Girls Get Better Grades Than Boys

Is anyone bothered that this has no references, seems like a nice helping of hearsay to me.

tl;dr; Girls work harder than boys and are more diligent about getting things done. Awesome for them. What's the problem?

The article does raise one real issue - grades in school are based on more on obeying arbitrary rules than on actual mastery of the knowledge. That's a problem worth fixing. But it's a problem worth fixing because grades are measuring the wrong thing, and it's worth fixing regardless of it's affects on statistical gender disparities.

But I guess "modern grading systems measure the wrong thing" is far less of a clickbait topic.

As a man who left school not that many years ago, I'm amazed how well I feel this describes the situation back then. I remember being frustrated by grades being all about who (I then thought) manipulated the teacher best by acting like a "Good Boy/Girl". By being neat and by being timely rather than the one who knew what the grade requirements asked of the students.

I wonder, is the article true or does it just appeal to my feelings?

I find this incredibly sexist.

To say that girls worker harder than boys offends me greatly. These studies are never accurate and somewhat biased, and I think work ethic is something that can't be averaged out like this. I don't doubt a lot of girls out there do work harder than boys, but making statements like: "Girls succeed over boys in school because they are more apt to plan ahead, set academic goals, and put effort into achieving those goals." is offensive and heavily typecasting all boys into the same category.

There are boys out there who put effort into planning and setting academic goals, because I am friends with many guys like this who care and put the effort in, I also know as many women who do the same. If this study were truth, why are there just as many male academics as there are female? If anything, I have seen more male academics than female (in my experience and field). Imagine if the effort that went into this study was put to better use, to help solve a problem or achieve a result that would benefit society? Studies like this are a waste of time.

I realise this is just a study and the whole point might be to highlight issues with school curriculum and have no sexist undertones, but at the same time, studies like this are relatively useless. The modern school system being completely broken to the point kids are falling behind is a very well known fact, and sadly, no study is going to change that anytime soon.

Maybe if we had less studies and more action on fixing things, then there wouldn't be instances of boys getting left behind in the schooling system. Did it ever occur to those responsible for this study that maybe, just maybe, the system is actually broken? And maybe, just maybe, it has nothing to do with what sex you are? I feel like society already has enough issues when it comes to rampant sexism and gender equality without more fuel being thrown on the fire. All studies like this do is take a handful of people, average and collate the results and then proclaim they've made some kind of conclusive discovery that applies to everyone outside of the sample group. Unless this study leads to change or another longer and more conclusive study, the results mean nothing.

Regardless of what sex you are, nobody should be getting left behind. If it is true that boys learn differently to girls, then adjust the curriculum to make it more flexible for different learning styles. When I went to school I struggled, not because I am stupid or because I am a male, I struggled because the curriculum assumed everyone learns the same way and when I couldn't fit myself within the mould, I got left behind and taught myself everything I needed to know. Everyone learns differently, we are not all the same.

Sorry for getting worked up, Studies like this do nothing to help resolve gender equality gaps whatsoever.

It's been a while since I was in high school, but looking back I would say that this was true. It doesn't surprise me when you factor in puberty and maturity (girls at that age tend to be more mature at least when it comes to school work). Boys also spend more of their time on extracurricular activities (sports).