Elaine Macardle's The Lost Boys

As discussed in a recent essay by Saul Kaplan “The Plight of Young Males”, there is a serious academic gender achievement gap in the United States and as I will discuss, around the world. Young women are doing significantly better than young men, and the results are shocking. In the latest census, males make up 51 percent of the total U.S. population between the ages of 18-24. Yet only 40 percent of today’s college students are men. Since 1982, more American women than men have received bachelor’s degrees. In the last ten years, two million more women graduated from college than men. As Kaplan reveals, the average eleventh-grade boy writes at the level of the average eighth-grade girl. He also states that women dominate high school honor rolls and now make up more than 70 percent of class valedictorians. Kaplan says, “I am happy to see women succeeding. But can we really afford for our country’s young men to fall so far behind,” (733)?

There are multiple reasons why Kelley King, Michael Gurian and Kathy Stevens are on the pro side. For one reason, they believe that the differences exist due to boys being more interactive with certain topics and methods that don’t usually interest girls or vice versa. For example, the Wamsley Elementary School in Rifle, Colorado has both boy and girl students. However, in the past, the girl students over accomplished the boy students due to the school staff being more experienced in understanding how to teach girls than understanding how to teach boys. So, the school focused on teaching the boys with their own learning styles that are also girl friendly such as online courses. The result of this was successful as boys became more accomplished than they were from before. (Pages 147 – 148).

It is no secret that, in general, boys and girls differ in their learning styles. Capitalizing on these differences could advance classroom performance. With on-going concerns about student success in school, any changes in the classroom that could increase student achievement should be considered. Recognizing the learning differences between boys and girls, one of the changes that could be instituted is single-gender classrooms.

Gender equality in schools has been a controversial issue over the years. In these two articles, "The Daily Grind: Lessons in the Hidden Curriculum" of Peggy Orenstein, and "Boys Here, Girls There: Sure, if Equality's the Goal" of Karen Stabiner, both writers give an in-depth reality into the contentious issues that exist between boys and girls. Although they bear some superficial similarities in discussing gender parity problem in education, the differences between Orenstein and Stabiner are the target audience, the rhetorical choices, and their opinion on the gender equality issue.

Not too long ago, men were considered superior and were in charge of controlling the world because their role in society allowed them to be the dominant gender. Now that women have more privileges, gender roles are altering and women are starting to outshine the men. Studies have established that there are more women receiving higher education by attending universities and colleges than men. The articles The Lost Boys by Elaine McArdle and The New Gender Gap by Michele Conlin focus on how originally men had the advantage of education until recently when women students started to outnumber and outperform the men. McArdle and Conlin are writing about how men are becoming the secondary gender while women have the upper hand. The message that these

Women worked tirelessly to challenge misogyny in education. The formation of ‘women's studies’ introduced women to disciplines like language, philosophy, psychology, and history and opened doors for female STEM majors (Encyclopedia). Women campaigned for educational reforms throughout education careers, and demanded changes in curricula and teaching forces to ensure that women were getting the same education as men. Some changes include home economics and survival courses not being gendered courses and the same curriculum for physical education classes. These changes in the education system made sexism in the new generations less common, a significant change from the previous generation.

This shows the reader the difficulty of the topic from the very start. This suggests that the educational system will always be more favorable to a certain group within our society because of societal expectations. It is also clear that because of the engrained stereotypes such as “girls are all hardworking” (Forde, p.5) and “boys are inevitably troublesome” (Forde, p.5) complicates the task of creating a gender-equal curriculum and environment. This is why it is important to realize that gender in education cannot only be evaluated as an individual variable, other factors (such as disability, poverty, religion…) come into play and can affect one’s education and identity. The first part of the book gives us background knowledge on this issue.

The programs that seperate the sexses in schools are usually based on very questionable science about the differences of girls’ and boys’ brains during development and learning, along with gender stereotypes. The American Civil Liberties Union’s article, ‘Sex-Segregated schools; Separate and Unequal’ says,” Advocates tell teachers that: Boys need a competitive and confrontational learning environment,

“Not only do women enter college at higher rates than men, but they’re less likely to drop out once they get there, female graduates now account for about 60% of U.S. Bachelor 's Degree holders” (Fisher ). The being the case, the rates show that women are entering college at higher rate but accounting for over half of U.S. Bachelor 's degrees. In her next quote she goes below the surface line to explain how societal standards might have a reason for the gender gap in college.”Boys involved in extracurricular

In the essay "The Plight of Young Males" written by Saul Kaplan, the author has discussed that while the male gender’s evolution has come to a near standstill, there has been significant development on the female side of education in recent years. I agree with the author in every point that he has discussed in his article. Kaplan has mentioned in his article that the male’s future is not very bright, as with the contemporary type of schooling system, it has been made for admission not for success, which is not the best for students.

I would agree with Amelia Newcomb’s findings in The Christian Science Monitor, that boys were easily labeled “learning disabled,” and that boys are assumed to be disruptive and troublemakers (Newcomb, 1-4). However, I disagree with her presumption that more attention needs to be paid “to the male side of the classroom.” Even though there have been studies finding that boys do not score as highly as girls on tests, specifically in reading and writing, I have found that boys are more likely to challenge themselves, due to the competition between others around them, as Newcomb has pointed out. If more focus has been given to girls in the classroom, it has been based upon their lack of ‘presence’ in the classroom. As Myra and David Sadker said in their article, Missing in Interaction, “When girls

Among education in today’s world, statistics shows number of males and females in colleges and universities have widen. In my research, 57% of undergraduate degrees were awarded to women, only 43% to men. I found in my research that there are many factors that contribute to these stats. Men tend to get good jobs straight out of high school or during college. There are debatably more high paying jobs for a male high school graduate than a female, even though most of these jobs are mainly either hazardous, manufacturing based, physically demanding, or all the above. The gender techniques of how genders are taught in kindergarten through 12th grades. Research show that movement, particular in young boys in the motor stage of development,

For this paper I refer to the gender gap within K-12 education as the unfair and unequal representation of girls in science and math classes, and instead, placed in other humanities based courses, then leading to the gap in the workforce. Girls and boys, men and women, are not treated equally in the United States and that definitely includes in the public school system. Closing the gender gap in K-12 education has been a

Should children be segregated from each other in schools based on their gender? Many teachers and students alike will argue no. Separating boys and girls in the classroom, setting applies that boys are superior than girls and girls are inferior than boys. After thorough research it was discovered that male children were not much different than there female counterparts after all. Men are no longer the only ones to choose a higher education or work outside of the home, numberless women chose to do so as well. As a result, this teaches sexism instead of promoting that one gender is equal to the next.

Gender equity in terms of education is about the socialization of men and women and the results of this process on the life outcomes of the two genders (Husen & Postlethwaite, 1994). In the United States, the education system is required to treat males and females equally. There has been much research done to compare the genders in all areas. In the past, research has found that women fall far behind men in many areas such as math, and science, but men lag behind women in certain areas as well. Over the years, many provisions have been made with the goal of equalizing the treatment of girls and boys in public education. These improvements are proven successful as women, as well as men, are advancing in areas where they tend to lag