|
|
Post by Officer Crabtree on Jun 17, 2012 13:28:48 GMT 12
But I need your help here. I am doing a Cambridge course for school that my class does instead of the usual YR 10 (4th Form) Social Studies curriculum. For this I need to gather perspectives, and right now I am doing a case study on the relation between gender and educational attainment -essentially, why are boys acheiving at a lower level than girls. I would like a public perspective, and what better place to get it from than here?
So if you want to help, all you need to do is put a few sentences here explaining your beliefs on why boys are failing/girls are excelling. It is completely anonymous.
|
|
|
|
Post by Luther Moore on Jun 17, 2012 15:18:50 GMT 12
I'm no expert but i'll say what I think.Maybe it's because guys have so many likes,distractions and hobbies? I have a girl friend of mine who studies science at Uni and when she doesn't study she is chatting away trying to get me to talk, she doesn't know what to do with herself once she has finished study.Study is her whole life.At the same time I have to tell her I can't talk because Southpark is on, i'm outside building something or i'm talking to mates about some hot chick that I saw.It could also be girls are becoming more independent and are out to show the world women are intelligent.Smart girls are attractive these days.
Anyway there are a couple of my views that came to mind when reading this.
|
|
junior
Flight Lieutenant
Wibble
Posts: 95
|
Post by junior on Jun 17, 2012 16:13:31 GMT 12
In my opinion, and this is only an opinion, there appears to have been a complete reversal in the male and female psyche from the Victorian era to modern day. Back in the Victorian day, girls were very much subservient. Their job was solely in the home and their purpose in life was to raise the family whereby the man’s purpose was to work and provide, hence the necessity for an education. Women rarely went on to universities whilst men became doctors and lawyers and such. There was no need for women to be highly educated. Men had to excel to be well educated and to be able to socially interact with women and thus attract a better “mate” or wife. Through time though, women fought for the right to be equal… to hold positions that were once the domain of men, hence more women became better educated and began excelling in school. Boys began to lose the “upper hand’ in the education stakes. With more women becoming equal, boys began to lose verbal and social skills and with the advent of technology through the 80’s, 90’s and today young boys become more likely than girls to play with computers, video games and the Internet. Boys' school performance may suffer because of a lack of male teachers at school. Most primary school teachers are women, and the gender of a teacher has been proved to affect the teaching style. For instance, a female teacher is more likely to choose books and activities to teach that favor the interests of girls, skipping over activities and subjects that may be more interesting for boys. This can set boys up to be uninterested in the subjects they are learning in school, which can lead to poor performance throughout their school career. As a parent of teenage kids, (one girl and one boy) I have noticed a huge difference in kids now to when I was their age. They say that today’s child is called “Generation Y”. Born in the mid-1980's and later, Generation Y grew up with technology and rely on it to perform their jobs better. Armed with BlackBerrys, laptops, cellphones and other gadgets, Generation Y is plugged-in 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This generation prefers to communicate through e-mail and text messaging rather than face-to-face contact and prefers webinars and online technology to traditional lecture-based presentations, so now primary, intermediate and secondary students have at their fingertips a wealth of “virtual” knowledge. I have found that girls will seek out, explore and experience more put before them whereas boys are more content to sit back and let things happen without putting any effort into education. Unfortunately, this also has a “run-on” effect into a boys working life where he expects everything to be handed to him without putting any effort into it. So, in my personal experience, I believe boys are failing at school because today’s modern society has handed everything to them on a platter and they don’t believe they need to work or put any effort into what they do. …..but Im only a boy and I could be wrong about all this.  |
|
|
|
Post by jonesy on Jun 17, 2012 16:17:18 GMT 12
I'm no expert but i'll say what I think.. And thats pretty much where you should leave it at that...As most men should also!  Actually theres tons of evidence on the web about this so have a look, its mainly to do with the notion that back in the day (probably the 70's when I was at primary) it was percieved that girls were being discriminated against, and the feminazis didnt like that one bit! Slowly but surely the education system was changed to suit these poor lasses, and now the pendulum has swung and its the boys turn to get left behind! There seems to be plenty of psycobabble about this but I think thats it in a nutshell. PS dont use the word feminazi in your report, its quite un-PC!  Oh, and Luther, you'll soon learn that Southpark is a poor alternative for chatting up chicks... |
|
|
|
Post by Luther Moore on Jun 17, 2012 16:29:00 GMT 12
It's a cunning plan by the girls..The girls are wearing shorter skirts so that guys can't concentrate ;D
|
|
junior
Flight Lieutenant
Wibble
Posts: 95
|
Post by junior on Jun 17, 2012 16:34:30 GMT 12
It's a cunning plan by the girls..The girls are wearing shorter skirts so that guys can't concentrate ;D Dont get me started on that.... my daughter and her friends are wearing shorter skirts and I ha............................................................................................................................................................................................................. ..............................sorry... what was I saying? |
|
|
|
Post by phil82 on Jun 17, 2012 16:45:41 GMT 12
Anyone who thinks females are subservient today have never met those in my family!
