Showing posts with label - US. Show all posts
Showing posts with label - US. Show all posts
East Bay School caters to boys' learning styles
[San Francisco Chronicle, August 16, 2010]
Carolyn Jones, Chronicle Staff Writer
Like most boys, Joe Villeneuve's son, Dylan, is not one for sitting still.
"He's a bouncy, outgoing, happy kid who likes to explore and see how things work," said the Berkeley father. "He's always on the move. He is a boy."
And as every parent and teacher will attest, "always on the move" and a quiet, orderly classroom are not always compatible states.
But Dylan will soon be at a school where "always on the move" is not only prized, it's built into the curriculum. The East Bay School for Boys, opening Aug. 31 in Berkeley, is tailored specifically to boys' energy levels, brain development and love of taking things apart, scattering them across the floor and putting them together again.
The first week of school, for example, the boys will get hammers, power saws and wood, and build their own desks.
"We're going to allow them to make mistakes, experiment, be a little disorganized," said headmaster Jason Baeten. "It's going to be messy, but we think they'll fall in love with school."
Boys need to fall back in love with school, according to several recent studies.
In the past 30 years or so, boys have started trailing girls in reading, writing, grades, test scores and overall motivation, according to a report compiled by educators, sociologists and others who want the president to establish a White House Council on Boys to Men. In 1966, men earned 61 percent of the college diplomas in the United States, but are expected to earn only 39 percent by 2019, their report stated.
Boys are also more likely to be medicated for attention problems and learning disorders, and more likely to be held back or disciplined for behavior problems, studies show.
End to sitting all day
In many cases, boys are performing the same as they always have but girls have surged ahead academically, due in part to a general shift in curriculum favoring girls. It wasn't hard: More than 90 percent of elementary and middle school teachers are women.
Another factor is higher academic expectations placed on younger children due to pressure to raise test scores, teachers said. Kindergarteners are now expected to read, a task that's difficult for some boys because their language skills generally develop later than girls'. The result is that by first grade, many boys are already lagging and their self-confidence starts to drag.
"The structure of a classroom - sitting still in a desk all day - works better for girls than boys," said Marcia Bedford, an East Bay School for Boys board member and assistant head of school at Julia Morgan School for Girls in Oakland. "There's a lot of pressure on boys to hold it together all day and behave, well, like girls."
Boys schools blossom
East Bay School for Boys isn't the only new school to take on boys' education. Public, private and charter schools for boys are blossoming throughout much of the United States, according to the International Boys School Coalition.
"These schools take boys as they are. Instead of punishing boys for their activity, they embrace it and build the curriculum around it," said executive director Brad Adams. "These schools have had great success."
The Pacific Boychoir Academy in Oakland, an all-boys school that opened seven years ago, tailored its curriculum to boys. History classes focus on conflicts and action, teachers might cover four lessons instead of two in a 50-minute period in order to keep students interested, and boys get plenty of opportunities to run around.
Directed energy
"Boys are naturally competitive and we don't want to tamp that down," said school administrator Jim Gaines. "We want to give boys a chance to be extraordinary."
The hope for all these schools is to create a generation of males who are self-confident, capable and compassionate in a world where men's roles are in flux, Baeten and others said.
Joe Villeneuve is just hoping his son's natural enthusiasm isn't squelched by having to sit still at a desk all day.
"What a luxury for a school to say, we're going to use all that energy," he said. "We're not going to thwart it."
E-mail Carolyn Jones at carolynjones@sfchronicle.com
Why Boys Fail: Saving Our Sons from an Educational System That's Leaving Them Behind
Why Boys Fail: Saving Our Sons from an Educational System That"s Leaving Them Behind Boys are falling behind in school. The world has become more verbal; boys haven"t. Even in their traditionally strong subjects of science and math, boys are hit at a young age with new educational approaches, stressing high-level reading and writing goals that they are developmentally unable to achieve. The gap between male and female achievement has reached the college level, where only 40 per cent of graduates next year will be male. This doesn"t just mean fewer male doctors and lawyers, it also means fewer men in the careers that previously did not require post-high school degrees but do now. "Why Boys Fail" examines the roots and repercussions of this problem and spells out the educational, political, social and economic challenges we face as we work to end it.
Gender gap growing for teenagers
[Philly Burbs, November 24, 2009]
By: GREG FORESTER
Education expert warns parents about the problems facing today's teens.
DELRAN - Boys are obsessed with video games. Girls are obsessed with their bodies. Both are overindulging in distractions such as text messaging at the expense of learning and sleeping.
Education proponent and well-known author Leonard Sax is worried, and, according to Sax, parents should be, too.
Sax described a growing gender gap in academic achievement that is seeing young men left in the dust by their increasingly anxious female counterparts to a crowd of about 70, most of them parents, at Delran High School on Thursday.
He linked legions of failing boys and anxiety-ridden girls to the popularity of video games and Web-based media, changes in American society and the abdication of authority by parents during his nearly three-hour talk, which was organized by the Delran Middle School and High School Parent Teacher Association, whose president, Patti Blosfelds, introduced Sax and recommended his books.
Citing his own experiences as a family doctor as well as scholarly studies, Sax said increasing numbers of boys and young men are obsessed with video games and "the virtual world," and as a result are doing drastically worse in academics than students 40 years ago.
Sax, the Pennsylvania-based executive director of the National Association for Single Sex Public Education, has studied the issues extensively and written two books: "Why Gender Matters" and "Boys Adrift: The Five Factors Driving the Growing Epidemic of Unmotivated Boys and Underachieving Young Men."
Today, he said, boys excelling academically in U.S. schools tend to be of East or South Asian descent, children of recent immigrants, or immigrants themselves.
"They see nothing un-masculine in preparing for the spelling bee," Sax said, unlike their white, black or Latino peers, who care more about excellence on the sports field or in the video game world. "For them, caring about school is seen as un-masculine."
The countries that many of these excelling students hail from, such as India and China, happen to have economies that are growing by leaps and bounds when compared with the United States and Europe.
Sax spoke of the declining number of American boys who read for fun, noting a recently completed 25-year National Endowment of the Arts study that found the gap between the number of girls and boys who read for fun has widened dramatically.
"And it's not because girls are reading more," said Sax, recalling a young man in Maryland who told him he'd rather "be burned at the stake" than read books during his summer vacation. "Boys have stopped reading altogether."
Eliciting chuckles from the audience, Sax recalled how more than four decades ago "ancient" musical artists such as the Beach Boys and Sam Cooke were singing about being "true to your school" and "trying to be an A student."
But these positive messages have been replaced by the likes of 50 Cent, Eminem and Akon, a Georgia native and popular artist who propagated false stories of incarceration to enhance his image. Boys' role models have gone from "scholars to thugs and bullies," Sax said, just as their activities have shifted from playing outdoors and listening to positive music to playing violent video games in a virtual world away from positive male influences.
Video games especially have taken a greater place in the lives of young boys, who love to collaborate in combat, ambush enemies and feel heroic, Sax told the crowd.
While moderate use of nonviolent video games - under six hours a week - has no effect on academic achievement, use in excess of six hours has a direct and linear negative impact. Sax called the trend "displacement," as in the shifting of time normally spent studying, playing with real friends or, perhaps most important, sleeping.
"Teenagers need nine hours of sleep per night," Sax said, and when they don't get it, the deprivation drops their IQ to levels that can make them sluggish and appear "mildly retarded."
Such behavior leads to incorrect diagnoses of attention deficit disorder or associated ailments, opening the way for the prescription of Ritalin, Adderall and other psychotropic stimulants that may mask underlying sleep disorders or other problems, according to Sax.
The impact of video games also is seen on the high school sports fields, where out-of-shape students show up and fail miserably because they think excellence in sports video games equates to achievement on the field, he said. Violent video games result in more insidious problems, according to Sax, who said realistic violence is related to personality changes that make young men "less caring, more hostile, rude."
One place where the combined effects of gender difference are glaringly obvious is at the nation's colleges, Sax said, especially at schools with admissions programs that don't make an effort to maintain a 50-50 split between boys and girls.
Sax said the University of North Carolina admissions program's reliance on grades and test scores, rather than gender, recently resulted in a class that is 62 percent female. Accounting for dropouts, the split will grow to 66-33 percent by the end of the class' time on campus. Nationally, the effect is decreasing the numbers of educated and economically productive males in the long term and, in the short term, creating a troublesome "supply and demand" problem for women, who outnumber their male peers nearly 2 to 1.
"It changes social life at the university," Sax said, and has an adverse effect on women applying to institutions that are forced to reject academically superior women as they try to maintain an even split.
At the nation's top schools - such as Harvard, Princeton and Yale - classes would be as high as 70 percent female, Sax said, without efforts to admit an equal numbers of boys.
Sax reminded the audience that the brain of a teenager is developing and is not mature until age 22 in girls and sometimes not until 30 for boys. Sometimes this means boys fresh out of high school aren't ready for college and should not be forced to attend, said Sax.
Moving to recommendations for the Delran crowd, Sax said it's important for parents to remember their authority and assert priorities. Family dinner should be the No. 1 priority, with schoolwork and real friends coming in at second and third.
Last on the priority list are video games, with no more than 40 minutes of playing time on weekdays and an hour on weekends. Game systems should not be in boys' bedrooms, Sax said, and cell phone chargers should remain in the parents' bedroom so that kids, especially young girls, are not experiencing sleepless nights of text messaging.
Paradoxically, the lazy boys Sax has seen tend to be happy and content, despite academic shortcomings, while young, academically successful girls tend to be anxious.
Sax said young ladies are abusing alcohol and cutting themselves with sharp objects in growing numbers. They are spending more hours fretting about their body image, maintaining a presence on social media sites such as Facebook, and sending literally thousands of text messages per month.
Citing a San Diego State University study, Sax said young girls are increasingly high-strung and anxious. Today, 39 percent of ninth-graders have one alcoholic drink per month, half drink regularly and more than one in four are binge drinking. Noting a picture of 1950s beauty Marilyn Monroe, Sax said that by today's standards she would be fat, especially when compared with skinny sex icons such as Megan Fox of the "Transformers" series of films.
Such unrealistic body images are the norm as eating disorders and cutting are on the rise, with as many as one in five girls committing self-mutilation.
These trends are the subject of Sax's next book, "Girls on the Edge," set for a spring release.
By: GREG FORESTER
Education expert warns parents about the problems facing today's teens.
DELRAN - Boys are obsessed with video games. Girls are obsessed with their bodies. Both are overindulging in distractions such as text messaging at the expense of learning and sleeping.
