A Girl's World?

I recently read about a newsweek story outlining how boys are failing in school because girls are succeeding. The newsweek story goes on to say that the classroom environment is not conducive to boys' learning styles. And today it looks as though the education world has latched onto this theory.

In California Schools, a quarterly publication put out by the California School Boards Association, there was a story titled "Square pegs in round holes?" The article, written by Julie Struckmeyer, who authored "Success for boys in California public schools," argues that "our boys are in crisis" because the average classroom environment does not provide for the hands-on learning commonly needed by boys if they are to succeed.

Struckmeyer conducted research for her book by asking men in colleges and universities throughout the state about their elementary school experience. The commonality she found was that these "successful" males were challenged to be creative and had teachers who encouraged and motivated them.

Struckmeyer argues that boys learn best by touching, feeling and handling objects, something that has gone to the wayside as more and more teachers must allow time for increased academic and standardized testing. Testing, she says, creates a "barometer for success or failure," which is difficult for boys to deal with and become a continual frustration throughout their lives.

She goes on to say that for boys to be successful in school they need "time to think" before answering a question and many didn't answer because they "were afraid to make the wrong answer."

I don't know much about childhood psychology or the difference between girls and boys learning styles, but I see a problem with the line of thinking that boys are failing because girls are succeeding, especially based on this data. What child, whether male or female, isn't afraid to give the wrong answer. From elementary school throughout high school, children are taught to conform so they're afraid to make any mistakes for fear of being caught on the outside of "normal." This isn't a phenomenon only effecting boys.

For the past, um, all of history, women have had to learn how to make do in a man's world. We've had to learn and adapt to what is expected of us and the fact that we're succeeding now is only a problem because we've learned to out-perform the boys. Well, maybe it's time for the boys to learn to adapt too. We aren't performing better because anything has changed. I don't think testing is a great way for teaching in the classroom, and I'm pretty sure there are a great deal of female students out there who are hands-on learners too.

I agree that teacher training and the learning environment needs to change, but because it's not benefiting most children in this nation, not because it's not benefiting boys specifically. Covering education for the past year, I've learned a great deal about the No Child Left Behind Act and how it has effected teaching, learning and achievement in the nation's schools. It's not a pretty picture, but female students aren't to blame for the lack of success of their male counterparts.