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

[mama-pipa.livejournal.com]

hear hear!

I too agree that you make the most of the situation, and you worry about your own self and I hope to be able to communicate to my two children that its is very important for them to do their best with their studies, and its up to them for success, and I am willing to help them the best that I can.

IMHO, many people who scream discrimination are just unable to accept the fact that some of their problems may be their own damned fault, and those who are really discriminated against are not taken seriously as a result.

[coraline]

*headdesk*

[lokiect.livejournal.com]

you know, just scanning the article, that's one of the funniest things I've heard in a while. I mean, it's like it's saying boys can't control themselves and can't find ways of putting in extra effort (equivalent to decorating their notebooks).
Though for the hall pass part, I think it is possible that the specific school is being unfairly harsh to the boys. And some part of me also takes it as a message that we also need to teach boys that art and drama are ok for them and their manliness, too.
clearly, boyscouts should need to learn how to knit and cook. ;9

[ilai]

Not directly to the point, but the complaint is filed against the public Milton High School, rather than the preparatory school Milton Academy. That said, the article seems to be focused only on Milton High, and does not provide any useful data on the situation in the rest of the country, which is kind of disappointing.

I recall that a while back, there was a controversial article in the Atlantic Monthly by Christina Hoff Sommers called "The War Against Boys" aimed at refuting Carol Gilligan's research into girls getting shortchanged in schools. It was apparently the subject of much heated debate, but I don't know if any useful (or real) research came out of it--that would be interesting to find out.

[pekmez.livejournal.com]

I just went and read the article, and it sounds like the bulk of the complaints are that the boys are categorically doing less well in school because they
tend to rebel, dislike following rules, not want to do extra work, might decide to punt the community service requirement because of a tendency to rebel and therefore not graduate, and so on.

I admit to being a girl, so perhaps my viewpoint is skewed, but how is it bias to have a system that says "do your schoolwork and follow the rules and you will do well, break the rules and skip your homework and you won't"?
I admit to thinking it's absurd that teachers give extra credit for "decorating" notebooks by gluing on glitter and feathers, but that is my limited academic rigor speaking, for both boys and girls.

[chenoameg.livejournal.com]

Just 40 years ago, Harvard University did not allow women in some of its libraries.

I think it was a recent as 30 years ago, but I would have to check.

[chenoameg.livejournal.com]

I have two different lines of thought about this.

First, this lawsuit has nothing do with reality. It has to do with doing whatever it takes for your kids to get ahead. That's what parents do these days, from parents in Manhattan getting their toddlers in Manhattan falsely diagnosed with learning disabilities to make them eligible for intensive interventions that will help them get into the best preschools, to parents paying people to ghostwrite college admissions essays.

Secondly, I believe that it is possible for an environment to discriminate against boys, that some schools may do so, and that this is more likely to be going on now than it was several decades ago (I have no real arguments to support my third point, though.). I believe that there are personalities that are more common among females and personalities that are more common among males. (For the purposes of the rest of this discussion I will call those personalities "how men behave" and "how women behave". I am not arguing that all men behave this way, nor that no woman behave this way. Think of it as a "women are likely to be shorter than men, but not every woman is shorter than every man, nor is the woman guaranteed to be shorter than the man in any given pairing." sort of thing.) I'm not going to bother to make lists of such personality differences, but think about the sorts of communication differences that are frequently described (women talk to strengthen relationships, men talk to give each other information.)

I think we can all agree that most corporate workplaces benefit people who behave like men. You get paid more if you aggressively negotiate for your salary. You are respected more if you never say "I don't know". Etc.

There exist environments where you are penalized for behaving like a man. Disagreement with the consensus is considered "being disruptive". Direct talk is considered confrontational. (My father's point of view is that his current employer is one such place; this isn't the voice of bitterness, but one of anthropological interest.) I agree that those environments aren't common, but I think it would be short-sighted to claim no such environments exists solely because the powerful environments are male-supportive.

It seems entirely possible to me that some high schools are the latter sort of environment. And that increased focus on reducing the discrimination against girls has changed the effects of those environments.

Are the boys hurt by a school culture that discriminates against them? I think this is the thing that is changing most quickly. People think that college admissions are based on tiny differences between applicants. In such an environment I can see where someone could reach the conclusion that a male-intolerant culture would be causing serious harm. I'm not sure there is a harm, since I'm not sure that any of the things mentioned by the student actually interfere with someone's ability to get an education.

Keep in mind that when I was in eighth grade I went on a tirade against my school because the girls were allowed to wear miniskirts of any length while boys were required to where long pants. No girls ever got in trouble for wearing shorts, either. But boys got sent home (the obnoxious boys who liked to point out they weren't following the rules.) I considered this discriminatory and proposed a length above the knee policy instead which was rejected by the principal. (And then after I left that school system my exact language was adopted by the school board without attribution.) So yes, I do think it's possible for an educational environment to discriminate against boys.

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

So I found the Globe article on this very interesting because a lot of what the boy was saying matched perfectly with what a guest speaker we had earlier in the year -- an expert on gender differences in the brain -- said. (And, yes, before either of us gets too carried away, she was happy to admit that these are average gender differences and need not hold for any particular person. I actually found her very credible, which surprised me.) Anyway, yes, she said exactly what he said about school rewarding the sort of sitting-still, rule-following, conformist behavior that girls are much more suited to (on average) than boys. It made me wonder whether he is in any way up on educational research or whether these were his own observations.

Of course, then they quoted his lawyer dad saying that appropriate redress was retroactively awarding all boys higher GPAs because they really wanted to go to college. Gag me with a spoon.

I think it works both ways; there are elements of standard education that discriminate, on average, against boys, and others that discriminate, on average, against girls. Individual self-discipline and aptitude is generally much more important.