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Why do teachers give girls higher marks than boys? Researchers have the answer

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Re: Why do teachers give girls higher marks than boys? Researchers have the answer

#21

Everyday I think more and more about homeschooling my son and daughter. In business, you should never outsource your core competency. I wonder if I really should be outsourcing the raising of my kids,that I love most in the world (of course I love my husband too).

It's important to distinguish between a core competency and something of extreme importance. Obviously education is extremely important but that doesn't mean a parent will inherently be any good at doing it, other than of course caring a lot, which may or may not help depending on how that energy is channeled.

Re: Why do teachers give girls higher marks than boys? Researchers have the answer

#22
post #9

Anecdotally I had a misandrist/sexist teacher in fourth grade. It was the first grade where they split our maths class. I didn't fail the class, but that teacher rode me extremely hard. She did do other abusive things, like encouraging students to bully each other, and she'd throw an eraser and hit me with a ruler on two separate occasions because she believed I wasn't awake enough. She recommended at the end of the…

The American public school system is a veritable penal colony proxy. My experience with math was much the same. As someone on the tail end of the Bell curve and for whom such a monolithic system was a poor fit, I wasted over a dozen years of my life there, in unfortunately what were my most formative years. Luckily my siblings are correcting that with their children.

I know someone who got their first B in band because that teacher didn't think that anyone should get all As. Nevermind how hard she worked, nobody was allowed to get all As if that teacher could help it.

She cried, and I am still pissed about it to this day. What an awful person.

Re: Why do teachers give girls higher marks than boys? Researchers have the answer

#23

Everyday I think more and more about homeschooling my son and daughter. In business, you should never outsource your core competency. I wonder if I really should be outsourcing the raising of my kids,that I love most in the world (of course I love my husband too).

> In business,

Your kids aren't a business, life isn't a business, we should stop trying to optimise everything as if it was a startup, you're already outsourcing 99.9% of your life anyways

Home schooling properly isn't easy, you'll infuses your biases deep into your kids without even noticing it, unless you country's schools are dogshit I'd let them go there

Re: Why do teachers give girls higher marks than boys? Researchers have the answer

#24

The original title is misleading, as the paper doesn't answer "why". > The researchers then looked whether factors, such as the type of school and the size and gender make-up of classes, were driving the gender grade gap. > They also investigated whether characteristics of teachers themselves, such as how senior or experienced they were and whether they were male or female, helped explain girls' more generous grades.…

Indeed. They are answering the question "Do teachers give girls higher marks than boys", and the answer is Yes, girls do get better grades than boys for the same work.

We do not get a final answer to why teachers are giving girls higher marks than boys.

Re: Why do teachers give girls higher marks than boys? Researchers have the answer

#25
post #9

Anecdotally I had a misandrist/sexist teacher in fourth grade. It was the first grade where they split our maths class. I didn't fail the class, but that teacher rode me extremely hard. She did do other abusive things, like encouraging students to bully each other, and she'd throw an eraser and hit me with a ruler on two separate occasions because she believed I wasn't awake enough. She recommended at the end of the…

The American public school system is a veritable penal colony proxy. My experience with math was much the same. As someone on the tail end of the Bell curve and for whom such a monolithic system was a poor fit, I wasted over a dozen years of my life there, in unfortunately what were my most formative years. Luckily my siblings are correcting that with their children.

It depends entirely where you are. I have fond memories of Math in school; particularly in 6th and 10-12th grades. Teachers were interesting and extremely invested in making sure we enjoyed ourselves and the material. When we were bored, they switched things up to get us interested.

Re: Why do teachers give girls higher marks than boys? Researchers have the answer

#26

Everyday I think more and more about homeschooling my son and daughter. In business, you should never outsource your core competency. I wonder if I really should be outsourcing the raising of my kids,that I love most in the world (of course I love my husband too).

Me too. In our extended social circle, we're seeing home schooling become more and more popular. Online schools, self-guided pacing and curricula, unschooling etc... A whole range, but whatever it is, not classroom based education.

Homeschooling is not just for anti-establishment weirdos anymore, "normal" people seem to take the leap a lot more.

Not sure what's holding us back; some combination of inertia, fear, doubt, finances no doubt.

Re: Why do teachers give girls higher marks than boys? Researchers have the answer

#27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The American public school system is a veritable penal colony proxy. My experience with math was much the same. As someone on the tail end of the Bell curve and for whom such a monolithic system was a poor fit, I wasted over a dozen years of my life there, in unfortunately what were my most formative years. Luckily my siblings are correcting that with their children.

I know someone who got their first B in band because that teacher didn't think that anyone should get all As. Nevermind how hard she worked, nobody was allowed to get all As if that teacher could help it. She cried, and I am still pissed about it to this day. What an awful person.

What a bizarre teaching philosophy.

Re: Why do teachers give girls higher marks than boys? Researchers have the answer

#28

I worked as a teacher for a little while. Discount my anecdote if you like, but it always seemed to me that girls are more likely to be grade grubbers than boys. (For those unfamiliar with the idiom, it means someone who pleads to the teacher to be given a higher grade. I don't know if there's a word in Italian.)

They're also more able to cry when they do this. I knew multiple girls when I was in school who openly admitted to making themselves cry when they asked a teacher for a better grade or to retake a test or something.

Re: Why do teachers give girls higher marks than boys? Researchers have the answer

#29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The American public school system is a veritable penal colony proxy. My experience with math was much the same. As someone on the tail end of the Bell curve and for whom such a monolithic system was a poor fit, I wasted over a dozen years of my life there, in unfortunately what were my most formative years. Luckily my siblings are correcting that with their children.

It depends entirely where you are. I have fond memories of Math in school; particularly in 6th and 10-12th grades. Teachers were interesting and extremely invested in making sure we enjoyed ourselves and the material. When we were bored, they switched things up to get us interested.

For most (~80%), it's a good fit. However, if you learn several orders of magnitude faster or slower than most, it's not. For example, if you're ready for university-level material when you're thirteen, then no amount of switching it up will serve the student well.

To speak to your experience, I think it's fantastic that you had great teachers.

Re: Why do teachers give girls higher marks than boys? Researchers have the answer

#30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Socialization in school might be positive for some children, but bullying is part of the curriculum in public schools and could subtract from any positive benefits for some children.

"If you don't send your kids to school, they won't fit in with society." "Correct."

To put it in a less pithy way... bullying is part of life, too. You certainly want to prevent what bullying you can in schools and give your children the tools to cope with it. But being home schooled means you (likely) never deal with it in the first place; and it's likely to be all the more damaging when you try to settle into an adult life.
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