jahren zu verringern - "wenn möglich zu halbieren".


Vorgesehen sind mehr individuelle Hilfen für Risiko-Kinder schon in der Grundschule, Ganztagsangebote, Sprachförderung, Berufspraktika und mehr betriebliche Orientierungsphasen. Die Schulen sollen eng mit der Berufspraxis zusammenarbeiten. Im vergangenen Jahr haben in Deutschland 7,9 Prozent aller Jugendlichen die Schule ohne Hauptschulabschluss verlassen. Angesichts des Fachkräftemangels und der schwindenden Arbeitsmarktchancen für Ungelernte sei ohne Gegenmaßnahmen "mit Konsequenzen für den Wirtschaftsstandort Deutschland zu rechnen", heißt es in dem Beschluss.

Männliche Jugendliche, insbesondere aus Einwandererfamilien, brechen weitaus häufiger die Schule ab als junge Mädchen. Häufig sei schon in der Grundschule erkennbar, "wenn Kinder beginnen, den Anschluss an das Lernen zu verlieren", heißt es in dem Beschluss. Grundschullehrer sollten künftig gegebenenfalls mithilfe von Assistenzkräften vorbeugend gegen Schulversagen vorgehen. Die Sprecherin der SPD-Kultusminister, Doris Ahnen (Rheinland-Pfalz), sagte, wichtig sei, bei der Verbesserung von Schule jetzt nicht allein nur auf das Abitur zu schauen, sondern auch Hauptschüler optimal zu fördern.

Mit ihrem einstimmigen Votum für bundesweit verbindliche Bildungsstandards in den Schuljahren vor dem Abitur hatten die Kultusminister zugleich der weitergehenden Forderung von Bildungsministerin Annette Schavan (CDU) nach einem Zentralabitur eine Absage erteilt. Für die Unionsländer sagte ihr Koordinator, Sachsen-Anhalts Kultusminister Jan-Hendrik Olbertz (parteilos), der Beschluss sei "mehr als der kleinste gemeinsame Nenner". Schavan hielt an ihrem Vorschlag fest, ein bundesweites Zentralabitur einzuführen: "Einheitliche Bildungsstandards sind ein erster Schritt in die richtige Richtung. Am Ende müssen aber direkt vergleichbare Abschlussprüfungen stehen", sagte Schavan. Das fordere die Öffentlichkeit zu Recht ein.

WAZ: Zu wenig männliche Lehrer: Was Jungen, was Mädchen brauchen


[Finanz Nachichten, 14.10.2007]

Leitartikel von Birgitta Stauber-Klein. Essen (ots) - Der Mann als Grundschullehrer: Er gehört einer seltenen Spezies innerhalb seines Geschlechts an. Schließlich nimmt er ein recht geringes Einkommen in Kauf, und zwar ohne Aussicht, jemals im Laufe seines Berufslebens einen satten Gehaltssprung machen zu können.Erschwerend kommt hinzu, dass es die Gesellschaft zwar für löblich hält, Kinder zu erziehen, ihnen das kleine Einmaleins und die wichtigsten Rechtschreibregeln beizubringen. Gleichzeitig belächelt sie den Mann, der sich um Erziehung und Bildung jüngerer Kinder kümmert - übrigens jeder wissenschaftlichen Erkenntnis zum Trotz, nach der die frühen Jahre entscheidend sind für Entwicklung und Lernerfolg.Geld und Anerkennung, die beiden entscheidenden Triebfedern für die Berufsfindung eines Mannes, fehlen. Den wenigen, die sich ins Kollegium der Grundschulen verirren, darf man unterstellen, sich mit einer gehörigen Portion Idealismus für den Beruf entschieden zu haben.

Dass Jungs so viel schlechter lesen als ihre gleichaltrigen Klassenkameradinnen, dass ihnen Mädchen während der Schullaufbahn den Rang ablaufen - schnell wird die Ursache für dieses Phänomen bei den fehlenden männlichen Bezugspersonen an Schulen gesucht. Es ist auch sicher richtig, dass Jungs einen anderen Umgangston brauchen, einen anderen Lesestoff, eine andere Ansprache. Vor allem brauchen sie jemanden, der sich in ihre speziellen Schwierigkeiten und Bedürfnisse hineinfühlen kann. Stattdessen müssen sie auch mit Lehrerinnen klarkommen, die vom Bewegungsdrang und Konfliktverhalten der Jungs genervt sind.Vor Jahrzehnten war es noch anders. Damals begann man, speziell Mädchen zu fördern - weil sie zu still waren, weil sie selbst nicht auf ihre Fähigkeiten aufmerksam machten. Zudem wurde es auch von ihnen seltener erwartet, in der Schule wirklich erfolgreich zu sein - übrigens obwohl schon damals das Kollegium vieler Grundschulen überwiegend weiblich war.

Inzwischen hat die Mädchenförderung so sehr gefruchtet, dass die Zahl der Abiturientinnen größer ist als die Zahl der Abiturienten. Gleichzeitig sind Jugendliche ohne Schulabschluss überwiegend männlich.Am wohlsten fühlen sich übrigens Mädchen wie Jungen - dann sind sie auch aufmerksam und lernbereit -, wenn der Unterricht interessant ist, wenn der Lehrer/die Lehrerin nett, gerecht und kompetent ist. Was letztlich eine Binsenweisheit ist.Originaltext: Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung Digitale Pressemappe: http://www.presseportal.de/pm/55903 Pressemappe via RSS : http://www.presseportal.de/rss/pm_55903.rss2Pressekontakt: Rückfragen bitte an: Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung Zentralredaktion
Telefon: (0201) 804-8975 zentralredaktion@waz.de

Gleichstellungspolitik muss Frauen und Männer berücksichtigen

[BMFSFJ InternetredaktionPressemitteilung
Nr. 233/2007
Veröffentlicht am 26.09.2007
Thema: Gleichstellung