Education proponent and well-known author Leonard Sax is worried, and, according to Sax, parents should be, too.
Sax described a growing gender gap in academic achievement that is seeing young men left in the dust by their increasingly anxious female counterparts to a crowd of about 70, most of them parents, at Delran High School on Thursday.
He linked legions of failing boys and anxiety-ridden girls to the popularity of video games and Web-based media, changes in American society and the abdication of authority by parents during his nearly three-hour talk, which was organized by the Delran Middle School and High School Parent Teacher Association, whose president, Patti Blosfelds, introduced Sax and recommended his books.
Citing his own experiences as a family doctor as well as scholarly studies, Sax said increasing numbers of boys and young men are obsessed with video games and "the virtual world," and as a result are doing drastically worse in academics than students 40 years ago.
Sax, the Pennsylvania-based executive director of the National Association for Single Sex Public Education, has studied the issues extensively and written two books: "Why Gender Matters" and "Boys Adrift: The Five Factors Driving the Growing Epidemic of Unmotivated Boys and Underachieving Young Men."
Today, he said, boys excelling academically in U.S. schools tend to be of East or South Asian descent, children of recent immigrants, or immigrants themselves.
"They see nothing un-masculine in preparing for the spelling bee," Sax said, unlike their white, black or Latino peers, who care more about excellence on the sports field or in the video game world. "For them, caring about school is seen as un-masculine."
The countries that many of these excelling students hail from, such as India and China, happen to have economies that are growing by leaps and bounds when compared with the United States and Europe.
Sax spoke of the declining number of American boys who read for fun, noting a recently completed 25-year National Endowment of the Arts study that found the gap between the number of girls and boys who read for fun has widened dramatically.
"And it's not because girls are reading more," said Sax, recalling a young man in Maryland who told him he'd rather "be burned at the stake" than read books during his summer vacation. "Boys have stopped reading altogether."
Eliciting chuckles from the audience, Sax recalled how more than four decades ago "ancient" musical artists such as the Beach Boys and Sam Cooke were singing about being "true to your school" and "trying to be an A student."
But these positive messages have been replaced by the likes of 50 Cent, Eminem and Akon, a Georgia native and popular artist who propagated false stories of incarceration to enhance his image. Boys' role models have gone from "scholars to thugs and bullies," Sax said, just as their activities have shifted from playing outdoors and listening to positive music to playing violent video games in a virtual world away from positive male influences.
Video games especially have taken a greater place in the lives of young boys, who love to collaborate in combat, ambush enemies and feel heroic, Sax told the crowd.
While moderate use of nonviolent video games - under six hours a week - has no effect on academic achievement, use in excess of six hours has a direct and linear negative impact. Sax called the trend "displacement," as in the shifting of time normally spent studying, playing with real friends or, perhaps most important, sleeping.
"Teenagers need nine hours of sleep per night," Sax said, and when they don't get it, the deprivation drops their IQ to levels that can make them sluggish and appear "mildly retarded."
Such behavior leads to incorrect diagnoses of attention deficit disorder or associated ailments, opening the way for the prescription of Ritalin, Adderall and other psychotropic stimulants that may mask underlying sleep disorders or other problems, according to Sax.
The impact of video games also is seen on the high school sports fields, where out-of-shape students show up and fail miserably because they think excellence in sports video games equates to achievement on the field, he said. Violent video games result in more insidious problems, according to Sax, who said realistic violence is related to personality changes that make young men "less caring, more hostile, rude."
One place where the combined effects of gender difference are glaringly obvious is at the nation's colleges, Sax said, especially at schools with admissions programs that don't make an effort to maintain a 50-50 split between boys and girls.
Sax said the University of North Carolina admissions program's reliance on grades and test scores, rather than gender, recently resulted in a class that is 62 percent female. Accounting for dropouts, the split will grow to 66-33 percent by the end of the class' time on campus. Nationally, the effect is decreasing the numbers of educated and economically productive males in the long term and, in the short term, creating a troublesome "supply and demand" problem for women, who outnumber their male peers nearly 2 to 1.
"It changes social life at the university," Sax said, and has an adverse effect on women applying to institutions that are forced to reject academically superior women as they try to maintain an even split.
At the nation's top schools - such as Harvard, Princeton and Yale - classes would be as high as 70 percent female, Sax said, without efforts to admit an equal numbers of boys.
Sax reminded the audience that the brain of a teenager is developing and is not mature until age 22 in girls and sometimes not until 30 for boys. Sometimes this means boys fresh out of high school aren't ready for college and should not be forced to attend, said Sax.
Moving to recommendations for the Delran crowd, Sax said it's important for parents to remember their authority and assert priorities. Family dinner should be the No. 1 priority, with schoolwork and real friends coming in at second and third.
Last on the priority list are video games, with no more than 40 minutes of playing time on weekdays and an hour on weekends. Game systems should not be in boys' bedrooms, Sax said, and cell phone chargers should remain in the parents' bedroom so that kids, especially young girls, are not experiencing sleepless nights of text messaging.
Paradoxically, the lazy boys Sax has seen tend to be happy and content, despite academic shortcomings, while young, academically successful girls tend to be anxious.
Sax said young ladies are abusing alcohol and cutting themselves with sharp objects in growing numbers. They are spending more hours fretting about their body image, maintaining a presence on social media sites such as Facebook, and sending literally thousands of text messages per month.
Citing a San Diego State University study, Sax said young girls are increasingly high-strung and anxious. Today, 39 percent of ninth-graders have one alcoholic drink per month, half drink regularly and more than one in four are binge drinking. Noting a picture of 1950s beauty Marilyn Monroe, Sax said that by today's standards she would be fat, especially when compared with skinny sex icons such as Megan Fox of the "Transformers" series of films.
Such unrealistic body images are the norm as eating disorders and cutting are on the rise, with as many as one in five girls committing self-mutilation.
These trends are the subject of Sax's next book, "Girls on the Edge," set for a spring release.
Why public boys' schools are a stand-up idea
[Globe and Mail, Wednesday, Nov. 04, 2009]
Jim Power
Ernest Hemingway wrote standing at his typewriter. That's hardly surprising, because research suggests boys are more apt to learn when they can move around. Because we all want to encourage tomorrow's authors sitting or standing in today's classrooms, many private boys' schools are experimenting with stand-up desks and other such initiatives.
Chris Spence's recent proposal for Canada's first public all-boys school offers an opportunity to weigh in with 180 years of lessons learned and cautionary tips for our public-school brethren. Some see their proposal as an exotic provocation, not a public policy initiative with precedents in Alberta's charter schools and thriving public boys' schools the world over.
The Hemingway example illustrates a broad point: Without stereotyping gender difference, we do believe boys and girls learn differently. Reams of research speak to that. While biology isn't destiny, it is proclivity. The point is, boys' schools aren't about segregation. They're about defining gender-selected strengths and teaching to them.
There's also a subtle point that hasn't been discussed much. Dr. Spence's move is reported as a reaction to a public system that has failed the many disengaged, learning-disabled or violent boys who lag behind girls. The cited causes range from fatherless homes to immigrant alienation to poverty.
While I'm enthusiastic about this initiative, my fear is this forward-thinking innovation will reinforce the old myth that boys' schools are a punitive last gasp – boot camps for the ungovernable and the delinquent. Only a sustained, conscious effort will ensure this school does not succumb to a reactive, remedial model of boys' learning.
It's a challenge. The new school will be set up precisely because those within its catchment aren't thriving in their current schools. By contrast, my school (Toronto's Upper Canada College) and others like it have entrants who possess academic strength to thrive in competitive environments and parents who have the means, or receive tuition assistance, to support them in realizing their potential.
Despite contrasting entrance credentials, this school can succeed for the same reasons others have. Boys' schools must articulate key values from the outset. Our challenge is to build character, to teach boys to explore modern notions of masculinity. We want boys to know it's okay to ask for help, to care and nurture. Most importantly, as teachers we demonstrate these traits so graduates can serve, unabashedly, as parents and community leaders who make a difference.
Boys' schools are uniquely situated to do just that. Consider a report for the Good Man Project, a collaboration of New Zealand boys' schools: “By their very existence, boys' schools encourage building a sense of pride in being male. In a world where much media focus is on the more negative aspects of young men, the ability of boys' schools to provide an alternative view cannot be underestimated.”
Boys' schools aren't simply about serving up a healthy dose of customized learning. They're places where boys aren't afraid to take risks, where it's okay to join the meditation group or the debating club, to cheer for underdogs and stand up to bullies.
It's not all warm and cuddly. Look at a typical pack of Grade 4 boys, tumbling about like puppies. Boys are, by nature, rougher and tougher, more physically competitive. Those who work at boys' schools need a deep understanding and comfort with that reality, while not falling for the simplicity of the old “boys will be boys” mentality.
It is a double-edged sword, so a final caution: Our students are apt to call themselves a “band of brothers,” while forming lifelong friendships. But it's an artificial tree house with no girls allowed. So we need to intentionally build in co-ed opportunities, especially in arts and service programs. You can't have it all. Our graduates often confess they hustle to get up to speed about deciphering the intricacies of female social cues once they hit universities or the workplace.
As an all-boys pioneer, this new school is encouraged to draw on the experience of UCC and other fine boys' schools, and of the International Boys' Schools Coalition.
Ultimately, all such schools are in the character-building business. But we only get there by refusing the remedial “reform school” model – that's no place for a boy to grow. Even Hemingway wouldn't stand for that.
Jim Power is principal of Upper Canada College.
Team Focus Makes an Investment in Youth
For Boys Who Lack a Father's Guidance, Camp Offers an Opportunity to Learn and Grow
[Washington Post, Tuesday, July 21, 2009]
By Yamiche Alcindor
Five years ago, a brain aneurysm took the life of Cottrell and Cordell Wise's father. Their mother, Kelly Wise, tried to fill the void, but Cottrell's grades fell and Cordell became increasingly attached to his mom.
A year later, Kelly Wise discovered Team Focus, a year-round program and four-day summer camp that changed her boys' lives. A national program that began in 2000 with one camp in Alabama, Team Focus connects more than 1,500 young men who lack father figures to male role models.
"Team Focus has done everything for me," Cottrell said during the Team Focus DC Camp, which kicked off Sunday. He has learned how to knot a tie, how to talk to girls and how to study, he said. "It taught me everything my father couldn't do, and it helped me be a better big brother."