You can probably trace the emancipation back to WW2 when women took a major part in the work force while men were away and the women got to like the independence and wanted it to continue, and then along came the nuclear family where it was necessary for both parents to provide an income and women became better able to do that.
I think it might be found that girls tend to be more mature than boys, at any age, and particularly as teenagers, and I know of schools which, having been totally single-sex boys, and moved to include girls at a senior level the boys immediately picked up the pace!
Should anyone ask we have three adult kids, so I've been there and done that. I also have very close involvement with two teenage grandkids, one 18 one 15, and I'm seeing re-runs on a daily basis. I'm much better equipped to deal with it now, and much more laid back! It's all hormonal you see! [their's not mine] and once you have that sussed. you've got it!
|
|
|
|
Post by chinapilot on Jun 17, 2012 17:17:54 GMT 12
Maybe a graphic example of how lazy and unimaginative 'boys' are is the increasing number of 'boys' on forums asking for 'help' to complete school/uni 'assignments' ...maybe get those fingers clicking on the Internet or interview friends and family etc ??  |
|
|
|
Post by Officer Crabtree on Jun 17, 2012 19:10:55 GMT 12
I see your point, but I've already done one individual research assignment with two case studies,each having seven perspectives from different people and places. I've done three perspectives on this, and I'm getting stuck with who to ask. Not to mention that I still have another case study to do. So I very definitely am getting out there and asking, but I just want one easy perspective. Perhaps I should have explained better.
Also, I don't care what qualifications you have- Its a public perspective, just say what you think.
|
|
junior
Flight Lieutenant
Wibble
Posts: 95
|
Post by junior on Jun 17, 2012 19:23:06 GMT 12
- Its a public perspective, just say what you think. ;D  |
|
|
|
Post by shorty on Jun 17, 2012 19:26:39 GMT 12
Sorry chinapilot but I don't go along with you comments, it doesn't matter if he asks here on the forum or at the local bowling club. It requires a cross section of people and that is what he asking here.
And yes, I have teenage grandchildren!
|
|
|
|
Post by ngatimozart on Jun 17, 2012 20:08:12 GMT 12
I sat School Certificate in 1972 and then the top academic students in the class were female. I went to a Catholic primary and secondary school so my data could be skewed. From what I have heard over the years a quite a few of the females in my cohort went on to tertiary education. Maybe we were given a stronger education ethic; I don't know. I think that during the teenage years boys tend to be easily distracted by girls and grog, well that was the case in my day. My son went to a Catholic boys only secondary school and he had the same distractions- girls & grog. My daughter had to work hard at high school to achieve the same grades her brother got by just cruising.
I've been at university on and off since 1989 and the old adage of girlie swots appears to be still true. I haven't got figures but from anecdotal evidence there may be some suggestion that females may be topping courses more often than males.
|
|
|
|
Post by chinapilot on Jun 17, 2012 20:37:22 GMT 12
Doesn't worry me if you do or don't...just reiterating that it's very easy to type a few words into a forum and sit back and relax and let everyone else do the work.
Girls, generally, are smarter than boys and anyone who thinks they achieve more in their teen years because boys are more interested in 'girls and grog' are in fantasy land...they just keep things a little more in perspective.
PC has decreed that anything to do with females is OK...take the myriad 'Women Pilot's' organisations world wide just as an example...if there were 'Man Pilot's' only ones there would be an outcry.Young males today must feel a little sidelined.
|
|
junior
Flight Lieutenant
Wibble
Posts: 95
|
Post by junior on Jun 17, 2012 20:52:07 GMT 12
I over-heard once, a young pilot officer talking about the new women pilots in the RNZAF...... "if women were suppost to be pilots, they would have called it a Box Office" .............. but we digress  |
|
|
|
Post by craig on Jun 21, 2012 7:41:27 GMT 12
Fact. There are more female teachers than male.
Perhaps this has something to do with it? Maybe female students relate/learn better with female teachers.