Staatssekretär Dr. Hermann Kues: "Gleichstellungspolitik muss Frauen und Männer berücksichtigen"Bundesministerium legt Broschüre Neue Wege - Porträts von Männern im Aufbruch vor "Gleichstellungspolitik gelingt nur, wenn sie sowohl Frauen als auch Männer einbezieht", erklärt der Parlamentarische Staatssekretär im Bundesministerium für Familie, Senioren, Frauen und Jugend, Dr. Hermann Kues, heute bei der Vorstellung der neuen Broschüre Neue Wege - Porträts von Männern im Aufbruch: "Heute brechen die traditionellen Geschlechterrollen immer mehr auf. Die Lebensentwürfe von Frauen werden vielfältiger, gleichzeitig suchen viele junge Männer nach Rollenvorbildern. In den vergangenen Jahrzehnten hatte die Gleichstellungspolitik vor allem die Frauen im Blick. Jetzt wollen wir beide Geschlechter berücksichtigen. Mit der neuen Broschüre präsentieren wir Lebensläufe von Männern jenseits von Rollenstereotypen und machen jungen Männern Mut, ihren eigenen Weg zu gehen - in Beruf und Familie."


Die Broschüre Neue Wege - Porträts von Männern im Aufbruch bietet sieben persönliche Porträts, vom überzeugten Hausmann türkischer Herkunft über den Topmanager und allein erziehenden Vater bis zum politisch und sozial hoch engagierten Kirchenvertreter. Außerdem enthält sie Informationen zu Themen wie Väter und Elternzeit, Alleinerziehende oder Väternetzwerke. Wie sehr jungen Männern positive Vorbilder zur Orientierung fehlen, zeigt eine Studie über die Rollenbilder und Einstellungen zur Gleichstellung bei 20jährigen Frauen und Männern, die im Auftrag des Bundesfamilienministeriums im Februar 2007 vorgelegt wurde. Danach haben die heute 20jährigen die Erfahrung gemacht, dass der Vater der Haupternährer ist und die Mutter meist zu Hause bleibt. Gleichstellungspolitik wird von der jungen Generation überwiegend als Reparatur- und Subventionspolitik für Frauen wahrgenommen, nicht als Politik für beide Geschlechter. In ihrer Wahrnehmung werden Männer von der Gleichstellungspolitik nicht berücksichtigt. Das Bundesministerium für Familie, Senioren, Frauen und Jugend verfolgt den Ansatz, beide Geschlechter in die Gleichstellungspolitik einzubeziehen.

Die Broschüre kann unter der folgenden Adresse bestellt werden:Publikationsversand der Bundesregierung
Postfach 48 10 0918132
RostockTelefon: 01888 80 80 800
Email:
publikationen@bundesregierung.de
Anlagen:[PDF] Neue Wege - Porträts von Männern im Aufbruch - aktive PDF-Datei (781,2 KB)

Bundesministerium für Familie, Senioren, Frauen und JugendE-mail:
info@bmfsfjservice.bund.deInternet: http://www.bmfsfj.de

School friends key to success

[www.sciencealert.com.au, Sunday, 19 August 2007]


Massey University


Boys say having friends at school and having a lot of physical activity are very important for their happiness and success.

These were priorities for most of the more than 350 secondary schoolboys interviewed by University researcher Michael Irwin in a study of what boys believe enhances and inhibits academic success.

Auckland-based Mr Irwin, from the College of Education, initiated New Zealand’s first national conferences on the under-achievement of boys and has been at the forefront of research exploring the reasons why boys lag behind girls at school and feature in many of the negative statistics relating to accidents, learning difficulties, and educational achievement.

Asking boys themselves what makes school a good place for them to be is, he says, an important part of providing successful education for them.
He found that having a group of friends, supporting them socially and assisting and motivating them educationally, was a huge factor in boys’ lives.
“Almost without exception the boys I interviewed said being with their mates at school was very important to them. I have found that throughout their schooling these close groups of, say three to five boys, are very important to each boy individually in significant ways. They develop their own identity through these groupings, they share ideas, they will often discuss learning issues in these groups and it is often these ties that have a very positive influence in keeping them at school.”

Physical exercise was also a high priority and Mr Irwin says schools need to look seriously at how they meet this need.

“Schools need to provide much more opportunity than they currently do for boys to be physically active. We know from existing research that physical activity and sport brings many benefits from bonding to stress release, mental stimulation and providing an outlet for competitive spirits.”

He also found boys wanted learning to be challenging and for school to be fun.
“They don’t want learning to be too hard or too easy. They want to be challenged and they feel the best way of meeting those challenges is to work together in groups with a problem-solving, hands-on approach.

“Most showed a high dislike of what they felt to be too much copying and writing things down at school.

“Almost all wanted to have fun, to have a laugh and for their environment to be one that they enjoy. This is the same thing that motivation researchers are also telling us.

“Schools need to take note of what matters most for boys at school – the importance of mates, the need for physical activity and for challenge in learning and the desire for school to be fun.”

Mr Irwin’s research highlighted some common attributes boys expected of their teachers. They wanted their teachers to focus on learning not content, to use humour, to collaborate and listen, to explain, to set clear expectations, to help them individually, to give specific feedback, to use activity based learning and co-operative learning, to be fair in managing behaviour.

Jungs bei Bildung benachteiligt

Ministerium will getrenntgeschlechtlichen Unterricht zulassen [maerkischeallgemeine.de, 22-9-2007]

POTSDAM In Brandenburg soll künftig getrennter Unterricht von Jungen und Mädchen möglich sein. In bestimmten Fächern könnten die Geschlechter zeitweise auch separat lernen, so der Sprecher des Bildungsministeriums, Stephan Breiding. Hintergrund ist ein aktueller Bericht des Ministeriums, der belegt, dass Jungen an Brandenburgs Schulen im Schnitt schlechter abschneiden als Mädchen. Knapp 63 Prozent der Sitzenbleiber im Land sind Jungen. Auch der Großteil der Schulabbrecher ist männlich. Demgegenüber schaffen nur 42 Prozent der Jungen das Abitur, so wenig wie in kaum einem anderen Bundesland. Möglicherweise sei ein Mangel an männlichen Lehrkräften ein Grund für die Probleme. Außerdem würden Interessen männlicher Schüler bei der Wissensvermittlung nicht genügend berücksichtigt, heißt es im Bericht.

