The Achievement Gap: The Feminization Of American Schools

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).

Society’s understanding of gender roles debate about gender equity and have always been connected to the social roles that men and women we assigned to shape Americans views of education for girls and boys. What has also been affected is race and social class between females and males who attend schools. Ideas of what women and men are suppose to be and do have cut across different classifications. Ending unfairness in schools has rested on change to gender roles mainly women.

When it comes to the classroom, there are several differences between girls and boys. There are physical differences in the way their brains work, differences in the room temperature that is best for boys and girls, and differences in how girls and boys respond to various tones of speech (Sax, 2006). While girls prefer soft-spoken teachers, Sax (2006) notes that boys prefer to be spoken to “loudly and in short, direct sentences with clear instructions” (p. 195). According to Sax (2006), “the ideal ambient temperature for boys is about 69 degrees and about 75 degrees for girls” (p. 193-194). Further differences involve how boys and girls learn. McNeil states that “boys may learn better under pressure and when allowed to move around...while girls may perform better in group situations and with a lot of encouragement” (McNeil, 2008). Because of these many differences, it would stand to reason that boys and girls would benefit from being in separate classrooms. According to Hughes (2007), “the teacher would be able to concentrate on the learning-styles of each sex and use the styles to bring out the academic best in each students. Lessons and activities could be designed with a single-sex in mind” (p. 11). As Principal John Fox states, “the single-sex environment enables you to actually focus on the particular needs of each gender, and those needs socially and

An ever changing, yet common issue, in today's generation revolves around how society views gender. The general consensus dictates that gender, as a whole, is a spectrum, rather than a standard set for each individual male and female to follow throughout everyday life. However, there are those individuals who wish to remain reluctant in changing their view of society. Some believe it is better to allow the education system to be segregated by gender, in order to provide more resources to both girls and boys. One person in favor of this public education reform is David Brooks, a neuroscientist who published the article titled “The Gender Gap at School.” A thorough analysis of the effects of literature on men and women, biological factors

By now, you've probably heard there's a "war against boys" in America. The latest heavily-hyped right-wing fusillade against feminism, led by Christina Hoff Sommers's new book of that title, claims that men are now the second sex and that boys--not girls--are the ones who are in serious trouble, the "victims" of "misguided" feminist efforts to protect and promote girls' development. At the same time, best-selling books by therapists, like William Pollack's Real Boys and Dan Kindlon and Michael Thompson's Raising Cain, also sound the same tocsin, warning of alarming levels of depression and suicide among boys, and describing boys' interior lives as an emotionally barren

In the state of Florida there were 2,634,822 students enrolled in public K-12. The average student to teacher ratio in the state of Florida is 15.7. Out of the total number of students in the state of Florida 1,109,189 were White. This means Whites are the majority by almost half. Children who were Hispanic and enrolled were 675,724. Hispanics make up about 25% of public school enrollments. The number of black students enrolled were 580,588, coming out to about 22% of the total enrolled population. All other races come out to about 3% of the population. ("Florida Public Schools - View All Public Schools in

If the percentage of men earning secondary degree continues to drop the gender gap and inequalities will increase and boys will be in serious trouble. With the intention to help set up boys for future success, I would personally change numerous problem in our education system beginning with changing the age in which boys commence school to the age of 7. Leonard Sax made the provided the point that boys are not psychologically developmentally ready to learn at the age of 5, therefore, I would change the age for when boys are more prepared to learn. By changing the age to seven, this will allow boys the opportunity to develop further and mature before they start school. Furthermore, I would make same-sex classes which would tailor to the learning abilities of the specific gender. This would make it easier for boys to learn motivating them to attain success. I do not believe society doomed as we have several bright men and woman who are capable of making sure society continues to thrive. However, if boys continue to underachieve, we will not be able to close the gap between gender