The sisterhood is getting stronger
|
|
|
|
Post by pjw4118 on Jun 21, 2012 17:09:46 GMT 12
What was the question again ;;;;;
|
|
|
|
Post by phil82 on Jun 21, 2012 17:44:44 GMT 12
Yeah..I'm feeling a bit like that!
|
|
junior
Flight Lieutenant
Wibble
Posts: 95
|
Post by junior on Jun 23, 2012 11:54:25 GMT 12
Maybe todays news story might throw some answers his way.....
[glow=red,2,300]Poor parenting and too many hours in front of the TV are being blamed for a "disturbing" rise in the number of children lacking the basic skills they need when they start school. [/glow]
One speech therapist had to teach a 5-year-old the word "banana", and one Wellington school is running a programme to teach new entrants basic motor skills that include how to hang up their school bags.
In Wairarapa, Masterton Primary School principal Sue Walters said: "We get a lot of kids who come to school who just can't form proper sentences.
"They have very limited vocabulary and some are operating at a 3-year-old's level. You can't teach kids to read and write if they can't speak."
The problem was not necessarily socio-economic, but one of parenting, Ms Walters said. With individual attention from an articulate adult every day, pupils quickly progressed.
Massey University senior lecturer in speech and language therapy Elizabeth Doell said that, though there were complex reasons why children had language difficulties, it was often because they didn't have literacy experiences such as book reading or conversations at home.
At the age of 5, a child should be able to construct a reasonably complex sentence, and have a certain level of vocabulary. But this was often not the case, and an urgent inquiry was needed to get to the bottom of the problem, she said.
"I don't think we truly know the extent of it."
Retired speech language therapist Margaret Hannon operates the non-profit Granny's Basket language development programme at low-decile Masterton schools.
It offers one-on-one language development for 5-and-6-year-olds who don't qualify for special education but who often speak at a 3-year-old's level.
Their parents barely talked to them at home, they had not had stories read to them, and often had not attended pre-school, she said. Some struggled to name colours or to correctly identity common foods, and made basic grammatical errors.
"They watch television so they might know what things are, but they don't know the names of them.
"Instead of saying, `He's going in his car,' they might say, `Him's going in her car'. Or instead of saying, `I'm going to the supermarket in the car,' they say `Go supermarket car'."
Last year about 25 children at decile-2 Lakeview School and Masterton Primary, decile 3, were given three half-hour sessions three times a week.
"What we're doing is not rocket science; it's often just what mothers and grans do every day that the kids are lacking," she said.
"The children really blossom once they have the skills – the teachers notice that all of a sudden the children are speaking in class and participating."
Wellington's Fernlea School principal Walter Gordon said the school had launched a Perceptual Motor Programme after so many children arrived at school ill-equipped. Some had to be taught basic hand-eye co-ordination, and how to turn left and right.
Sedentary home lives were often to blame, with time spent with television and video games instead of playing outside. "They are just missing out on some of that growing-up development. There are lots of children who have the good, well-rounded experiences that help them when they get to school, and that's the majority, but those that don't are a big concern."
New Zealand Principals' Federation president Paul Drummond said principals and teachers were reporting increasing numbers of children arriving at school lacking basic abilities.
"The disparity and the gaps around student readiness for school is disturbing. There are developmental differ-ences anyway, but you would hope that 5-year-olds would arrive at school with the skills to talk and have vocab that reading and writing can be built from."
It showed how ridiculous it was to expect every child to reach a national standard, when some started from such low levels, he said.
|
|
|
|
Post by eieio on Jun 25, 2012 19:57:18 GMT 12
Is it not a fact that boys are better at practical "doing " things. Females seem more articulate than males. Having just spent 40 hours with a female pilot,you just have to agree they are smarter than males. Her readback to towers beat any male I have heard. After all, its about females nurturing and guiding the new genereation, The male goes out ,kills an elephant for food and leaves the cooking to the female.
|
|
|
|
Post by Luther Moore on Jun 25, 2012 21:42:06 GMT 12
Junior, interesting article.What is wrong with parents? How can you bring up your child and send them to school when they can't even speak basic english.Some parents need to be slapped.I bet too busy on the drink or drugs or they are just plain dumb themselves.I watched an episode of Police Ten 7 a few weeks ago where a Tongan bloke was driving a kid around with no licence in a wreck of a car with no rego and the kid had no seatbelt on.When they were asking him questions the bloke couldn't even speak propper english sentences and said his name was three different names.Child Welfare should take the kids and slap the parents!
|
|