"Jungen werden im Schulsystem benachteiligt", so der bildungspolitische Sprecher der CDU-Landtagsfraktion, Ingo Senftleben. Es sei dringend nötig, für mehr Chancengleichheit zu sorgen. Das Ministerium verspricht sich dabei vor allem in den Naturwissenschaften Erfolge vom geteilten Unterricht. Das Land halte aber an seinem Grundsatz fest, keine monoedukativen Schulen zuzulassen, so Breiding. Auch die Bildungsexpertin der Linksfraktion, Gerrit Große, betont, dass Teilungsunterricht in bestimmten Phasen sinnvoll sei, Jungen und Mädchen in den Schulen aber den Umgang miteinander lernen müssten. Das Ministerium will künftig auch bei der Auswahl von Unterrichtslektüre sowie der Lehrerfortbildung stärker Rücksicht auf geschlechtsspezifische Interessen nehmen und mehr Männer für den Lehrerberuf werben. Denn lediglich 22 Prozent der Pädagogen sind männlich, in den Grundschulen sind es nur sieben Prozent. "Den Jungen fehlen Vorbilder", so Peter Moser vom Potsdamer Verein "Manne", der sich für Bildung von Jungen einsetzt.

Pädagoginnen seien gerade mit Jungen in der Pubertät oft überfordert. Eine Änderung der Verhältnisse ist nicht in Sicht. Zwar hat sich die Zahl der männlichen Lehramtsstudenten im Land seit dem Jahr 2000 verdoppelt, doch brechen viele Männer das Studium wieder ab. mak


http://www.maerkischeallgemeine.de/cms/beitrag/11026270/62249/

PARITY promotes London conference

(http://www.parity-uk.org/, 1st August 2007) On the 23 April this year, St George's Day, PARITY held a conference at the Royal Society of Medicine to address the problem of boys' persisting under-achievement at school and in academic life. This was funded largely by a grant from the National Lottery under the Awards for All scheme.

Many boys are failing at school. In average terms, they are increasingly lagging behind girls in all academic subjects. Fewer boys than girls are now actually taking A-levels and going on to university (only 43% of the total), and there is a shortage of applications for the basic sciences, with a resulting crisis in industry, academia and teaching in Britain today. The Government has taken little effective action so far. The problem includes a severe shortage of men in primary school teaching, and a lack of male role-models for many boys at home and throughout their young lives. In fact, boys’ nurture is being neglected from the word go.

The one-day conference, attended by teachers, parents, educational professionals, and others, considered the issues involved and the possible causes of why so many boys fail, and possible remedies.

Speakers at the conference included The Rt Revd Dr Michael Nazir-Ali, Bishop of Rochester, Professor Ann Buchanan (Director of the Centre for Research into Parenting and Children, Oxford), Dr Christine Merrill and Professor Bruce Carrington (Durham and Glasgow universities), Lynette Burrows (mother and champion of the family), Alan Norgrove (junior school head), Dr Patrick Roach (Asst General Secretary of the NASUWT), Gary Wilson (education consultant), and Dr Chris Ford (‘Excellence in Cities’ Zone Director).

Shaun Bailey (youth worker) and Richard O’Neill (facilitator) also contributed.

During the lunch break, attendees were treated to a mix of light music played by the Brunellesche String Quartet – a group of young students from the Trinity College of Music, London.

A resume of the conference discussion is planned to be available on this website in the autumn.

www.parity-uk.org

University should be a cool idea for boys

(Asian News, 5/ 9/2007)

MORE boys should feel they can go on to study at university.

This is the view of Rochdale youth MP Usman Nawaz, following a report which revealed boys are turning their backs on higher education.

A survey by the Sutton Trust, which provides educational programmes for bright pupils with less privileged backgrounds, showed that boys believe that it is who you know and not what you know that is more likely to bring success.

The survey of 2,400 youngsters aged 11 to 16 also found that 76 per cent of girls were more likely to go on to higher education, compared to only 67 per cent of boys.

In 2005/2006 there were 1,565 first-year female further education students from Rochdale and 1,025 males.

Seventeen-year-old Usman, who is studying for A levels at Bury College, aims to read law and become a barrister.

The former Springhill High School student said: "If such a large proportion of young people feels that university isn’t for them then that is a problem that needs to be addressed.

"There is vocational education and training but there is always a need for academics."

Rochdale education boss Terry Piggott recently said that more work needs to be done in schools to show boys that it is ‘cool’ to read and write.

This followed the release of this year’s key stage two and key stage three results for 11 and 14-year-olds in maths, English and science, in which the girls outshone the boys.

Head of Rochdale Council’s schools service Sue Brown said: "We are always looking for new ways to raise the attainment of both boys and girls in our schools.

"We have already seen a significant increase in the number of young people achieving good grades at GCSE, but there’s still a long way to go and we are not complacent."

Cabinet member for education, Councillor Irene Davidson, said: "Young people need to realise the better educated you are, the more options you will have – and the more doors will open for you."

Council leader Alan Taylor said: "Success is not about where you come from – it’s about where you choose to go and what you choose to do with your life. We all have our part to play – the youngsters themselves, their parents, their teachers and the council."

Boys' Education as a Civil Rights Issue

(www.menshealthnetwork.org, April, 02, 2007)

A powerful op-ed from Phillip Jackson, Executive Director of the Black Star Project, does an excellent job of explaining why changing the education culture for African-American boys is vitally important to reversing some of the disturbing social trends that affect the African-American community and particularly African-American men. From the article:

"Most young black men in the United States don’t graduate from high school. Only 35% of black male students graduated from high school in Chicago and only 26% in New York City, according to a 2006 report by The Schott Foundation for Public Education. Only a few black boys who finish high school actually attend college, and of those few black boys who enter college, nationally, only 22% of them finish college. Young black male students have the worst grades, the lowest test scores, and the highest dropout rates of all students in the country. When these young black men don’t succeed in school, they are much more likely to succeed in the nation’s criminal justice and penitentiary system. And it was discovered recently that even when a young black man graduates from a U.S. college, there is a good chance that he is from Africa, the Caribbean or Europe, and not the United States."