This summer, camps held in 14 cities meshed sports with leadership training and connected young boys with volunteers who keep in touch throughout the year. The program is designed to allow the boys to develop relationships with several men in the hopes of creating a network of role models.
The D.C. camp, which began in 2005, will run through Wednesday. The District chapter serves more than 100 young men year-round.
"This is an investment on the future of this country," said Keith Howard, director of Team Focus DC. "If I can be that substitute dad, and walk with a young man and give him the authority and the affection that a young man craves, then I am making an investment."
The program was founded by ESPN college football analyst and University of Pittsburgh coach Mike Gottfried. He launched the camps with proceeds from the 2000 GMAC Bowl, a college football game held in Mobile, Ala. Gottfried, whose father died when he was 11, wanted to create a program that combined Christian values and sports for boys growing up like he did.
Team Focus and the individual camps are funded by several sources, including personal donations, government grants and corporate sponsorships.
At the District camp, boys spend half their day playing games such as basketball and softball. The other half of the day, speakers cover topics ranging from the emotional consequences of not having a father to lessons on manners, note-taking and personal grooming. A chaplain is also on site to lead Bible study and prayer.
At times, the camp feels like a boot camp. Highly energized staff members spelled out the rules Sunday to the more than 50 campers: Shirts must be tucked in. Heads should always be up and turned toward lecturers. Taking notes is a must. No oversleeping or staying up too late. And no cellphones or other electronic devices to connect with the world outside Team Focus. If a camper breaks the rules, he is asked to leave and is seldom readmitted the next year.
After her husband, Reginald, died, Kelly Wise, who lives in Charles County, said she was confused about how to nurture her boys. "Their father was instrumental in their lives. When he died, I didn't know what to do," she said.
For her, the camp has meant a chance for her boys to learn things she cannot teach them. This year marks 14-year-old Cottrell's fourth year with the camp and 12-year-old Cordell's second year. Howard, who has taken Wise's sons under his wing, calls several times a year to check on the boys.
Wise said the change in her sons is clear. Once a struggling student, Cottrell has landed on the honor roll. Cordell, who at first refused to be away from his mother, now looks forward to sharing time with others.
Adam Mason, 19, a camp volunteer and mentor, came to Team Focus DC as a 13-year-old looking for guidance. "I came out a lot better person then I came in," he said. "This is like a crash course on life." After his first year, he stopped defying his mother's rules and began reading his Bible frequently. Eventually, he made the decision to attend Liberty University, a private Christian school where he will begin his sophomore year in the fall. He credits his decision to attend the university and the success he has achieved as a student to his relationship with Howard.
Beyond the camps, staff members and volunteers take the thousands of Team Focus members across the country to sporting events, give them advice and make themselves available in much the same way a father would.
Kelly Wise hopes her sons will one day give back to the program that has given them so much.
"My vision is that as they get older, they will work in the camp and help other boys that are in their situation," she said.
[Washington Post, Tuesday, July 21, 2009]
By Yamiche Alcindor
Five years ago, a brain aneurysm took the life of Cottrell and Cordell Wise's father. Their mother, Kelly Wise, tried to fill the void, but Cottrell's grades fell and Cordell became increasingly attached to his mom.
A year later, Kelly Wise discovered Team Focus, a year-round program and four-day summer camp that changed her boys' lives. A national program that began in 2000 with one camp in Alabama, Team Focus connects more than 1,500 young men who lack father figures to male role models.
"Team Focus has done everything for me," Cottrell said during the Team Focus DC Camp, which kicked off Sunday. He has learned how to knot a tie, how to talk to girls and how to study, he said. "It taught me everything my father couldn't do, and it helped me be a better big brother."
This summer, camps held in 14 cities meshed sports with leadership training and connected young boys with volunteers who keep in touch throughout the year. The program is designed to allow the boys to develop relationships with several men in the hopes of creating a network of role models.
The D.C. camp, which began in 2005, will run through Wednesday. The District chapter serves more than 100 young men year-round.
"This is an investment on the future of this country," said Keith Howard, director of Team Focus DC. "If I can be that substitute dad, and walk with a young man and give him the authority and the affection that a young man craves, then I am making an investment."
The program was founded by ESPN college football analyst and University of Pittsburgh coach Mike Gottfried. He launched the camps with proceeds from the 2000 GMAC Bowl, a college football game held in Mobile, Ala. Gottfried, whose father died when he was 11, wanted to create a program that combined Christian values and sports for boys growing up like he did.
Team Focus and the individual camps are funded by several sources, including personal donations, government grants and corporate sponsorships.
At the District camp, boys spend half their day playing games such as basketball and softball. The other half of the day, speakers cover topics ranging from the emotional consequences of not having a father to lessons on manners, note-taking and personal grooming. A chaplain is also on site to lead Bible study and prayer.
At times, the camp feels like a boot camp. Highly energized staff members spelled out the rules Sunday to the more than 50 campers: Shirts must be tucked in. Heads should always be up and turned toward lecturers. Taking notes is a must. No oversleeping or staying up too late. And no cellphones or other electronic devices to connect with the world outside Team Focus. If a camper breaks the rules, he is asked to leave and is seldom readmitted the next year.
After her husband, Reginald, died, Kelly Wise, who lives in Charles County, said she was confused about how to nurture her boys. "Their father was instrumental in their lives. When he died, I didn't know what to do," she said.
For her, the camp has meant a chance for her boys to learn things she cannot teach them. This year marks 14-year-old Cottrell's fourth year with the camp and 12-year-old Cordell's second year. Howard, who has taken Wise's sons under his wing, calls several times a year to check on the boys.
Wise said the change in her sons is clear. Once a struggling student, Cottrell has landed on the honor roll. Cordell, who at first refused to be away from his mother, now looks forward to sharing time with others.
Adam Mason, 19, a camp volunteer and mentor, came to Team Focus DC as a 13-year-old looking for guidance. "I came out a lot better person then I came in," he said. "This is like a crash course on life." After his first year, he stopped defying his mother's rules and began reading his Bible frequently. Eventually, he made the decision to attend Liberty University, a private Christian school where he will begin his sophomore year in the fall. He credits his decision to attend the university and the success he has achieved as a student to his relationship with Howard.
Beyond the camps, staff members and volunteers take the thousands of Team Focus members across the country to sporting events, give them advice and make themselves available in much the same way a father would.
Kelly Wise hopes her sons will one day give back to the program that has given them so much.
"My vision is that as they get older, they will work in the camp and help other boys that are in their situation," she said.
Equally prepared for life [2009]
BOOK REVIEW: Save the Males: Why Men Matter, Why Women Should Care
A Tiresome Backlash: Controversy becomes conventional in Save the Males
By Kathleen Parker
Save the Males: Why Men Matter, Why Women Should Care
Random House, 240 pages, $26
Are men an endangered species?
In her new book, Save The Males: Why Men Matter, Why Women Should Care, Kathleen Parker attempts to make the case that manliness is under assault by a loosely organized movement of vagina worshipers and other representatives of our boorish hookup culture.
Talking about sexual politics in America today is no easy task. To get anywhere, one must ignore politically-correct mandates and circumvent orthodoxies, particularly when they fly in the face of common sense.
Parker has no problem doing this. The chapter on women in the military is a good example, as she makes a solid, common sense case that women do not belong in combat, particularly on the modern battlefield, where asymmetrical warfare is the norm. Parker also does a good job exploring the complexities of sperm donation, child support payments, and no-fault divorce laws.
While these topics may seem silly or irrelevant, they constitute the basis on which most anti-male hysteria is born, and Parker is right to shed light on them. Railing against the dangers of single-parent families may be an established political talking point nowadays, but it is rarely explored with as much detail as Parker provides here.
In particular Parker notes: Girls ... are at risk of being too controlled by their adoring fathers ... You don t suppose there s a corollary between father-deprived daughters and an inability to relate well to males of the species? Or, just possibly, that teenage girls early sexual activity is related to a misplaced search for male attention and affection?
Parker is not the first to make this point, but her plainspoken manner is more welcoming than the standard gobbledygook coming from D.C. s think-tank intelligentsia.
Parker s choice of controversial sources, like sex-positive feminist Wendy McElroy and University of Texas Professor Robert Jensen, are interesting. Being generally a mainstream media figure, it seems that Parker would not normally rub shoulders with far left socialists like Jensen or quote anarcho-capitalists like McElroy.
That she cites both as authorities on the subject of pornography (representing opposing views) suggests our corporatized media culture may be paying more attention to the fringes of respectable discourse than is often assumed. Perhaps these examples are merely indicative of the author s quirky nature, which at times is a detriment to her arguments.
Parker goes to great lengths to make the case that the media portrayal of men as little more than dopey goofs is unfair and inherently destructive. As a man I am not totally unsympathetic to this view.
Still Parker s tone jumps wildly from cynicism to seriousness and back again. Her pithy one-liners and sharp-witted observations often make for laughs, but they take away from the serious discussion her book seeks to become a part of.
At times, the book comes across like a string of op-ed columns tied together by a narrative loosely based around a distrust of contemporary, hyper-sexualized consumerism.
Parker s instincts may be right and her prose can be delightful, but the scattershot tone of the book is a weakness.
While cultural criticism is the book s strength, the general thesis has less to do with rejuvenating the diminishing status of men, than it does attacking the modern, feminist ethos, a subject of which Parker is no pioneer.
Such books undoubtedly have a preconditioned choir to preach to (thanks to a sound-bite culture and talk radio), but offer little new to long time observers of the culture wars let alone those seeking a fair-minded assessment of the battle between the sexes.
The largest problem with Save the Males has little to do with Parker herself. Parker has an authentic personal attachment to the subject matter and it shows (she came of age helping to raise a house full of boys). Still the pile-on nature of backlash culture, while socially and politically understandable, is just as tiresome as the ideological models it is hell-bent on skewering.
There are dozens of books dedicated to assaulting the excesses of feminism, and while Parker presents her offering as a defense of men, it is primarily an assault on the sexual egalitarianism of modern society.
If taking on controversial subjects becomes conventional, does controversy become extinct? At the end of the day, that is the real question posed by books like Parker s.
The never-ending squabbles over sex, feminism, and manhood may be fertile ground for the publishing industry, but they become increasingly boring and stagnant as time goes on.
Parker s book is not a bore, but it is not a must-read.
In a market this saturated, nothing is.
