the war on boys. education. the lost generation.

D - does that sound preposterous to you? Read on, then decide.

PRIMARY SCHOOL

http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/curriculum/elementary/kindergarten.html

http://www.parentcentral.ca/parent/education/earlylearning/article/947216--900-more-ontario-schools-to-offer-full-day-kindergarten-in-2012-mcguinty
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D - back in my day, we showed up to part-day kindergarten without even a rudimentary grasp of letter and numbers. Today, one would be hard pressed to find a parent that does not send their child to school the first day without already knowing these.

D - I'd much rather hold a boy back a year if he is not either overly old for his age bracket, or showing academic aptitude.
For this reason, I am not overly thrilled about the advent of all-day kindergarten.

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http://www.homeschool-your-boys.com/how-boys-learn.html

I just finished reading some eye-opening books by Dr. Leonard Sax: "Why Gender Matters" and "Boys Adrift". These books include scientific evidence showing that boys not only behave differently than girls, they also hear differently, see differently, respond to stress differently, and think differently.

(SIGHT) Implications for teaching boys

Do not expect boys to draw something recognizable or to draw something with lots of colors. When we find fault in this way, boys begin to think that art is for girls and not for boys.
Allow them to draw verbs and to do it in a way that is fast and furious.
Don't hold eye contact with a boy unless you're disciplining him.

(HEARING) Implications for teaching boys

Speak more loudly than you normally would and be very expressive.
Use lots of voice fluctuation and hand motions to engage boys.
While working with your son, sit down next to him, spread the materials out and look at them shoulder to shoulder.

(THOUGHT) Implications for teaching boys

Book learning is essential; but, without practical, hands-on experience, boys will hard a hard time grasping concepts that seem simple to us. They will disengage from their lessons.
Boys need real world experiences in their education which engage all of their senses.
Boys also need plenty of time outdoors.
Boys have a hard time processing their emotions. Don't ask boys "How would you FEEL if..." questions. Ask them "What would you DO if..." questions.
Boys like to have at least some control over their environments. Put each day's schoolwork into a folder and let them decide the order in which they will complete it.

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D - perhaps the most dramatic and obvious difference in teaching boys would be the great temperature difference that is ideal for them. I wonder what temperature the classrooms are set at?

http://www.articlesaboutmen.com/2011/01/school-girls-learn-better-in-warmer-temperatures-but-boys-education-still-behind-study-finds-911/

New research from the UK shows that girls learned best if their classroom is warmed to 24 degrees Celsius, compared to 21 degrees Celsius for boys.

Researchers found the temperature affected the pupils’ nervous systems differently, with the warmth making the girls ready to learn and the boys slothful.

Other findings included the ideal lesson time for girls is an hour, for boys 30 minutes is better.The findings were published by the Girls’ Day School Trust (GDST), a chain of 26 schools in England and Wales.

Other findings included the ideal lesson time for girls is an hour, for boys 30 minutes is better.

D - I've read SIX DEGREES CELSIUS in some reports.

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http://www.ohrc.on.ca/en/resources/discussion_consultation/ConsultEduDisablty2?page=ConsultEduDisablty2-ELEMENTA.html

Research also indicates that boys are much more likely than girls to be diagnosed as learning disabled or emotionally disturbed.

D - my sis has 2 little girls. Only the boys go to the 'trouble chair'. My nieces refer to it as the 'boy chair'.

D - here is a no-brainer. Male teacher = male role model. Also = male style communication. As well as male optimized classroom setting.
BUT here is where things get even more ominous. Lil' boys were already problematic to teach and often unready for the necessary aptitudes at their age. It gets worse.
The trend in primary school is from few male teachers to VERY FEW.

http://professionallyspeaking.oct.ca/june_1999/gap.htm
D - even a decade ago, there was already concern at the trend away from male teachers.

D - and why? Beyond a lack of interest in dealing with kids, FEAR.
http://www.cea-ace.ca/education-canada/article/false-accusations-growing-fear-classroom

Generally speaking, the male-to-female ratio in elementary schools is 20-to-80; in secondary schools, 35-to-65. Whatever data one teases out, there is no question: our classrooms are increasingly dominated by female teachers.

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http://jqstudies.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/jqstudies/article/view/3307/1421
D - nice primer on books and 'state of the union' on this.

Similarly, the Ontario College of Teachers (Bernard, Hill, Falter, & Wilson, 2004), which certifies teachers in the province, published a recent report entitled, Narrowing the Gender Gap: Attracting Men to Teaching, which examines the shortage of men in Ontario's teaching profession. They found that men represent only one in ten primary/junior teachers now and fewer than one in three secondary teachers.
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The ongoing deterioration of boys in reading skills is having ripple effects later on in other subjects. Reading is central to all other endeavors in class.

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HIGH SCHOOL

http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/81-004-x/200410/7423-eng.htm

In the academic achievement assessments carried out by the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) for a large international sample of 15-year-olds, girls performed significantly better than boys on the reading test in all countries and in all ten Canadian provinces. In math and science, few significant differences were found when girls’ scores were compared to those of boys. Canada, France and Germany were the only countries where gender differences in math achievement were significant – but those differences were small, certainly much smaller than those observed for reading. At the provincial level, gender differences in achievement in math and in science also were not significant.-----------------

D - boys, starting from primary school, once they fall behind they tend to stay behind. Starting them later, or aggressive special ed would be needed to fix this.
Their verbal skills WILL catch up - much later. As in as young adults. If they have not been hopelessly stigmatized and streamed by then.