And Mr. Jackson is correct to focus his attention on boys, as the gap between black males and females in academic achievement is severe. Nearly two African-American women graduate from college for every one African-American man. Many of Mr. Jackson’s solutions, both long and short-term, fit in with the recommendations of Boys and Schools, especially his concentration on improving education (with a concentration on literacy skills), the importance of fathers and role models, and creating a positive and motivating culture of high expectations when it comes to education.

The consequences of ignoring this problem is the creation of a generation of under-educated and under-achieving boys, shut out from society’s benefits and success and contributing to a permanent class of the dissatisfied and disappointed. Not only is this a vital issue for the African-American community, but it is also crucial to the strength and success of our nation as a whole. This is why changing the way that we approach the education of boys is one of the most important civil rights issues we face today.

Male teachers: A strong answer to peer pressure

Telegraph.co.uk, 01-08-2007


As a survey of eight to 11-year-olds reveals that 39 per cent of boys have no male teachers, former teacher Kurt Browne explains why male role models in schools are vital

He was one of the brightest boys in the year, with supportive parents but when he was 15 he suddenly stopped trying.


He left school at 16 with two GCSEs and two children by different girls. He felt very proud of himself. I'm convinced that one of the reasons that made it cool for him not to care was the power of his peer group.

Peer pressure is one of the strongest influences on boys today and one reason why so many are leaving school with no qualifications and virtually no chance of getting a job.

The absence of positive male role models in many of their lives - at home and particularly in the school environment - means that their peers are the only people they have to judge themselves against.

More male teachers in primary schools mean we could pre-empt this problem. Once boys reach year 10 (at 15), a surge of masculinity takes over and they will want to assert their authority, and challenge both parents and teachers.
The teacher's battle is then against testosterone, the peer group and the street where the culture is never to back down to authority no matter what.

I have spent all my adult life trying to help disaffected boys. I was born in Trinidad but came to London when I was 19 because my father could see I was mixing with the wrong crowd at home.

I did ''A'' levels followed by a teaching degree then, in 1984, became a youth worker in the tough Stonebridge Estate in north-west London.

I met many parents in despair because their children were failing in school so I decided if I wanted to make a difference, then I would teach.

I taught RE and PE for 20 years in comprehensives and in 2000 I became the lead learning mentor in my school, supporting children through their problems and motivating them.

Many former pupils have told me that I've been like a father to them.
Some parents have low expectations for their children and that is another reason for failure. Boys in particular don't value education.

They don't see men succeeding in the professional world so it doesn't occur to them that they could make something of themselves.

Schools are at fault here, too. Due to the immense pressure on teachers to gain results, students are spoon-fed and trained to pass exams, rather than encouraged to think for themselves.

Instead schools must help children learn to take responsibility for their education and their lives. After all, school is the most powerful influence on youngsters after their parents.

We can't change a child's mother or father, but schools can provide the environment for change, and provide the right role models for them.

Without male teachers as an alternative role model, the influence of peers and street culture is all-powerful. Boys want to be part of a club or gang.
Teachers need to be trained to challenge that but not in front of a child's peers. You have to do it one to one, because that is when you see the real child without bravado.

It's pointless sending a child home if he or she has done wrong. They see it as a welcome day off to watch television or play computer games.

Instead schools should have a special unit where a child who misbehaves goes for the day and is counselled about his behaviour -somewhere he can work away from his peers and go home after the other children.

We need to build up a culture of education; ditch political correctness and give teachers the means to do the right thing.

We have to make it cool to learn rather than cool to be deviant, and to do that we need more men in the classrooms to show young boys that there is another path they could take.

· Kurt Browne was talking to Angela Levin


Parents' Role Vital in Education of Boys Through Educational Games

Wednesday, August 8th 2007

By Alistair Owens

A global issue. The following comment were made by Patrick Manning Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago.

Prime Minister Patrick Manning says research has shown that parents have a vital role to play in reversing the ongoing trend of girls outperforming boys at school. He did not identify the research data to which he was referring, but Manning urged parents to pay particular attention to the education of their male children."Early intervention in the home is therefore most necessary. We must keep a careful eye on the boys as well," Manning said.

Manning was speaking less than two months after the results of the Secondary Entrance Assessment (SEA) examination taken by primary school pupils showed female pupils again outperformed the boys.Manning said it was becoming a global phenomenon that girls were outperforming boys at school. "And whilst our education systems must diagnose and prescribe cures for this growing trend, for this growing malaise, parents have a vital role to play in arresting this trend, particularly since the research shows that the gap starts very early in the education process," he said.

Manning said earlier that while Government acknowledged its responsibility in ensuring education played a critical role in national development, it was a fact that the vast majority of successful students came from homes where parents took a keen interest in the education of their children.

The painstaking and highly effective role achieved by parents when their children were toddlers, teaching them for example to walk and talk incurred two major facets. Learning was at the pace of the individual child and the learning process involved constant practice.As the child goes to school this vital interaction is generally lost. Parents don't want to interfere, feel inadequate, or are glad to get some free time back! Although teachers introduce the subject effectively the vital practice function, where 75% of learning retention is obtained is the most difficult aspect to achieve at school. Class size, range of ability and the reluctance of children; too shy to ask questions, embarrassed that they do not understand or peer pressure means they can easily slip behind and lose interest. The diligent teacher with some free time in their hectic schedule can help to correct the gap in their understanding but this is often a bridge too far.

Modern teaching resources used in school are predominately in the form of educational games and ideal to practice the lesson at home, critically at the pace of the child. Parental interaction in maths games, word games, science games, all have an element of "learning in disguise" and not seen as conventional homework. These learning games follow the curriculum from ages 3 - 15 years have a substantial benefit to the child in improving their understanding - and also the parent who can once again becomes pro- active in the schooling process.

Alistair Owens www.keen2learn.co.uk

Author's Bio


Alistair Owens is passionate that modern fun based education increases interest and understanding, and by re-engaging parents in an interactive role at home using these educational games and educational toys can substantially support their child's progress at school. He has developed an Intel award winning web site http://www.keen2learn.co.uk that promotes an extensive range of classroom games and educational learning programmes for use in UK schools and with parents at home.

