School Boys

[astra_nomer]

So, apparently, a student at a New England high school is claiming gender discrimination. The interesting thing is, the student is a boy. A white, middle-class male, suing for discrimination.

Certainly it's true that more women are entering college these days than men. But shouldn't we be saying, "You Go Girl!" instead of "ZOMG!! Save the boys!!!"

I cannot believe that education has changed so dramatically in this country over the last 10 or even 20 years that it's suddenly become biased toward girls. The educational system in this country was originally just for white males. Just 40 years ago, Harvard University did not allow women in some of its libraries. At the same time, the majority of elementary school teachers over the last century or more have been women, and while I won't rant about that issue now, it didn't seem to have hurt the legions of boys who were educated by them and went on to become successful men within the patriarchy.

Yes, it's true that boys have more behavioral issues than girls, and that will affect their educational opportunities. But is this really more of an issue today than in the past? Has boyhood really changed that much?

I recall being one of just a handful of girls in my high school science and math classes. I recall that when my calculus teacher handed out M&Ms to highest achievers in her class, that my candy was sometimes stolen when I turned my back, and at least one student complained that the girls always got the awards, even though we were vastly outnumbered by the boys.

Now I'm the mother of two boys myself. But I expect them to exert self-discipline in school. I expect them to do their best with their studies. I will help find opportunities within the educational system for them to get ahead. I will not tolerate them making excuses for themselves by saying they were discriminated against. If I've managed to succeed against the odds, they can too.

Comments

Re: (remcat pointed me - and others - this way :)

[mijven.livejournal.com]

how does that limit academic achievement?

For the goof suing, I don't know. He seems driven enough (or at least motivated by the need for continuing education) that it really shouldn't be a problem. For Random Kid whose parents don't push him at home to do well, I could see how it would alienate him from the entire school experience. (Isn't this the basic definition of harassment?) If you're always in an atmosphere where you're wrong (even if you're doing the same as others) then why go to the effort to be right? And this will translate into a pitiful work effort later on in life, which really breaks a society. So I think it needs fixing... and not only because following rules and sitting still is inadequate training (IMO) for the real world.

And as for a specific teacher - it's hard to deal with them like that. Tenure is annoying for one (there's a certain kindergarten teacher I know of who Ought To Go and yet hasn't...) and back in high school I think it took the combined efforts of the parents in my class to get our "touchy-feely" guy off the teaching roster.

As for lowering academic standards - well, I'm not the guy in question and I'm hardly arguing that he's right in everything. Yes, the atmosphere needs to be improved for the greater good. But no - pass/fail seems extreme and community service needs to stay. But if you're getting credit for putting on a school play (outside a class) then I accept the argument that participating in school sports (outside of P.E.) should also count.

Oh, and below you asked for specific things that have changed: if I recall the Newsweek article correctly, a teacher admitted that perhaps they needed to expand their assigned reading. According to her, boys just didn't seem to like "Memoirs of a Geisha" and "The Secret Lives of Bees." And I don't blame them - I, who had no trouble reading multiple works of Dostoyevsky, could barely hack those specific books when my book club choose them.

Re: (remcat pointed me - and others - this way :)

[astra-nomer.livejournal.com]

I have to concede your first point, since I've made that same argument applied to women in science... but I also have to admit that some small, petty part of me is saying "haha, see how YOU like it!" But no, really, a discriminatory environment is not a good thing for anyone.

But this kid's suit is asking for all boys' GPA to be raised retroactively! That's completely ludicrous! Seems to me he's just jumping on the bandwagon of all the recent hype about boys falling behind academically, and using it to try to make up for his own failures in school.

And at least in my high school, no one got credit for putting on a school play. You could get credit for taking a drama class, though. And sports players got exempted from taking PE, which was required for everyone else.

And as for the reading, I do think there's a good point to be made for exposing boys to a feminine point of view, and vice versa. But everything in moderation, right? If all they're reading is selections from Oprah's book club, that doesn't seem right to me.

Re: (remcat pointed me - and others - this way :)

[mijven.livejournal.com]

Is the kid's suit actually asking for retroactive grade inflation? I'm unclear on that point - I see that the father (who also happens to be the lawyer that wrote his son's complaint) has said the school system should so compensate the boys - but because that line was at the end and not included early on with the description of the suit, I'd gathered that he was just sounding off. I could very easily be mistaken about that, however.

Don't get me wrong (and apologies if I gave this impression!) I'm not arguing that he should win the suit. For one I don't know enough details (see above. ;) I'm just saying he's not alone in noticing that boys have trouble fitting into the latest incarnation of school and I appreciate people challenging the system. (I just hope that a good system can survive such challenges.)