------------------------
Rettet das starke Geschlecht
[Frantkurter Allgemeine Sonntags Zeitung, 22.2.2009]
Jungen werden zu Mädchen erzogen, Väter entrechtet: Die Welt liebt die Männer nicht. Schuld ist der radikale Feminismus
VON CHRISTINE BRINCK
Männer und Frauen, Jungen und Mädchen sind verschieden. Je genauer die biologischen Unterschiede der Geschlechter erforscht werden, desto eifriger scheinen indes radikale Feministinnen darauf erpicht, sich als Sozialingenieure zu profilieren. Jungen sind wild, Jungen sind unkonzentriert, Jungen toben lieber herum, statt gemütlich in der Ecke zu sitzen, Jungen lernen später sprechen und lesen weniger - alles kein Problem. Wir müssen sie nur erziehen, so zu sein wie Mädchen. Dann werden die Lehrerinnen sie auch so nett behandeln wie Mädchen. Die Feminisierung des Spiel- und Klassenzimmers schlägt sich früh auch in der Literaturauswahl nieder. Die Jungen sollen sich ihren Gefühlen nähern. Igitt! - denken die sich und verweigern.
Sind die ungezähmten Buben dann etwas älter und werden in der Pubertät mit Testosteron überschwemmt, schlägt ihnen Unbehagen entgegen, als seien sie alle auf Beutezug. Auf dem Campus soll gar jeder vierte von ihnen ein Vergewaltiger sein, weil er sich vor dem Beischlaf die Zustimmung der Mitschläferin nicht schriftlich geben ließ. Jungen sind eben gewalttätig, Männer sind es sowieso. Und daraus folgt: Wer braucht Männer?
Bücher mit diesem Titel, Bestseller gar, gibt es längst. Dass Väter unnötig sind, erfahren wir trotz anderslautender Forschung aus dem Munde alleinerziehender Frauen zuhauf. Die Gesellschaft ist voreingenommen gegen Männer. Was auch immer sie tun, sie können es nicht recht machen. Die Welt, zumindest die westliche, mag fairer für die Frauen geworden sein, für die Männer ist sie unfairer geworden. Das bekommen vor allem die jüngsten und jungen Männer zu spüren, so als seien sie verantwortlich für Jahrtausende männlicher Vorherrschaft. "Das männliche Geschlecht als Gruppe - nicht einzelne Männer - ist schlecht und böse, einfach weil sie die falsche DNA haben", schreibt die amerikanische Journalistin Kathleen Parker.
Die Welt ist männerfeindlich geworden, voller Verachtung für Männlichkeit. Zynisch urteilt sie die kleinen Unterschiede ab, die Männer einst unwiderstehlich machten. Das Fernsehen zeigt Männergestalten, die selten oder gar nicht als weise, ritterlich und stark gezeichnet werden. In sogenannten Familienserien werden Männer bestenfalls als leicht verblödete, ungeschickte Toren vorgeführt, die ohne ihre patenten Frauen absolut verloren wären und selbst von ihren Kindern nicht ganz ernst genommen werden. Homer Simpson von den Simpsons ist so ein Exemplar. In Filmen und Musik werden Männer als Idioten, Frauenprügler, Vergewaltiger, Brutalos oder Väter, die sich aus dem Staub machen, gezeigt. Der nette, zuverlässige und intelligente Mann, dem seine Familie heilig ist und der auch noch die Nachbarkinder für sich einnimmt, ist, so will es scheinen, eine aussterbende Spezies.
Und in dieser männerfeindlichen Grundstimmung kam ausgerechnet eine Frau auf die Idee, eine Lanze für die Männer zu brechen. "Save the Males - Why Men Matter, Why Women Should Care" (Rettet die Männer - Warum Männer wichtig sind, warum es Frauen angeht) nannte Kathleen Parker ein Pamphlet, das sehr flott geschrieben ist und mit der Dämonisierung der Männer durch Extremfeminismus ins Gericht geht. Die Männer retten? Sie regieren die Welt, leiten Banken und Drogenkartelle. "Zur Hölle mit ihnen, sie sind an allem schuld", ist die zumeist weibliche Reaktion auf Parkers Vorschlag. "Sag einer Frau, wir müssen die Männer retten, und sie wird dir den Namen ihres Therapeuten geben", mokiert sie sich. Die Kolumnistin der "Washington Post", Tochter eines alleinerziehenden Vaters - die Mutter starb, als Kathleen Parker drei Jahre alt war - und Mutter dreier Söhne hat, derart mit männlichem Blick gerüstet, anders als die feministischen Schwestern erkannt, dass Männer auch Menschen sind. Ihr geht es nicht um einen Rückschritt in die fünfziger Jahre, ihr geht es um Gerechtigkeit für Männer als Männer, Beschützer, Verdiener, Väter: Rollen, die zunehmend als altmodisch, der patriarchalischen Zeit zugehörig empfunden werden.
Besonders als Väter werden Männer in einer Weise marginalisiert, ausgegrenzt und entrechtet, dass im Netz schon der männliche Ratschlag kursiert, dass jeder junge Mann, der seinen Verstand beisammen hat, sich lieber auf der Stelle einer Vasektomie unterziehen sollte, statt das Risiko der Vaterschaft einzugehen. Die Frauen halten juristisch alle Trümpfe in der Hand. Werden sie schwanger, können sie abtreiben, selbst den Ehemann müssen sie dafür nicht um Einverständnis bitten, den One-Night-Stand oder Live-in Boyfriend schon gar nicht. Brechen sie die Schwangerschaft nicht ab, dann behalten sie das Kind, und der Mann bekommt die Rechnung, es sei denn, er ist der Ehemann, dann darf er an dem Kind auch teilhaben, solange er verheiratet bleibt. Gewiss sollte ein Mann seinen Nachwuchs finanziell unterstützen, aber sollte nicht auch er gefragt werden, ob das Kind abgetrieben werden oder leben soll?
Es sind diese Fragen, die Parker, eine emanzipierte, beruflich erfolgreiche Frau, zur Ikone so vieler Männer gemacht hat. Sie nimmt sich der Vaterlosigkeit an und beschreibt so witzig wie ernsthaft, warum Kinder Väter brauchen und wollen. Sie hat als Mutter von Pfadfindern selbst erlebt, wie eine Bude voller kleiner Buben sich verwandelte, nachdem sie endlich einen Vater für die Nachmittage organisieren konnte. "Er musste nicht viel machen, nur da sein und Testosteron verströmen. Unsere Jungens waren Wachs in seinen Händen . . ."
Parker hat viele Kinder interviewt, deren Mütter sich selbstherrlich oder verzweifelt für das Reagenzglas als Vater entschieden haben. Auch die glücklicheren unter ihnen sind ein Leben lang auf der Suche nach dem Vater: "Es ist absolut notwendig, dass ich herausfinde, wer er ist, um eine normale Existenz als Mensch führen zu können", zitiert sie einen jungen Mann. Die englische Entwicklungspsychologin Penelope Leach formulierte pragmatisch: "Wir stammen von zwei Menschen ab, und wir wollen wissen, wer die beiden sind. Wenn ich Tee mit Zucker und Milch will, ist es eben nicht dasselbe, wenn ich ihn ohne Milch, aber mit zwei Stücken Zucker bekomme."
Viele Frauen können Kinder allein großziehen, "sie tun es und werden es immer tun, sei es aus Not, aus einer Tragödie heraus oder aus anderen Gründen. Aber daraus ergibt sich logischerweise kaum, dass Kinder Väter nicht brauchen. Der Umstand, dass manche Kinder ohne Vater zurechtkommen, ist so wenig eine Empfehlung für die Einzelelternschaft, wie das Fahren mit einem platten Reifen ein Argument für ein dreirädriges Auto ist", so Parker. Und sie fügt hinzu: "Indem man die alleinerziehende Mutterschaft von den unglücklichen Konsequenzen mangelnder Umsicht zu einem stolzen Akt von Selbsterfüllung überhöht hat, hat man dazu beigetragen, eine Welt zu gestalten, in der Väter nicht nur rar, sondern auch überflüssig sind."
Es geschieht selten, dass eine Mutter in eine ausgeräumte Wohnung kommt und ein Zettel ihr den Abgang des Vaters mit den Kindern mitteilt. Männern passiert das recht häufig. Die Mutter ist mit den Kindern auf und davon - zur Mutter, zur Schwester, zum Freund. Die Konsequenzen trägt der Vater, nicht nur, weil er zahlen muss, sondern weil er fortan nur noch eingeschränkte Besuchsrechte mit seinen Kindern genießt. Zieht sie mit den Kindern in eine andere Stadt, kann er dagegen nichts tun. "Wenn Richter Frauen antäten, was sie routinemäßig Männern antun, sie ihrer Kinder, ihres Heims, ihrer Rolle, ihres Besitzes zu berauben, und sie auch noch zwängen, alles mit dem Ex zu teilen, solche Richter würden von einem Mob wildgewordener Frauen in der Luft zerrissen", bloggte ein verzweifelter Vater im Netz.
Parker macht den radikalen Feminismus als Hauptschuldigen für die Marginalisierung der Männer aus. Diese Feministinnen glauben entgegen der Forschungslage, dass Männer und Frauen grundsätzlich gleich seien und dass die Unterschiede nur durch falsche Erziehung entstünden. "Es ist nicht zu fassen, dass wir das immer noch diskutieren", stöhnt die Autorin, "jeder, der nur eine Stunde auf dem Spielplatz verbringt, weiß, dass ein großer Unterschied zwischen männlich und weiblich besteht." Freilich finden wir die Unterschiede nur gut, wenn sie den Mädchen nützen. So wurden auf Schulhöfen die Räume zu Lasten der Ball spielenden Jungen verkleinert, doch die Mädchen brauchten für ihre Springseile oder Plauderecken den Platz gar nicht.
Parker glaubt eher, dass Frauen, Kinder und Gesellschaft profitieren, wenn Männer Männer sein dürfen, die altmodische Tugenden wie Ehre und Mut zeigen und Verantwortung übernehmen. Der neueste Held Amerikas, der Pilot Chesley B. Sullenberger, ist so ein Exemplar. Worum geht es der Männerretterin? "Um die Einsicht, dass Männer keine Frauen und Jungen keine Mädchen sind. Sie sind verschieden, und ihre Verschiedenheiten machen sie wünschenswert füreinander." Der feminisierte Mann, der stolz die Schürze trägt, dem das Soufflee gelingt und der Manolos von Louboutins unterscheiden kann, das ist auch der Mann, der "Origins Save the Males Multibenefit Moisturizer", eine Lotion nur für Männer, kauft. Dieser Mann ist vermutlich nicht mehr zu retten. Aber ob die Frauen den Feministinnen diese Ausgeburt ihres Gleichheitswahns verzeihen, steht auf einem anderen Blatt.