What boys want from schools and teachers

Massey University, August 2007

Boys say having friends at school and having a lot of physical activity are very important for their happiness and success.

These were priorities for most of the more than 350 secondary schoolboys interviewed by University researcher Michael Irwin in a study of what boys believe enhances and inhibits academic success.

Auckland-based Mr Irwin, from the College of Education, initiated New Zealand’s first national conferences on the under-achievement of boys (when, two years ago? Three?) and has been at the forefront of research exploring the reasons why boys lag behind girls at school and feature in many of the negative statistics relating to accidents, learning difficulties, and educational achievement.

\ Asking boys themselves what makes school a good place for them to be is, he says, an important part of providing successful education for them.

He found that having a group of friends, supporting them socially and assisting and motivating them educationally, was a huge factor in boys’ lives.

“Almost without exception the boys I interviewed said being with their mates at school was very important to them. I have found that throughout their schooling these close groups of, say three to five boys, are very important to each boy individually in significant ways. They develop their own identity through these groupings, they share ideas, they will often discuss learning issues in these groups and it is often these ties that have a very positive influence in keeping them at school.”

Physical exercise was also a high priority and Mr Irwin says schools need to look seriously at how they meet this need.

“Schools need to provide much more opportunity than they currently do for boys to be physically active. We know from existing research that physical activity and sport brings many benefits from bonding to stress release, mental stimulation and providing an outlet for competitive spirits.”

He also found boys wanted learning to be challenging and for school to be fun.
“They don’t want learning to be too hard or too easy. They want to be challenged and they feel the best way of meeting those challenges is to work together in groups with a problem-solving, hands-on approach.

“Most showed a high dislike of what they felt to be too much copying and writing things down at school.

“Almost all wanted to have fun, to have a laugh and for their environment to be one that they enjoy. This is the same thing that motivation researchers are also telling us.

“Schools need to take note of what matters most for boys at school – the importance of mates, the need for physical activity and for challenge in learning and the desire for school to be fun.”

Mr Irwin’s research highlighted some common attributes boys expected of their teachers. They wanted their teachers to focus on learning not content, to use humour, to collaborate and listen, to explain, to set clear expectations, to help them individually, to give specific feedback, to use activity based learning and co-operative learning, to be fair in managing behaviour.

Mr Irwin will present his research, Boys’ perceptions of what enhances and inhibits their academic success, in London next month to the British Education Research Association.

Leave those kids alone

The idea that adults should be playing with their kids is a modern invention -- and not necessarily a good one (The Boston Globe, July 15, 2007)

By Christopher Shea


WHAT COULD BE more natural than a mother down on the rec-room floor, playing with her 3-year-old amid puzzles, finger-puppets, and Thomas the Tank Engine trains? Look -- now she's conducting a conversation between a stuffed shark and Nemo, the Pixar clown fish! Giggles all around. Not to mention that the tot is learning the joys of stories and narrative, setting him on a triumphal path toward school.

A "natural" scene? Actually, parent-child play of this sort has been virtually unheard of throughout human history, according to the anthropologist David Lancy. And three-fourths of the world's current population would still find that mother's behavior kind of dotty.American-style parent-child play is a distinct feature of wealthy developed countries -- a recent byproduct of the pressure to get kids ready for the information-age economy,

Lancy argues in a recent article in American Anthropologist, the field's flagship journal in the United States."Adults think it is silly to play with children" in most cultures, says Lancy, who teaches at Utah State University. Play is a cultural universal, he concedes, "but adults aren't part of the picture." Yet middle-class and upper-middle-class Americans -- abetted, he says, by psychologists -- are increasingly proclaiming the parents-on-all-fours style the One True Way to raise a smart, well-adjusted child.There is now a concerted effort to spread adult-child play beyond its stronghold in the upper- and middle-classes of wealthy countries. To this end, many cities and states support programs of some sort. Massachusetts will give the Parent-Child Home Program, which has 33 sites in the state, $3 million this year (up from $2 million last year). Through the program, staff members visit the homes of low-income residents and offer tips not just on good books for toddlers but also on "play activities" for parents and kids. Likewise, the eminent Yale psychologist Jerome Singer has partnered with a media company to devise imaginative parent-child games (examples: "My Magic Story Car" and "Puppets: Counting") that librarians and social workers can teach to low-income parents.

Lancy is concerned that specialists behind the movement -- psychologists, social workers, preschool teachers -- are too aggressively promoting this intense, interventionist parenting style to low-income parents, and that they are are too quick to claim that adult-child play is crucial for human development. He doesn't quite rule out that some interventions may improve literacy -- though the data are murkier than the psychologists admit, he insists. But the programs, with their premise (as he sees it) that a whole class of people is simply parenting badly, leave their advocates "open to charges of racism or cultural imperialism."

One inspiration for the article, Lancy says, was that he kept coming across accounts of parents who felt guilty that they did not enjoy playing with their children. The psychologist Daniel Kahneman and the economist Alan Krueger, both at Princeton, have found that parents routinely claim that playing with their kids is among their favorite activities, but when you ask them to record their state of mind, hour by hour, they rate time spent with their children as being about as much fun as housework.

In his article, Lancy draws on decades of ethnographic work to show how rare parent-child play has been in the world. The Harvard anthropologist Robert LeVine, for example, observed in a 2004 paper that among the Gusii people of Kenya, "mothers rarely looked at or spoke to their infants and toddlers, even when they were holding and breast-feeding them." (So much for the universality of peek-a-boo.) On Ifaluk Island, in the South Pacific, tribespeople believe that babies are "essentially brainless" before age 2, so there is no point in talking to them.

The goal of the Yucatec Maya is to keep babies in a "kind of benign coma," through bathing and swaddling, so that parents can leave them and get work done. As recently as 1914, the US Department of Labor's Child Bureau advised parents not to play with babies, for fear of overstimulating their little nervous systems.

If interactions with babies are rare in much of the world, "mother-toddler play is virtually nonexistent," Lancy writes.

