Boys and Education

I was a fan of Christina Hoff-Sommers after Who Stole Feminism and was interested when I saw her War Against Boys. The War Against Boys argues that boy behavior is being labled as a problem. More recently, The New Republic has noticed the issue and this has sparked some comment in the blogosphere. This includes Ann Althouse, Stepping Stone, and Kirsten Mortensen. Ann's comments section is, as usual, abundant. As a boy who largely prospered under school and found typical school boy behavior disorderly enough that I joined the army after school looking for an orderly society, some of the suggestions for boys I think would work for some boys, but there also needs to be a middle ground between rambunctous school for energetic boys and dainty school for girls who can sit still for weeks on end.

I observed three catagories of students in the classroom. Those who sit still and remain on-task even with distractions, those who can remain on-task as long as there are no distractions, and those who simply don't remain on task. I found that 2/6 of girls and 1/6 of boys were nearly always on task. I found that 3/6 of both boys and girls could remain on task as long as distractions were eliminated. I found that 1/6 of girls and 2/6 of boys found remaining on task difficult under normal classroom circumstances. The things that distracted boys and girls wasn't neccesarily similar. Girls were more likely to be distracted by the opportunity to be social. But the always on task and the mostly on task students would seem to function well in the low energy and moderate energy enviroments. The other students I suspect will need a variety of strategies. Some need more discipline and regementation, some need a different teaching approach, some need more extenstive links to existing knowledge, and so on. 75% of students, however seem to be able to function well in some form of current school.