Kastentext:
Alleinerziehende Mutterschaft wird überhöht zu einem Akt der Selbsterfüllung.Männer sollen Männer sein dürfen - mit altmodischen Tugenden wie Ehre und Mut.Alle Rechte vorbehalten. (c) F.A.Z. GmbH, Frankfurt am Main
Boy Problems
Peg Tyre is a staff writer for Newsweek and the mother of two school-age boys. In 2006, she wrote a cover story for Newsweek with the headline “The Boy Crisis,” which profiled a group of boys—all struggling readers—at an elementary school in Colorado. She found that while most people were still focused on the challenges of girls, as she had been for many years, boys were falling far behind in literacy, classroom achievement, and college enrollment, among others areas. The story became a topic of heated debate, met with accolades from concerned mothers of sons and criticism from feminist academics.
Tyre has since expanded her look at the issue in a recently published book, The Trouble With Boys: A Surprising Report Card on Our Sons, Their Problems at School, and What Parents and Educators Must Do. The book, based on interviews with hundreds of boys and their families, as well as gender-gap experts, details the problems boys are facing in school and argues for a new, boy-focused “gender revolution.”
School Choice - A Look at Single-Sex Education
[Openeducation, 28-11-2008]
by Thomas
Over the past few months we have taken a look at some of the more popular school choice options, in particular the
career academy and charter school concepts. Today we take a look at yet another worthy option, that of single-sex schools.
The concept of single-sex public education has been receiving enormous interest in recent years. As but one example, recent concerns about college student completion rates in Boston has folks in that city calling for the development of single-sex choice options for students.
While there is a general sentiment that single-sex education has been of benefit to young ladies, there tends to be an assumption that the impact is not as positive for young men. Single-sex school experts disagree, insisting that “the gender-separate format can boost grades and test scores for both girls and boys.”
Data from the UK, particularly the work of researchers at Cambridge University regarding Morley High School in Leeds and the work of Graham Able of Dulwich College, is consistent with the notion that the format can work well for both boys and girls.
The “Boy Crisis”
At the heart of the single-sex school matter is the current performance of young men in the school setting. The
Boys Project, designed to help young males develop their capabilities and reach their full potential reveals some very troubling data (PDF) emerging regarding young men.
Young men’s literacy rates are declining, rendering them more likely to get D’s and F’s and less likely to be valedictorians or on the honor roll.
Young men’s overall lack of academic success in school means they are more likely to be suspended or expelled.
The combination of these events means that young men are also disengaging in greater numbers making them more likely to drop out of school.
As for those who make it through the K-12 system, the number of young men attending college has stagnated while the number of young women attending college has soared since the 1970s.
As a collective group, these facts serve as the basis for what many experts are calling the “boy crisis.” Hoping to accomplish what the Girls Project has done for young women, the Boys Project seeks to increase the academic skills of young men so as to be successful in college. As part of the message, the Boys Project site features a great deal of information related to single-sex schooling.
Single-Sex EducationResearch has determined, perhaps not all that surprisingly, that there are clear gender differences in how girls and boys learn. But such a statement tends to be immediately modified into yet another assertion, “all girls learn one way and all boys learn another way.”
Advocates of single-sex education insist that nothing could be further from the truth. Proponents of single-sex education acknowledge that there is great diversity among girls and among boys. One resource site,
SingleSexSchools.org notes, “Some boys would rather read a book than play football” and “that some girls would rather play football than play with Barbies.”
In fact, in simplest terms, these basic stereotypes are often pervasive in coeducational school settings and therefore form the basis for why mixed settings may not work well for all youngsters. As but one example, in most coed public high schools a boy can be either a “geek” or a “jock,” but seldom both, while even fewer descriptors seem available for a young man who does not fit one category or the other.
However, proponents of single-sex classrooms and schools acknowledge that improvement will not happen by segregating students alone. One cannot simply put girls in one room and boys in another and expect that greater academic success will automatically be forthcoming. Instead, single-sex schools demand extensive teacher preparation to ensure that the format works in a positive manner.
Teaching in a Single-Sex School
Dr. Leonard Sax has authored two well-known texts on the subject of single-sex schooling. His first,
Why Gender Matters, is considered a basic primer on the topic, while his second, Boys Adrift, offers his key summary of the current status, Five Factors Driving the Decline of Boys.
The doctor insists that educators must understand some very basic facts. First, the “brains of girls and boys develop along different trajectories.” Sax notes that some differences are genetic and therefore present at birth but many other differences are shaped during the childhood years.
But the doctor insists we must forget our gender stereotypes, those that have us thinking that “boys are competitive” but “girls are collaborative.” Instead research demonstrates that the differences in brain development in each sex leads to certain tendencies. For girls, the language area of the brain develops before the areas of the brain used for spatial relations. On the other hand, for boys it tends to be just the opposite.
If school curricula are not designed so as to address these fundamental differences, then Sax insists that such classrooms will produce boys who cannot write well and girls who believe they are “dumb at math.”
Yet another major difference comes from how the brain is wired. For girls, the same area of the brain that processes language is utilized to process emotion. The result according to Sax is that it is “easy for most girls to talk about their emotions.”
For boys, different brain regions are involved; the areas of the brain used for talking are separated from the regions involved in feeling. Sax notes the toughest question for boys to answer is: “Tell me how you feel.”
Perhaps the most striking difference is the effect of stress on boys and girls. Here the stereotype tends to fit as Sax notes that “stress enhances learning in males” but it “impairs learning in females.”
Sax makes no bones about today’s current school setting and the inherent problems that have been created. He writes:
“Since the mid-1970’s, educators have made a virtue of ignoring gender differences. The assumption was that by teaching girls and boys the same subjects in the same way at the same age, gender gaps in achievement would be eradicated.
“That approach has failed. Gender gaps in some areas have widened in the past three decades. The proportion of girls studying subjects such as physics and computer science has dropped in half. Boys are less likely to study subjects such as foreign languages, history, and music than they were three decades ago. The ironic result of three decades of gender blindness has been an intensifying of gender stereotypes.”
Question of LegalitySingle-sex schools and single-sex classes were in theory legalized under the provisions in the No Child Left Behind Act. Under those provisions, single-sex schools or single-sex classrooms in particular subjects can be offered as long as there are clear counterparts that include offerings for each sex as well as a coeducational choice.
However, there are some who insist that move is unconstitutional. Cornell University Law Professor Gary Simson has authored a
piece asking just such a question.
And just two weeks ago, lawyers at the American Civil Liberties Union
challenged single-sex classes at Hankins Middle School in Theodore, Alabama. The ACLU insists that such classes violate federal laws banning gender discrimination in the public schools.
Worthy of Consideration in a Broad ContextIn addition to the question of legality, there are a number of critics of the concept. Some appear to be a bit dated but there are questions being raised in many circles
The Trouble With Single-Sex Schools - The Atlantic (April 1998), California Study: Single-Sex Schools No Cure-All, and Single-sex schools: A good idea gone wrong?.
However, we noted earlier that folks in Boston have begun discussing the notion of single-sex schools. In a Globe editorial, Give Single-Sex Schools a Try, the Boston Globe revealed for us one of the simplest of truths.
“Boston’s high dropout rate and its racial, gender, and ethnic achievement gaps are strong arguments for different education approaches that have shown promise elsewhere.”
While Massachusetts presently has laws on the books preventing such an option, the Globe goes on to state that the Legislature should repeal those laws. In doing so the Globe editorial staff recognizes the key fundamental, such schools should be available to children if those schools could help certain students learn better.
Like charter schools and career academies, single-sex schools or single-sex classes represent educational options for students. No one concept is a panacea or silver bullet for our educational ills.
But in a day and age when all data points to the fact students would do better with basic forms of school choice, single-sex options represent one more potential path for educational officials to consider.
by Thomas
Over the past few months we have taken a look at some of the more popular school choice options, in particular the
career academy and charter school concepts. Today we take a look at yet another worthy option, that of single-sex schools.
The concept of single-sex public education has been receiving enormous interest in recent years. As but one example, recent concerns about college student completion rates in Boston has folks in that city calling for the development of single-sex choice options for students.
While there is a general sentiment that single-sex education has been of benefit to young ladies, there tends to be an assumption that the impact is not as positive for young men. Single-sex school experts disagree, insisting that “the gender-separate format can boost grades and test scores for both girls and boys.”
Data from the UK, particularly the work of researchers at Cambridge University regarding Morley High School in Leeds and the work of Graham Able of Dulwich College, is consistent with the notion that the format can work well for both boys and girls.
The “Boy Crisis”
At the heart of the single-sex school matter is the current performance of young men in the school setting. The
Boys Project, designed to help young males develop their capabilities and reach their full potential reveals some very troubling data (PDF) emerging regarding young men.
Young men’s literacy rates are declining, rendering them more likely to get D’s and F’s and less likely to be valedictorians or on the honor roll.
Young men’s overall lack of academic success in school means they are more likely to be suspended or expelled.
The combination of these events means that young men are also disengaging in greater numbers making them more likely to drop out of school.
As for those who make it through the K-12 system, the number of young men attending college has stagnated while the number of young women attending college has soared since the 1970s.
As a collective group, these facts serve as the basis for what many experts are calling the “boy crisis.” Hoping to accomplish what the Girls Project has done for young women, the Boys Project seeks to increase the academic skills of young men so as to be successful in college. As part of the message, the Boys Project site features a great deal of information related to single-sex schooling.
Single-Sex EducationResearch has determined, perhaps not all that surprisingly, that there are clear gender differences in how girls and boys learn. But such a statement tends to be immediately modified into yet another assertion, “all girls learn one way and all boys learn another way.”
Advocates of single-sex education insist that nothing could be further from the truth. Proponents of single-sex education acknowledge that there is great diversity among girls and among boys. One resource site,
SingleSexSchools.org notes, “Some boys would rather read a book than play football” and “that some girls would rather play football than play with Barbies.”
In fact, in simplest terms, these basic stereotypes are often pervasive in coeducational school settings and therefore form the basis for why mixed settings may not work well for all youngsters. As but one example, in most coed public high schools a boy can be either a “geek” or a “jock,” but seldom both, while even fewer descriptors seem available for a young man who does not fit one category or the other.