To be sure, there are exceptions. Some African foraging tribes display striking examples of parental playfulness. And the Inuit make toys for their toddlers and get goofy -- but they're cooped up for months at a time in igloos, bored witless. Lancy suggests that the American milieu -- caregivers stuck, without a community, in oversized homes -- is not entirely dissimilar.

Alison Gopnik, a developmental psychologist at Berkeley, agrees with parts of Lancy's argument: In much of the world, parents are unlikely to be the main caregivers, and Americans go overboard with structured parent-child play which has explicit academic goals. But she says that Lancy vastly understates the interactions between parents and children. In many cultures, mothers hold their babies much, much more than American mothers do, and holding and cuddling a child can be as stimulating and playful as peek-a-boo, she says.

"The fact that non-Western parents do not interact with their babies like Western parents doesn't mean they aren't interacting with them," Gopnik says.

And if African children learn from older siblings how to use a bow-and-arrow in a playful way, she asks, how different is that from American parents (or nannies) playfully teaching kids practices useful in American culture, such as verbal agility?

Tribal practices aside, the real source of contention is what sort of child-rearing advice low-income Americans should be receiving from social workers, psychologists, and other people interested in improving the academic readiness of poor kids. Yale's Singer, co-author (with his wife, Dorothy) of "The House of Make-Believe: Children's Play and the Developing Imagination" (1990), says his data show that children who played versions of "My Magic Story Car," in which a parent pretends to drive with the kids to various locations, having adventures along the way (with a subtle vocab lesson or two thrown in), do better on literacy tests than their peers.

"I'm not clear what's bothering this guy," he says, referring to Lancy. "We are not talking about the parents playing all day long with the children. We're just saying that children need to play, and particular kinds of play -- imaginative play that has a storytelling element to it -- are very useful" in our culture.

Still, the proselytizing on behalf of playful middle-class approaches vexes many anthropologists. A crystallizing moment for their concern came with the publication of a lengthy article in The New York Times Magazine last November by Paul Tough, an editor at the magazine, on efforts by some educators to erase cultural differences between low-income and middle-class students.

Tough leaned on the work of the University of Maryland sociologist Annette Lareau, who has described the dominant middle- and upper-middle-class parenting style as one of "concerted cultivation": scheduled time, interactive banter and play, and the encouragement of the child to challenge the parent's opinions. In contrast, she summarizes the low-income parents' approach as "the accomplishment of natural growth": less direct involvement with the kids, more unsupervised play, and more enforcement of rules.

More controversial than the sociological work was Tough's summary -- that poor parents fail to deliver "everyday intellectual and emotional stimuli" or to impart "character," "self-control, adaptability, patience, and openness."

Mica Pollock, an associate professor at Harvard's Graduate School of Education, says it's one thing to encourage low-income parents to read to their kids or tell them stories. But "it's a huge and dangerous overstatement to say that low-income parents don't stimulate their children." In fact, some research, she says, suggests that the approach used by some low-income parents teaches virtues such as patience and adaptability better than more freewheeling parenting styles.

And let's not idealize middle-class kids: "Some of those children are being raised to be spoiled, demanding, requiring constant adult attention, and inclined to argue with their parents," Pollock says.

This debate is unlikely to sway the convictions of the pro-play crowd. Stevanne Auerbach, the author of "Smart Play, Smart Toys: How to Raise a Child with a High PQ" -- play quotient -- says her goal is to "encourage parents to understand that they are their children's first big toy." But for the parents not energized by the prospect of all those hours in the playroom -- parents who would rather be doing something else -- Lancy's article offers the solace that comes from knowing you're not alone, globally or historically. Goodbye Thomas the Tank Engine, hello sports pages?


El éxodo de la mujeres capacitadas y la marginación del varón en Alemania del Este

Visto desde Alemania, 13/07/07


Es asombrosa la conclusión a la que llega el estudio "Not am Mann" (faltan hombres) del Instituto de Población de Berlín, recientemente publicado y recogido en las portadas de la prensa, sobre el éxodo de la mujer en la Alemania del Este a pocos años del vigésimo aniversario de la reunificación alemana.

Desde 1989 un total de 1,5 millones de jóvenes se han trasladado a la Alemania occidental, especialmente mujeres cualificadas, buscando un mejor futuro profesional y familiar. Este déficit de mujeres no tiene parangón en Europa, ni siquiera en las regiones frías del norte de Suecia y de Finlandia.

En muchas localidades deprimidas de la Alemania oriental este fenómeno migratorio se explica por el hecho de que las mujeres están mejor preparadas que los hombres. Sus expedientes académicos son mucho más brillantes que los de sus compañeros varones y, por este motivo, encuentran trabajo con más facilidad en otros lugares más desarrollados. Las consecuencias son, por un lado, un claro descenso de la natalidad y, por otro, la amenaza de una nueva capa social inferior que ha sido denominada "Prekariat" (precariado: véase su relación fonética con proletariado). Dicho segmento de la población lo forman varones que, por ser excluidos de los principales ámbitos de la sociedad (trabajo, formación, pareja...) pasan, a los ojos de la gente, a ser unos inútiles incapaces de mejorar de vida y que, además, se manifiestan más propensos a la violencia y a la participación en grupos radicales.

El quinto capítulo de este estudio merece especial atención al analizar si los varones de la Alemania del Este se encuentran en una crisis de educación y de formación. En 1960 el 37% de los bachilleres con acceso a la universidad eran chicas. Hoy el 54 % de la chicas alcanzan el acceso a la selectividad. Estas cifras –dice el informe– no son sólo el resultado del sistema escolar (la gran mayoría de los colegios son mixtos), sino que también en el proceso de admisión escolar ya se perciben claras diferencias entre chicos y chicas. El 60% de los no aceptados son chicos y las chicas sobrepasan la cifra de los que son aceptados anticipadamente. Los chicos, con comportamientos llamativos más frecuentes, repiten curso con mayor frecuencia. Los resultados de PISA de 2000 y 2003 manifiestan claramente la diferencia de rendimiento escolar: la chicas leen y escriben mejor que los chicos. Es ahora cuando comienza –continua el informe– el análisis sobre las causas de los retrasos de los chicos en el sistema escolar.