“It is early indeed that children show an awareness of the message that… females are generally less interesting and important than males are… The (often inadvertent) bearers of this message include parents, peers, and teachers.” (Lips, 1979, p. 128.) The absence of gender equity can be damaging to both males and females. Surprisingly most of the teachers and administrators are unaware of this problem. Organizations such as the American Association of University Women (“Gender equity,” 2003.) strive to create programs that will improve equality within schools. The purpose of this research paper is to identify gender equity issues in the classroom and explore strategies for teachers to incorporate equitable

For good or for worse, young boys have continuously been shaped in history to suppress any femininity. Yes, centuries ago this was a very helpful trait seeing how wars were being waged and exploration was at its height, but like anything times have changed. Increases in feminist and LGBTQ movements have given men the ability to fully embrace who they really are, yet times have not caught up to this fact. Men continue to put on a façade for one another that inhibit them. Behind closed doors, men are fully able to embrace their true selves, but the moment they are confronted with other males, the battle of machismo begins:

Did you know that single-sex classrooms are the worst classes ever? Over the past decade, single-gender classrooms have been opened in at least 230 schools in the rural, suburban, and the urban areas. Single-gender classrooms are classrooms where either young girls’ are in one class together, or young boys are in another class together. Single-sex classrooms were created because studies showed that boys and girls learn differently and they could benefit from being in a classroom with peers to whom they can relate. Since 2008, single-gender education has been the key to improved educational performance among boys and girls throughout the years. Today, gender differences among girls and boys are steadily rising in the classrooms they are in,

Boys and girls learn in two different ways. This reason is why having a single sex school is more rewarding than a co-ed school. According to Dr. Schlosser of Breckinridge County Middle School's (Kentucky) the difference between the way boys and girls learn are the type of weather boys and girls prefer.) Boys prefer to learn in a cool, dark room. When there are two different people wanting two different things its hard to please both sides. Boys also learn much slower than what girls learn, this could be a problem for girls in the same class as boys for girls would learn and to move on, but would have to cut back their learning to wait for the boys to learn the same material. Boys also are interested in different subjects than what girls like. Boys are most secretly interested in music, science, and math. According to GreatSchools.com says boys feel girls won’t like them when they know they are interested in other things such as music and math and not baseball, football, and soccer. Many boys won’t show interest in music in a co-ed school. When boys are placed in a single sex school they won’t have the feeling of impressing girls so more boys will show their interest in arts and music. Boys are much better with math and science than what girls are says NASSPE VIII. NASSPE Vlll is single-sex school out of Huston Texas. "The most profound difference between girls and boys is in any brain structure per se, but also in the sequence of

Our girls are getting the message that boys are better capable of handling different tasks, and therefore, need to be trained by giving them more responsibilities. I bet that Madeline Alberight or Dr. Elizabeth Verba did not accept this philosophy in life. Such methods of thinking reduces a girls self esteem and decreases her chances of getting a higher education and fulfilling goals of becoming world leaders, scientists, inventors, educators or even good mothers.

Unconsciously or not, they consistently reinforce and reward more 'feminine' behavior. Although it may be true that boys are more active than girls, but to say that they are treated differently is to be overly generalizing the situation. A teacher is supposed to be able to handle different types of children in the classroom, and cater to their activeness or passiveness in a class. For example, a teacher would try to involve a quiet and shy student as often as possible. The same goes for an active child; the teacher should be able to find activities for that child which would not only educate them, but also keep them busy.

Males and Females no matter the age face gender stereotypes everyday of their lives. As we are brought up we are taught to be our own individuals with our own ideas, but society tends to break that down. When we think about school, Gender Stereotyping doesn’t really come to mind, but if you think about it that’s where is all begins. In school, they have “dress code”, wear everyone falls under, meaning you can’t just wear whatever you want. Also, in schools when it comes to activities boys are pushed more to do outside activates compared to girls that do inside activities. Overall kids themselves start to separate themselves into two categories, boy with boys and girls with girls. Even though males and females are different, we should still take the time to teach kids that they aren’t put into two separate categories, but that they should be the person they want to be.