However, proponents of single-sex classrooms and schools acknowledge that improvement will not happen by segregating students alone. One cannot simply put girls in one room and boys in another and expect that greater academic success will automatically be forthcoming. Instead, single-sex schools demand extensive teacher preparation to ensure that the format works in a positive manner.
Teaching in a Single-Sex School
Dr. Leonard Sax has authored two well-known texts on the subject of single-sex schooling. His first,
Why Gender Matters, is considered a basic primer on the topic, while his second, Boys Adrift, offers his key summary of the current status, Five Factors Driving the Decline of Boys.
The doctor insists that educators must understand some very basic facts. First, the “brains of girls and boys develop along different trajectories.” Sax notes that some differences are genetic and therefore present at birth but many other differences are shaped during the childhood years.
But the doctor insists we must forget our gender stereotypes, those that have us thinking that “boys are competitive” but “girls are collaborative.” Instead research demonstrates that the differences in brain development in each sex leads to certain tendencies. For girls, the language area of the brain develops before the areas of the brain used for spatial relations. On the other hand, for boys it tends to be just the opposite.
If school curricula are not designed so as to address these fundamental differences, then Sax insists that such classrooms will produce boys who cannot write well and girls who believe they are “dumb at math.”
Yet another major difference comes from how the brain is wired. For girls, the same area of the brain that processes language is utilized to process emotion. The result according to Sax is that it is “easy for most girls to talk about their emotions.”
For boys, different brain regions are involved; the areas of the brain used for talking are separated from the regions involved in feeling. Sax notes the toughest question for boys to answer is: “Tell me how you feel.”
Perhaps the most striking difference is the effect of stress on boys and girls. Here the stereotype tends to fit as Sax notes that “stress enhances learning in males” but it “impairs learning in females.”
Sax makes no bones about today’s current school setting and the inherent problems that have been created. He writes:
“Since the mid-1970’s, educators have made a virtue of ignoring gender differences. The assumption was that by teaching girls and boys the same subjects in the same way at the same age, gender gaps in achievement would be eradicated.
“That approach has failed. Gender gaps in some areas have widened in the past three decades. The proportion of girls studying subjects such as physics and computer science has dropped in half. Boys are less likely to study subjects such as foreign languages, history, and music than they were three decades ago. The ironic result of three decades of gender blindness has been an intensifying of gender stereotypes.”
Question of LegalitySingle-sex schools and single-sex classes were in theory legalized under the provisions in the No Child Left Behind Act. Under those provisions, single-sex schools or single-sex classrooms in particular subjects can be offered as long as there are clear counterparts that include offerings for each sex as well as a coeducational choice.
However, there are some who insist that move is unconstitutional. Cornell University Law Professor Gary Simson has authored a
piece asking just such a question.
And just two weeks ago, lawyers at the American Civil Liberties Union
challenged single-sex classes at Hankins Middle School in Theodore, Alabama. The ACLU insists that such classes violate federal laws banning gender discrimination in the public schools.
Worthy of Consideration in a Broad ContextIn addition to the question of legality, there are a number of critics of the concept. Some appear to be a bit dated but there are questions being raised in many circles
The Trouble With Single-Sex Schools - The Atlantic (April 1998), California Study: Single-Sex Schools No Cure-All, and Single-sex schools: A good idea gone wrong?.
However, we noted earlier that folks in Boston have begun discussing the notion of single-sex schools. In a Globe editorial, Give Single-Sex Schools a Try, the Boston Globe revealed for us one of the simplest of truths.
“Boston’s high dropout rate and its racial, gender, and ethnic achievement gaps are strong arguments for different education approaches that have shown promise elsewhere.”
While Massachusetts presently has laws on the books preventing such an option, the Globe goes on to state that the Legislature should repeal those laws. In doing so the Globe editorial staff recognizes the key fundamental, such schools should be available to children if those schools could help certain students learn better.
Like charter schools and career academies, single-sex schools or single-sex classes represent educational options for students. No one concept is a panacea or silver bullet for our educational ills.
But in a day and age when all data points to the fact students would do better with basic forms of school choice, single-sex options represent one more potential path for educational officials to consider.
Struggling School-Age Boys
A new study says parents are right to worry about their sons.
[Newsweek, Sep 8, 2008]
By Peg Tyre
Every other week it seems a new study comes out that adds to our already-formidable arsenal of parental worries. But even by those escalating standards, the report issued last week by the federal government's National Center for Health Statistics contained a jaw-dropper: the parents of nearly one of every five boys in the United States were concerned enough about what they saw as their sons' emotional or behavioral problems that they consulted a doctor or a health-care professional. By comparison, about one out of 10 parents of girls reported these kinds of problems. (See the study here.)
The report confirms what many of us have been observing for some time now: that lots of school-age boys are struggling. And, parents are intensely worried about them.
What is ailing our sons? Some experts suggest we are witnessing an epidemic of ADHD and say boys need more medication. Others say that environmental pollutants found in plastics, among other things, may be eroding their attention spans and their ability to regulate their emotions.
Those experts may be right but I have another suggestion. Let's examine the way our child rearing and our schools have evolved in the last 10 years. Then ask ourselves this challenging question: could some of those changes we have embraced in our families, our communities and our schools be driving our sons crazy?
Instead of unstructured free play, parents now schedule their kids' time from dawn till dusk (and sometimes beyond.) By age 4, an ever-increasing number of children are enrolled in preschool. There, instead of learning to get along with other kids, hold a crayon and play Duck, Duck, Goose, children barely out of diapers are asked to fill out work sheets, learn computation or study Mandarin. The drumbeat for early academics gets even louder when they enter "real" school. Veteran teachers will tell you that first graders are now routinely expected to master a curriculum that, only 15 years ago, would have been considered appropriate for second, even third graders. The way we teach children has changed, too. In many communities, elementary schools have become test-prep factories—where standardized testing begins in kindergarten and "teaching to the test" is considered a virtue. At the same time, recess is being pushed aside in order to provide extra time for reading and math drills. So is history and opportunities for hands-on activities—like science labs and art. Active play is increasingly frowned on—some schools have even banned recess and tag. In the wake of school shootings like the tragedy at Virginia Tech, kids who stretch out a pointer finger, bend their thumb and shout "pow!" are regarded with suspicion and not a little fear.
Our expectations for our children have been ramped up but the psychological and physical development of our children has remained about the same. Some kids are thriving in the changing world. But many aren't. What parents and teachers see—and what this government study now shows—is that the ones who can't handle it are disproportionately boys.
Some researchers responded to last weeks' study by calling for more resources for more mental-health services for children—especially males. That's an admirable goal. But when nearly one in five boys has such serious behavioral and emotional issues that their parents are talking it over with their pediatrician, you can bet we are facing a problem that requires a more fundamental change in our society than medication or weekly therapy. Let's take a moment, before the school year gets any farther underway, and ask ourselves whether we are raising and educating our boys in a way that respects their natural development. And if we are not, let's figure out how we can bring our family life and our schools back into line.
This is one study that we ignore at our peril.
Peg Tyre is the author of "The Trouble With Boys: A Surprising Report Card On Our Sons, Their Problems at School and What Parents & Educators Must Do," which is being published this week by Crown, a division of Random House. She can be reached at www.pegtyre.com
Math study distortion: So what's the media's excuse? Laziness? An agenda? Both?
[SignOnSanDiego.com, July 28, 2008]
This is too funny. When Larry Summers was forced out as president of Harvard for observing that when it came to math, men were more likely than women to be really, really bad or really, really good, our brilliant, discerning national press boiled this down to, "Harvard Prez Says Women Can't Add."
So last week, a new study of more than 7.2 million students from second grade to 11th grade came out. It found that taken overall, the math talents of girls and boys were equal. But if you looked far enough into the study, you would find that, yes, just as Summers said, there were considerably more males with exceptional math ability and considerably more who were abject dolts. Alex Tabarrok lays all this out on the great Marginal Revolution blog.
But the study's authors buried this finding, perhaps intentionally. The result was our brilliant, discerning national press -- which couldn't be bothered to actually read the study -- completely blowing the story. Tabarrok cites this example from the L.A. Times:
The study also undermined the assumption -- infamously espoused by former Harvard University President Lawrence H. Summers in 2005 -- that boys are more likely than girls to be math geniuses. Girls scored in the top 5% almost as often as boys, the data showed.
But not in the top one half of 1 percent. Which was Summers' point.
Someone who scores at the 95th percentile in a math standardized test is hardly a math genius. A Math SAT of 710 is very impressive, but it doesn't connote genius.
I don't know if this rotten reporting reflects laziness or an agenda or both.
It appears only one -- one! -- education beat reporter actually read the report from start to finish, Keith J. Winstein of the Wall Street Journal. Contrast what he wrote with the LAT propaganda:
The researchers, from the University of Wisconsin and the University of California, Berkeley, didn't find a significant overall difference between girls' and boys' scores. But the study also found that boys' scores were more variable than those of girls. More boys scored extremely well -- or extremely poorly -- than girls, who were more likely to earn scores closer to the average for all students.
One measure of a top score is achieving the "99th percentile" -- scoring in the top 1% of all students. Boys were significantly more likely to hit this goal than girls.
In Minnesota, for example, 1.85% of white boys in the 11th grade hit the 99th percentile, compared with 0.9% of girls -- meaning there were more than twice as many boys among the top scorers than girls.
Winstein actually had the nerve to do some genuine follow-up journalsim and to actually talk to one of the study authors to get some context.
The study found that boys are consistently more variable than girls, in every grade and in every state studied. That difference has "been a concern over the years," said Marcia C. Linn, a Berkeley education professor and one of the study's authors. "People didn't pay attention to it at first when there was a big difference" in average scores, she said. But now that girls and boys score similarly on average, researchers are taking notice, she said.
I, of course, have no hope that all readers will appreciate this nuance. I expect to get the usual nasty e-mails from feminists that I got the last time I defended Larry Summers for pointing out an inconvenient but widely documented truth.
Chris Reed
This is too funny. When Larry Summers was forced out as president of Harvard for observing that when it came to math, men were more likely than women to be really, really bad or really, really good, our brilliant, discerning national press boiled this down to, "Harvard Prez Says Women Can't Add."
So last week, a new study of more than 7.2 million students from second grade to 11th grade came out. It found that taken overall, the math talents of girls and boys were equal. But if you looked far enough into the study, you would find that, yes, just as Summers said, there were considerably more males with exceptional math ability and considerably more who were abject dolts. Alex Tabarrok lays all this out on the great Marginal Revolution blog.