Durante mucho tiempo los sociólogos y los psicólogos opinaron que las diferencias biológicas entre los sexos no tenían una influencia significativa en su comportamiento sino que éste era consecuencia únicamente de la educación y del entorno social. Por el contrario, numerosos estudios de los últimos veinte años se manifiestan en otra dirección. El informe cita a Eleanor Maccoby, 2001: Psychologie der Geschlechter. Sexuelle Identität in den verschiedenen Lebensphasen, Stuttgart (Psicología de los sexos. Identidad sexual en la distintas fases de la vida). Estudios comparativos en países industriales, países en desarrollo y observaciones de campo transculturales en algunos pueblos indígenas muestran que la chicas en todo el mundo prefieren juegos inofesivos mientras que en los chicos dominan los juegos motóricos activos y de más interacción corporal. En situaciones de conflicto las chicas tienen una tendencia más proclive al compromiso y al entendimiento mutuo y los chicos se caracterizan por una tendencia al dominio, a la fomación de jerarquías y a conflictos corporales.

Los médicos y psicólogos aluden que los chicos obtienen peores resultados en el colegio porque se adaptan peor a éste y aprenden peor que las chicas. La causa –dice el informe– se encuentra en la anatomía y en el funcionamiento distinto del cerebro según el sexo. También las hormonas juegan un papel importante. La testosterona fomenta en los chicos la concentración en el resultado y no en el proceso, y por eso los chicos se pueden concentrar menos y tienden a comportamientos no razonados que pueden llevar a la violencia.

Las diferencias de chicos y chicas suponen distintas maneras de pensar, de aprender, de comunicar o de competir. Otros estudios atestiguan que los chicos tienen una mayor capacidad de abstracción y que las mujeres tienen una mejor capacidad de expresión y de comunicación. De este modo, las chicas parecen más adeptas al éxito en el colegio pues aquellas aptitudes que les son más necesarias, son precisamente las que tienen más desarrolladas.

Otra componente es que los chicos sufren, si son expuestos a los videojuegos, en sus resultados escolares mucho más que las chicas. El estudio también señala que muchos pedagogos son de la opinión de que en el crecimiento de los chicos los ejemplos de roles masculinos son de primordial importancia. Los padres, pero también los educadores y profesores, deben vivir de un modo varonil que les sirva a los chicos de orientación para su propio desarrollo, que les ponga límites. La realidad es que cada día crecen más chicos sin ejemplos masculinos. En el año 2005 existían en Alemania 2,6 millones de padres solteros y de éstos eran 2,2 millones de madres solteras. El porcentaje de padres solteros ha crecido entre 1996 y 2004 del 17 al 20%, especialmente en la Alemania del Este. A casi un millón de chicos les falta el padre como ejemplo. Cuando llegan al Kindergarten y al colegio apenas encuentran personal masculino y, por eso, se habla de la "faminización del sistema educativo". Desconozco los datos correspondientes en España pero intuyo que nos acercamos bastante a esta situación.

En Alemania el dominio de la mujer es especialmente llamativo en primaria, en la fase en la que los niños desarrollan especialmente sus capacidades cognitivas y fundamentan su futuro escolar y académico. El 86% de los profesores de primaria son mujeres. La preocupación de los pedagogos es que las maestras manifientan poca comprensión ante el comportamiento de los chicos porque, por su propia socialización, desconocen este comportamiento y se muestran poco propensas a sus modos de juego, lo cual aumenta el rechazo de las maestras hacia los chicos. Esto también resulta en que los chicos obtienen peores notas que las chicas. Hay estudios que demuestran que las notas en primaria se basan más en el comportamiento que en el rendimiento intelectual.


Por lo tanto, los padres están en pleno derecho de buscar alternativas a la educación mixta, de modo que se tengan mejor en cuenta las capacidades y cualidades específicas de cada sexo y las lleva a su pleno desarrollo.


NOT AM MANN: http://www.berlin-institut.org/pdfs/not_am_mann.pdf

NOTICIA: http://vistodesdealemania.blogspirit.com/archive/2007/07/13/el-exodo-de-la-mujeres-capacitadas-y-la-marginación-del-varó.html

Recruiting males teachers is a waste of time

By Maralyn Parker, (News.com.au, July 11, 2007)

TRYING to recruit more males into teaching may be worse than a waste of time. According to a new report some male teachers can be bad for boys.


The 140-page report from the education department in England, Gender and Education: The Evidence on Pupils in England, claims male teachers are more likely to treat boys harshly and can have lower academic expectations of boys. Female teachers are more likely to have equal expectations of boys and girls and are less likely to be harsh with boys just because they are boys.

Researchers also found there was little evidence boys and girls had different learning styles - a small bombshell that may prick the pomposity of some high-fee private schools marketing themselves as specialists in boy-style teaching. Researchers also soundly rejected the claim that girls need "less active, less structured, less interactive, less varied pedagogy" than boys. If you are already composing an email - yes there are different styles of learning such as visual, auditory and kinaesthetic (touching, feeling, using).

The report said there are benefits in talking about and using different styles in the classroom. And some students may prefer one style or different combinations. However to be successful learners children need to be able to use all the different styles at different times for different purposes. So any school favouring one style of learning is doing its students a serious disservice. It reminds me of the left brain-right brain fad. We were told we probably favour one or the other - and the associated but very different skills.

Then scientists found the brain did not work so simply, that we used both sides when doing things previously considered either right brain or left brain. It looks like the boy and girls styles of learning are now also debunked. As for single-sex schools and single-sex classes, research remains "inconsistent and inconclusive." Separating sexes for modern languages can be positive for boys and for science and maths, can be positive for girls. But researchers pointed out when a school sets up single-sex classes there is an increased emphasis on teaching which may improve the quality of that teaching.

Also schools will often select their best teachers to take these classes, especially the all-boy classes, which will also affect outcomes. But probably the most significant finding is that the biggest gaps in achievement at school are not between boys and girls but between social classes and ethnic groups. Poor children and black children are the biggest losers. And researchers say that is what the English Government should really be worried about if it wants a clever future.