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Why does this matter? Is sitting down to read really essential for success in life? Well, it matters a great deal.

The concept of ‘reading literacy’ encompasses a wide range of skills and abilities used in everyday life, at school, at work, and at play (see Box 1). Reading schedules, learning from manuals, completing application forms, and grasping key issues of the day all require not just the technical ability to read words, but the more abstract ability to understand them, interpret them, and assimilate the concepts they convey.

Further, data from the 1994 International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS) show that individuals who have jobs that require little by way of literacy experience an erosion in the literacy skills they do have – a ‘use it or lose it’ relationship. When determining who gets training, employers tend to choose individuals with strong literacy skills, further widening the gap and limiting options for those who have poor literacy skills.

DROPOUTS

Between 1991 and 1999, the high school dropout rate decreased from 18% to 12%; however, males continued to drop out of school at a higher rate than females. In 1999, 15% of 20-year-old males had not completed high school, compared to 9% of females.

Generally, dropouts revealed attitudes and behaviours indicative of less academic engagement in school compared to high school graduates. Male dropouts, in particular, appear to have been less engaged in school. They were least likely to have spent a lot of time completing their homework, and if it was completed, they were less likely to have completed it on time.
A larger share of school graduates (89%) than dropouts (60%) remarked that they got along well with their teachers most or all of the time. Again, male dropouts were less likely to be positive in their assessment.

Overall, male dropouts, in particular, appear to have been less engaged and more dissatisfied with their academic experience. They were clearly less likely to be “interested in what [they were] learning in class” and more likely to believe that “many things [they were] learning in class were useless.”
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http://www4.hrsdc.gc.ca/.3ndic.1t.4r@-eng.jsp?iid=32

D - in these 2010 updated #s, notice the steady 5% gender gap in dropout rates.

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POST SECONDARY

http://www4.hrsdc.gc.ca/.3ndic.1t.4r@-eng.jsp?iid=29

D - look at the inversion of the gender undergrad grad rates by age.
The future is FEMALE.

http://www.statcan.gc.ca/daily-quotidien/100714/dq100714a-eng.htm

D - this is part of an on-going trend.
Undergraduate and graduate enrolment
Total undergraduate enrolment increased 1.2% to 822,501. Women accounted for 58.0% of enrolment at the undergraduate level.
In 2008/2009, 102,654 students were enrolled in a master's program, up 1.2% from the previous year. Women accounted for 55.7% of enrolment at the master's level.
At the doctorate level, enrolment rose 4.1% to 42,801 in 2008/2009. Men outnumbered women in doctorate programs, but by a slimmer margin than in previous years. Women accounted for 46.8% of doctorate students, up from 46.3% in 2007/2008.

D - first undergrad, now master's. Next stop - and soon! - PhDs.

D - with little else to complain about, the new target is PROFS.
http://www.canada.com/business/Report+reveals+gender+university+professor+salaries/3386082/story.html
(D - the first entry.)

Male professors at Canadian universities on average earn higher salaries than their female colleagues — with the discrepancy reaching more than $20,000 at some institutions, according to numbers released by Statistics Canada.
(D - buried later on, the universities respond, portrayed as apologetic.)

University officials, however, say these pay discrepancies aren't a sign of bias but instead the result of former hiring practices that favoured men, the age and rank of professors and the distribution of men and women in different disciplines.

"Certainly, when you actually factor in all those variables then, in fact, the gender differences in salary largely disappear," said Edith Hillan, vice-provost, faculty and academic life, at the University of Toronto.
Fields such as business, computer science and engineering tend to pay more and are dominated by men, while female-dominated fields, like social sciences and the humanities, pay less.

"In general, when you look at the data, unfortunately, I think it's probably only about 18 to 20 per cent of all full professors (are) women across Canada," Hillan said. "In a sense . . . a lot of it is the result of hiring practices in the past.
http://oncampus.macleans.ca/education/2010/07/26/do-universities-need-affirmative-action/

D - and, impatient for intergenerational changes with instant results, talk of affirmative action.

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SUMMARY

D - we see that existing trends will ensure the complete dominance of all tiers of post-secondary education by women. PhD programs, various man-dominated professions, and associate-then-full professors will all succumb, in that order. No additional impetus would be required to accomplish this. In fact, this will still take place even if all gov't gender-based programs and policies were dismantled now.

BUT this conclusion ignores the continuing changes taking place at the very foundation of the educational system, at the primary school level. The ongoing trend is to have virtually NO PRIMARY SCHOOL MALE TEACHERS, thereby aggravating existing trends. Female primary school teachers aggravate the high presence of boys in special education classes and programs.

At the high school level, male youths will then enter with even more stunted reading skills due to the above primary school education. Whatever advantage male youths have in science and math will thereby finally disappear. Males will drop out without a diploma at higher levels.

At the post-secondary level, most programs will be greatly dominated by young women. By then, half the senior profs will be women. Due to the ripple effect from primary to secondary to post-secondary school, men will gradually lose whatever hold they have on their remaining professional pre-eminence. The sole exceptions would be careers that don't allow any balance with family and other social considerations.

And there we have it. The future. Half our youth, based on gender, our future productive tax-paying working class, by and large wasted. I challenge you to find any other conclusion in the data. D.