But the study's authors buried this finding, perhaps intentionally. The result was our brilliant, discerning national press -- which couldn't be bothered to actually read the study -- completely blowing the story. Tabarrok cites this example from the L.A. Times:
The study also undermined the assumption -- infamously espoused by former Harvard University President Lawrence H. Summers in 2005 -- that boys are more likely than girls to be math geniuses. Girls scored in the top 5% almost as often as boys, the data showed.
But not in the top one half of 1 percent. Which was Summers' point.
Someone who scores at the 95th percentile in a math standardized test is hardly a math genius. A Math SAT of 710 is very impressive, but it doesn't connote genius.
I don't know if this rotten reporting reflects laziness or an agenda or both.
It appears only one -- one! -- education beat reporter actually read the report from start to finish, Keith J. Winstein of the Wall Street Journal. Contrast what he wrote with the LAT propaganda:
The researchers, from the University of Wisconsin and the University of California, Berkeley, didn't find a significant overall difference between girls' and boys' scores. But the study also found that boys' scores were more variable than those of girls. More boys scored extremely well -- or extremely poorly -- than girls, who were more likely to earn scores closer to the average for all students.
One measure of a top score is achieving the "99th percentile" -- scoring in the top 1% of all students. Boys were significantly more likely to hit this goal than girls.
In Minnesota, for example, 1.85% of white boys in the 11th grade hit the 99th percentile, compared with 0.9% of girls -- meaning there were more than twice as many boys among the top scorers than girls.
Winstein actually had the nerve to do some genuine follow-up journalsim and to actually talk to one of the study authors to get some context.
The study found that boys are consistently more variable than girls, in every grade and in every state studied. That difference has "been a concern over the years," said Marcia C. Linn, a Berkeley education professor and one of the study's authors. "People didn't pay attention to it at first when there was a big difference" in average scores, she said. But now that girls and boys score similarly on average, researchers are taking notice, she said.
I, of course, have no hope that all readers will appreciate this nuance. I expect to get the usual nasty e-mails from feminists that I got the last time I defended Larry Summers for pointing out an inconvenient but widely documented truth.
Chris Reed
Math study finds girls are just as good as boys
[Associated Press, 7/25/2008]
By LIBBY QUAID
WASHINGTON (AP) — Sixteen years after Barbie dolls declared, "Math class is tough!" girls are proving that when it comes to math they are just as tough as boys. In the largest study of its kind, girls measured up to boys in every grade, from second through 11th. The research was released Thursday in the journal Science.
Parents and teachers persist in thinking boys are simply better at math, said Janet Hyde, the University of Wisconsin-Madison researcher who led the study. And girls who grow up believing it wind up avoiding harder math classes.
"It keeps girls and women out of a lot of careers, particularly high-prestige, lucrative careers in science and technology," Hyde said.
That's changing, though slowly.
Women are now earning 48 percent of undergraduate college degrees in math; they still lag far behind in physics and engineering.
But in primary and secondary school, girls have caught up, with researchers attributing that advance to increasing numbers of girls taking advanced math classes such as calculus.
Hyde and her colleagues looked at annual math tests required by the No Child Left Behind education law in 2002. Ten states provided enough statistical information to review test scores by gender, allowing researchers to compare the performances of more than 7 million children.
The researchers found no difference in the scores of boys versus girls — not even in high school. Studies 20 years ago showed girls and boys did equally well on math in elementary school, but girls fell behind in high school.
"Girls have now achieved gender parity in performance on standardized math tests," Hyde said.
The stereotype that boys are better at math has been fueled, at least in part, by suggestions of biological differences in the way little boys and little girls learn. This idea is hotly disputed; Lawrence Summers, then the president of Harvard, was castigated in 2005 when he questioned the "intrinsic aptitude" of women for top-level math and science.
Joy Lee, a rising senior at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Alexandria, Va., says she always felt confident about math, but remembers how it felt to walk into a science class full of boys. "Maybe I was a little bit apprehensive about being the only girl, but that didn't last for very long," said Lee, president of a school club that tries to get young girls interested in science and technology, along with engineering and math.
"I definitely do encourage other girls to pursue those interests and to not be scared to take those courses just because there are not very many girls or because they think they're not good enough to do it," Lee said.
Still, while there are fewer women in science and technology, there are more women in college overall. To Hyde and her colleagues, that helps explain why girls consistently score lower on average on the SAT: More of them take the test, which is needed to get into college. The highest-performing students of both genders take the test, but more girls lower on the achievement scale take it, skewing the average.
For the class of 2007, the latest figures available, boys scored an average of 533 on the math section of the SAT, compared with 499 for girls.
On the ACT, another test on which girls lag slightly, the gender gap disappeared in Colorado and Illinois once state officials required all students to take the test.
As Hyde and her colleagues looked across the data for states' testing, they found something they didn't expect: In most states they reviewed, and at most grade levels, there weren't any questions that involved complex problem-solving, an ability needed to succeed in high levels of science and math. If tests don't assess these reasoning skills, they may not be taught, putting American students at a disadvantage to students in other countries with more challenging tests, the researchers said.
That might be a glaring omission, said Stephen Camarata, a Vanderbilt University professor who has researched the issue but was not involved in the study.
"We need to know that, if our measures aren't capturing some aspect of math that's important," Camarata said. "Then we can decide whether there's an actual male or female advantage."
A panel of experts convened by the Education Department recommended that state tests be updated to emphasize critical thinking.
While some states already have fairly rigorous tests, "we can do a better job," said Kerri Briggs, the department's assistant secretary for elementary and secondary education.
"If we're going to be globally competitive, we need students who are able to do higher-level math skills," she said.
Back in 1992, Barbie stopped saying math was hard after Mattel received complaints from, among others, the American Association of University Women.
So far, while her current career choices include baby doctor and veterinarian — and Dallas Cowboys cheerleader, too — Barbie has not branched out into technology or engineering.
By LIBBY QUAID
WASHINGTON (AP) — Sixteen years after Barbie dolls declared, "Math class is tough!" girls are proving that when it comes to math they are just as tough as boys. In the largest study of its kind, girls measured up to boys in every grade, from second through 11th. The research was released Thursday in the journal Science.
Parents and teachers persist in thinking boys are simply better at math, said Janet Hyde, the University of Wisconsin-Madison researcher who led the study. And girls who grow up believing it wind up avoiding harder math classes.
"It keeps girls and women out of a lot of careers, particularly high-prestige, lucrative careers in science and technology," Hyde said.
That's changing, though slowly.
Women are now earning 48 percent of undergraduate college degrees in math; they still lag far behind in physics and engineering.
But in primary and secondary school, girls have caught up, with researchers attributing that advance to increasing numbers of girls taking advanced math classes such as calculus.
Hyde and her colleagues looked at annual math tests required by the No Child Left Behind education law in 2002. Ten states provided enough statistical information to review test scores by gender, allowing researchers to compare the performances of more than 7 million children.
The researchers found no difference in the scores of boys versus girls — not even in high school. Studies 20 years ago showed girls and boys did equally well on math in elementary school, but girls fell behind in high school.
"Girls have now achieved gender parity in performance on standardized math tests," Hyde said.
The stereotype that boys are better at math has been fueled, at least in part, by suggestions of biological differences in the way little boys and little girls learn. This idea is hotly disputed; Lawrence Summers, then the president of Harvard, was castigated in 2005 when he questioned the "intrinsic aptitude" of women for top-level math and science.
Joy Lee, a rising senior at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Alexandria, Va., says she always felt confident about math, but remembers how it felt to walk into a science class full of boys. "Maybe I was a little bit apprehensive about being the only girl, but that didn't last for very long," said Lee, president of a school club that tries to get young girls interested in science and technology, along with engineering and math.
"I definitely do encourage other girls to pursue those interests and to not be scared to take those courses just because there are not very many girls or because they think they're not good enough to do it," Lee said.
Still, while there are fewer women in science and technology, there are more women in college overall. To Hyde and her colleagues, that helps explain why girls consistently score lower on average on the SAT: More of them take the test, which is needed to get into college. The highest-performing students of both genders take the test, but more girls lower on the achievement scale take it, skewing the average.
For the class of 2007, the latest figures available, boys scored an average of 533 on the math section of the SAT, compared with 499 for girls.
On the ACT, another test on which girls lag slightly, the gender gap disappeared in Colorado and Illinois once state officials required all students to take the test.
As Hyde and her colleagues looked across the data for states' testing, they found something they didn't expect: In most states they reviewed, and at most grade levels, there weren't any questions that involved complex problem-solving, an ability needed to succeed in high levels of science and math. If tests don't assess these reasoning skills, they may not be taught, putting American students at a disadvantage to students in other countries with more challenging tests, the researchers said.
That might be a glaring omission, said Stephen Camarata, a Vanderbilt University professor who has researched the issue but was not involved in the study.
"We need to know that, if our measures aren't capturing some aspect of math that's important," Camarata said. "Then we can decide whether there's an actual male or female advantage."
A panel of experts convened by the Education Department recommended that state tests be updated to emphasize critical thinking.
While some states already have fairly rigorous tests, "we can do a better job," said Kerri Briggs, the department's assistant secretary for elementary and secondary education.
"If we're going to be globally competitive, we need students who are able to do higher-level math skills," she said.
Back in 1992, Barbie stopped saying math was hard after Mattel received complaints from, among others, the American Association of University Women.
So far, while her current career choices include baby doctor and veterinarian — and Dallas Cowboys cheerleader, too — Barbie has not branched out into technology or engineering.
Approach to help boys learn
[The Day, 7/26/2008 ]
The decision to end gender-specific classes at the Bennie Dover Jackson Middle School in New London is unfortunate for the students who may have benefited from them, and for the district that is already the subject of criticism for its inability to close the achievement gap between its urban population and students in the suburbs.
These same-sex classes may have been the answer for some students who are struggling in school, particularly young males. But by city schools' staff members' own admission, they may have moved too quickly to set up the same-sex classrooms, and therefore doomed them.
We think the city should try again, but plan accordingly first. And the state could help the effort, and those of other districts, by offering incentives or by encouraging recruitment of more male teachers for the elementary and middle-school levels.
One failure in New London's case was the inability to find a male teacher for the class of boys. National data shows that some boys, particularly in the younger grades, do better with male teachers.
Many little boys have trouble sitting still. And there is clear evidence that boys are active learners. They learn better by doing, not by sitting and listening. Give a boy a hands-on project, and he has a better chance of successfully completing it.