All I can say is ditto to all of that for Australia.

Gender and education: the evidence on pupils in England

Department for Education and Skills, 2007. (134 pages)

http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/genderandachievement/pdf/7038_DfES_Gender_Ed.pdf?version=1

This topic paper draws together a range of evidence on gender and education.
It summarises current statistics on the participation and attainment of boys and girls from the Reception Year to the Sixth Form, placing the findings in an historical context where this is possible. Performance data from international research complement the historical data and strengthen the conclusions on overall trends. Subject choice and attainment are the main foci of the paper but gender differences in areas such as special educational needs, school
exclusions, attendance and bullying are also covered.


A large number of research papers have been written on the gender gap in attainment and this topic paper refers to a selection of these. We ask why there are differences in boys’ and girls’ participation and achievement and examine what strategies are effective in tackling boys’ lower attainment levels.

The paper focuses primarily on gender differences of school-aged pupils. In order to understand gender differences for this age group, it is important to draw on the literature on early childhood, biological and cognitive differences. However, it is beyond the scope of this paper to examine this in any detail. Equally what happens at school then determines higher education and career choices but this is not covered here.

An important objective of this paper is to put the gender debate in context by examining the extent of the gender gap and discussing the role of gender in education alongside the role of other pupil characteristics, particularly social class and ethnicity. In addition, the focus is not solely on the concepts of the “gender gap” and “boys’ underachievement” but also acknowledges that, on the one hand, many boys are high attainers and, on the other, that many girls face significant challenges.

Conference puts spotlight on boys' education

1233 ABC Newcastle, July 4, 2007

University academics from across the world have gathered in Newcastle for a two-day conference aimed at improving educational outcomes for boys.

The Working with Boys, Building Fine Men conference starts today, and will discuss a range of initiatives, including mentoring programs.

Guest speaker John Andriunas says he will highlight the success of his program which tries to get fathers more involved in their sons' schooling.

"Mums have been the care givers throughout the history of our children and they look after the kids right from birth right through preschool and school," he said.

"We don't want to take anything away from the mothers, but we have found that the educational outcomes, social outcomes for children if their fathers are involved are a lot higher."

The New Gender Gap

Business Week, MAY 26, 2003

From kindergarten to grad school, boys are becoming the second sex.

Lawrence High is the usual fortress of manila-brick blandness and boxy 1960s architecture. At lunch, the metalheads saunter out to the smokers' park, while the AP types get pizzas at Marinara's, where they talk about -- what else? -- other people. The hallways are filled with lip-glossed divas in designer clothes and packs of girls in midriff-baring track tops. The guys run the gamut, too: skate punks, rich boys in Armani, and saggy-panted crews with their Eminem swaggers. In other words, they look pretty much as you'd expect...

But when the leaders of the Class of 2003 assemble in the Long Island high school's fluorescent-lit meeting rooms, most of these boys are nowhere to be seen. The senior class president? A girl. The vice-president? Girl. Head of student government? Girl. Captain of the math team, chief of the yearbook, and editor of the newspaper? Girls...



http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/03_21/b3834001_mz001.htm

Education bias favours females

Jamaica Gleaner, Wednesday July 4, 2007

Failing Education (IV) - Education bias favours females

Peter Espeut (Peter Espeut is a sociologist and executive director of an environment and development NGO)

Jamaica's
education system favours females; the systematic bias against men pushes them down and elevates women. Feminists are not comfortable with this thesis, for their instincts demand that in every sphere they are oppressed. But we have to be guided by facts: our education system is designed to fail the Jamaican male.

The first naked fact is that there are more high school places for girls than for boys, therefore more girls will pass the GSAT than boys. Check it out:there are seven
high schools for boys only, while there are 14 high schools for girls only - twice as many! The average boys' high school is smaller than the average girls' school and co-educational high schools admit many more girls than boys, sometimes two-thirds girls to one-third boys. So, more Jamaican girls will get to high school than boys.

Men at the bottom of the ladder

So women will predominate at our
universities, and men generally will become marginalised. Family life will be affected; women will complain of a shortage of marriageable men; and they will be right! There will be more men at the bottom of the economic ladder than women. And more men involved in crime.

This is not an accident; our educational policies after slavery were designed to protect plantation labour supply, which is why sugar areas like Trelawny, St. Thomas and Vere, and banana areas like St. Mary had no high school admitting boys until relatively recently. If too many boys go to high school, who would cut cane or weed bananas? So it is not so much that the system favours girls as it disadvantages boys.

The two political parties will be quick to say that they did not create this imbalance, partially true since none of the single-sex schools were established by government; it is mostly churches who are to blame; e.g. the Roman Catholic Church today has only one boys' high school but has all of five high schools for girls only! The parties have had all of 45 years to redress the gender imbalance, and they have not!

The gender bias is even more profound! In primary schools boys are often put to sit at the back; the students in front get more attention from the (usually female) teacher. The GSAT takes place at age eleven, when girls are psychologically more developed that boys. If it was a straight competition for high school places based on performance, girls have a big (and unfair) advantage over boys. And in co-educational schools, boys and girls of the same age are put in the same class, which means that girls will always do better, which has negative psychological impact on boys.

In my opinion, for best results, high schools should all be single sex! And then those of each gender can progress at their optimal pace.

So much is wrong with Jamaica's education system, and yet the best the two parties can do in this election campaign is make promises that the low quality education they are offering will be free.

Why don't they promise that they will put in place a system that can teach our children to read properly? Why don't they promise they will create a system where all Jamaican schoolchildren will get a good secondary education up to Grade 11?

Political baptism

Both JLP and PNP have rebaptised 'new secondary schools' into 'high schools', and there is great pretence that the new 'high schools' are of equal standard to 'traditional' high schools. The apartheid continues!

Why don't the parties promise that all secondary schools will be of equal standard? Why don't they promise gender equality? Why don't they promise that high schools will be neighbourhood-based, so students don't have to travel 30-40 miles per day just to get to a 'good' high school? All they should have to do is go down the street! Both parties are to blame for our failing education system, and it doesn't look like it will get better anytime soon.