Not to take anything away from studious young girls, but educators know that much of early education is language-based, and girls, on average, are stronger than boys in language. That's one reason why girls typically outpace boys academically in the earlier grades.
So there are valid reasons for trying same-sex classrooms. Not for every student, but for those whose parents think it is the right fit for their child. It is an idea that is catching hold across the country, with more and more public schools offering the option.
So it was unfortunate that New London's pilot project failed. But we believe the district should rethink its plan and resuscitate it for the 2009-2010 school year. And rather than do it in the sixth grade, perhaps New London should consider such a class for elementary school.
New London schools have big obstacles to overcome. No one program or service will solve all the problems. But a few gender-specific classrooms, taught by gender-specific teachers, might provide the formula for success for some students.
The decision to end gender-specific classes at the Bennie Dover Jackson Middle School in New London is unfortunate for the students who may have benefited from them, and for the district that is already the subject of criticism for its inability to close the achievement gap between its urban population and students in the suburbs.
These same-sex classes may have been the answer for some students who are struggling in school, particularly young males. But by city schools' staff members' own admission, they may have moved too quickly to set up the same-sex classrooms, and therefore doomed them.
We think the city should try again, but plan accordingly first. And the state could help the effort, and those of other districts, by offering incentives or by encouraging recruitment of more male teachers for the elementary and middle-school levels.
One failure in New London's case was the inability to find a male teacher for the class of boys. National data shows that some boys, particularly in the younger grades, do better with male teachers.
Many little boys have trouble sitting still. And there is clear evidence that boys are active learners. They learn better by doing, not by sitting and listening. Give a boy a hands-on project, and he has a better chance of successfully completing it.
Not to take anything away from studious young girls, but educators know that much of early education is language-based, and girls, on average, are stronger than boys in language. That's one reason why girls typically outpace boys academically in the earlier grades.
So there are valid reasons for trying same-sex classrooms. Not for every student, but for those whose parents think it is the right fit for their child. It is an idea that is catching hold across the country, with more and more public schools offering the option.
So it was unfortunate that New London's pilot project failed. But we believe the district should rethink its plan and resuscitate it for the 2009-2010 school year. And rather than do it in the sixth grade, perhaps New London should consider such a class for elementary school.
New London schools have big obstacles to overcome. No one program or service will solve all the problems. But a few gender-specific classrooms, taught by gender-specific teachers, might provide the formula for success for some students.
More Schools Trying Separation of the Sexes
By Michael Alison Chandler and Maria Glod, Washington Post Staff Writers
Mrs. Demshur's class of second-grade girls sat in a tidy circle and took turns reading poems they had composed. "If I were a toucan, I'd tweet, I'd fly," began one girl. When she finished, the others clapped politely.
Down the hall, Mr. Reynolds's second-grade boys read poems aloud from desks facing every direction. A reading specialist walked around with a microphone. "If I were a snow leopard, I would hunt, I would run," began one boy. One classmate did a backbend over his chair as he read. Another crawled on the floor.
So went a language arts lesson at Washington Mill Elementary School last month, with boys in one room and girls in another. The Fairfax County school, in the academic year that is ending, joined a small but fast-growing movement toward single-sex public education. The approach is based on the much-debated yet increasingly popular notion that girls and boys are hard-wired to learn differently and that they will be more successful if classes are designed for their particular needs.
With encouragement from the federal government, single-sex classes that have long been a hallmark of private schools are multiplying in public schools in the Washington area and elsewhere. By next fall, about 500 public schools nationwide will offer single-sex classes, according to the National Association for Single Sex Public Education, based in Montgomery County. That's up from a handful a decade ago. The approach is especially attractive to some struggling schools in the market for low-cost reform.
The 2002 No Child Left Behind law cites single-gender classes as one "innovative" tool to boost achievement. But anti-discrimination laws banned widespread use of such classes, allowing them only in certain instances, such as sex education lessons. A change in federal regulations in 2006 gave schools more flexibility, allowing boys and girls to be separated as long as classes are voluntary and "substantially equal" coeducational classes are offered.
Several Washington area public schools have tried single-sex classes or plan to begin them. Woodbridge Middle School in Prince William County on Friday ended the first year of a two-year pilot program that offers single-sex instruction in core academic classes for some students. In Prince George's County, Drew-Freeman Middle School students will be split by gender for most classes starting in August. In the District, two new charter schools offering same-sex classes are set to open in August.
As the movement grows, so does debate over whether boys and girls really do learn better separately. Research remains slim on whether single-sex education boosts achievement in public schools. Most studies have examined private schools.
Proponents of same-sex schooling argue that girls and boys are too often shortchanged by coed classrooms and that students from lower-income families deserve access to learning environments once exclusive to private schools. Advocates also cite emerging research that indicates gender differences in brains and cognitive development.
"We as a nation do not understand gender difference and . . . regard it as politically incorrect to discuss it," said Leonard Sax, founder of the single-sex education association and author of "Why Gender Matters." As a result, he said, schools are not helping students reach their potential. "We are unintentionally pushing girls out of computer science, and pushing boys out of subjects" such as arts and languages. He contends that single-sex schooling can reverse the trend.
But many feminists and civil rights leaders cite a long history of separate and unequal education for girls, and argue that segregation will perpetuate damaging stereotypes. The American Civil Liberties Union and five Kentucky families with middle school students filed a lawsuit in May against the U.S. Department of Education and others alleging that the school's single-sex program violates federal anti-discrimination law and is unconstitutional.
"Single-sex education isn't the best preparation for a coeducational world," said Emily J. Martin, deputy director of the ACLU's Women's Rights Project.
Washington Mill Elementary Principal Lizette "Tish" Howard said uniform state standards and teacher quality requirements ensure parity for all classes. She said all-boys and all-girls classes could help remedy long-standing inequities she has observed in her career, such as overrepresentation of boys in special education.
Howard asked parents last year if they were interested in single-gender classrooms for core academic subjects. To her surprise, "I couldn't fill the classes fast enough," she said. She chose to start with sixth-graders because the adolescents were starting to "fall in love with each other" every spring, and second-graders because she wanted to follow their progress over time. Next school year, the initiative will expand to fifth- and third-graders.
To help teachers prepare for the new format, Howard bought them copies of "Boys and Girls Learn Differently!" by family therapist Michael Gurian. The book cites brain studies showing, among other things, that boys don't hear as well as girls and that girls are more sensitive to light. Boys often need to fidget and move to stay alert, Gurian writes, while girls are more likely to behave and pay attention. The book suggests teaching techniques to address such differences.
David Sadker, an American University professor and co-author of "Failing at Fairness: How Our Schools Cheat Girls," said Gurian's findings are "stereotypes of the first order" that will limit children's creativity and options.
But many teachers say the findings match what they see on a daily basis. More than 40,000 have received training from Gurian's Colorado-based institute in learning differences between boys and girls.
Teacher Jean Demshur sometimes dims the lights in her all-girls class, and she said she gives students frequent chances to work in pairs or groups to cater to their social strengths. The extra X chromosomes influence her classroom, with potted flowers on the windowsill, a closet full of pink backpacks and a notebook paper cut-out heart taped to a desk inscribed in pink Crayola script: "I like your hair."
Demshur said her students were more relaxed than in previous school years, and more likely to share opinions or volunteer for challenges. Rhys Spencer, 8, threw her hands in the air and exclaimed, "It's paradise!" to be with only girls.
Teacher Todd Reynolds tried giving boys hacky sacks to help them release energy and stimulate thinking. But after the room became "a popcorn popper," Reynolds said, he took them away. His room's sprawling seating arrangement gives boys space to move around. Reynolds said the layout occurred to him in part because the boys, exhibiting what's often considered a female trait, were "chitchatting" all day.
Reynolds said boys were more likely than in previous years to ask for help, and some often-shy students "seemed to shine." He said he's excited to see a contingent of boys excel at writing, sharing ideas and "feeding off each other."
The school has no test data yet by which to judge the experiment, but Howard noted that grades for children in same-sex classes improved in many subjects. A parent survey found that almost half the boys and almost two-thirds of the girls in the classes had better attitudes toward school.
Some schools have given single-gender classes a try without success. Twin Ridge Elementary School in Frederick County began offering all-boys classes in 2004 but phased them out last year because of lack of parent interest. Students in the school's all-boys classes did no better on tests than boys in coed classes.
Frances R. Spielhagen, an assistant professor of education at Mount Saint Mary College in New York who has studied same-sex classes at a public middle school for three years, said she found some gains for boys in language arts and for girls in math. But as the movement expands, Spielhagen said she is concerned about whether teachers thrust into the new programs will have more than a superficial understanding of how boys and girls are different.
"You can't simply separate kids by gender and think magic is going to happen," she said.
Good news from the AAUW: boys are doing great in school!
The American Association of University Women (AAUW) has just released a
124-page monograph which purports to provide "the facts about gender equity"
in the United States today. The main message of the report is that anything
you have heard about the "boys' crisis" is silliness. Boys today are doing
great, better than ever!
USA Today published a lead editorial in response: the USA Today piece makes
a simple point, namely that the AAUW is out of touch with reality. In every
demographic group, the average boy is doing less well than the average girl,
and that gender gap is growing. You can read the USA Today piece at this
link: http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2008/05/our-view-on-gen.html.
I have a different take on the AAUW report. My first reaction was that the
AAUW report shortchanged (what ought to be) their primary constituency,
namely girls and young women, in neglecting the growing gender gaps which
disadvantage girls. I have written a piece from that angle and sent it to
Education Week. EW editorial staff have indicated their interest in my
piece and I will let you know if it gets published.
Leonard Sax (Executive Director, NASSPE)
124-page monograph which purports to provide "the facts about gender equity"
in the United States today. The main message of the report is that anything
you have heard about the "boys' crisis" is silliness. Boys today are doing
great, better than ever!
USA Today published a lead editorial in response: the USA Today piece makes
a simple point, namely that the AAUW is out of touch with reality. In every
demographic group, the average boy is doing less well than the average girl,
and that gender gap is growing. You can read the USA Today piece at this
link: http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2008/05/our-view-on-gen.html.
I have a different take on the AAUW report. My first reaction was that the
AAUW report shortchanged (what ought to be) their primary constituency,
namely girls and young women, in neglecting the growing gender gaps which
disadvantage girls. I have written a piece from that angle and sent it to
Education Week. EW editorial staff have indicated their interest in my
piece and I will let you know if it gets published.
Leonard Sax (Executive Director, NASSPE)
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