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Girls Get Better Grades Than Boys

theatlantic.com

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Re: Girls Get Better Grades Than Boys

#51

Post by cafard »

It seemed to me many years ago that there was an odd pattern in the schools, perhaps exaggerated in Catholic schools, but probably present in the public schools also. In the earlier grades, the girls, who sat still better, had better small-muscle coordination, and were more verbal sooner, pulled down the As, while the boys did more poorly. Somewhere in the middle school years, neat handwriting counted for less, and the boys started to catch up on other fronts. The girls, not always unwillingly, fell back. A cousin of mine infuriated me by saying that she got Bs in high school--boys didn't like girls who got As.

But, as they say on HN, the plural of anecdote is not science.

Re: Girls Get Better Grades Than Boys

#52

Post by dragonwriter »

vezzy-fnord wrote: post #49
dragonwriter wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This is true only if you use a specific sociological definition of "sexism", which is absolutely not to be equivocated with the one in common vernacular. I think you mean "equate". "Equivocate" means something quite different.

Actually, I do mean "equivocate". To quote Wikipedia, it is "the misleading use of a term with more than one meaning or sense (by glossing over which meaning is intended at a particular time)".

I know what "equivocate" means -- but when you equivocate by conflating one sense of a word with another sense of the word, its not described as equivocating the first sense with the latter sense. You might equivocate with a person (the person to whom you address the equivocation), or equivocate by interchanging one definition with another.

Re: Girls Get Better Grades Than Boys

#53

Post by ps4fanboy »

cwbrandsma wrote: post #27
ps4fanboy wrote: post #11

I wonder if this has anything to with the massive decline in male teacher population.

Was that population that big to begin with? Most of my male teachers in highschool were actually just wanabe-sport coaches. My male history teacher/basketball coach just played movies every day.

I guess it depends on when and where you went to school. I had hardly any male teachers and I am a student of the 90s. In Australia less than 30% of all teachers are male, divorce rates are very high and single parenting is increasing. I think young boys really lack male role models in society today.

Re: Girls Get Better Grades Than Boys

#55

Post by lutorm »

gph wrote: post #26

This article brings up an important point about our education system. How much is it about teaching a subject versus teaching you how to work. I always did well on tests and in any class I didn't totally hate I felt like I gained the knowledge I needed to. However, I never did all the homework. Hated it. Most of it felt like busy work, or just plain unimportant. Not that I think self-discipline is worthless. It is a…

The whole point about forcing kids to do homework is that they are not in a position to judge whether something is important or not. For everyone like you, I'm pretty sure there is someone saying "I didn't want to learn X in school but I'm sure happy they made me now that I know how important it is."

Re: Girls Get Better Grades Than Boys

#56

Post by wosos »

alukima wrote: post #9
yummyfajitas wrote: post #4

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 affec…

To try to be fair, life is often more about obeying arbitrary rules than mastering certain subjects. Many of the things named in the article are important life skills that should be taught and encouraged.

We should have in mind that this transcends into how society will work in a few years, probably something that we're already seeing; becoming more of a bureaucratic society guided by politics than innovation, pragmatism and merit.

Re: Girls Get Better Grades Than Boys

#57

Post by lutorm »

johngalt wrote: post #33

The general trend in education is less competition and less physical activity. Meanwhile there is more focus on educational minimums rather than maximums. If education was about the 'highest score' rather than the 'best average' you would see males doing better.

Are you kidding, American education seems to be all about "highest score" rather than "best average" to me. All these awards and whatever that reward the "best" students.

Re: Girls Get Better Grades Than Boys

#58

Post by wosos »

tptacek wrote: post #32
donatj wrote: post #31

So much of school is based on blindly doing what you're told and I think young boys have trouble doing what they're told. I know I personally wanted to know the reasoning behind things. In the army they have to break young men down before they blindly follow orders. Even as a nearly 30 something I don't like being told what to do. Ask, don't tell. I know I could see this was pointless charade and would rather do some…

Let me take a wild guess here: You're male. It seems like according to your premise, if we could just get over our prejudices, we could drastically streamline military training by simply selecting docile, compliant females instead of petulant, inquisitive males.

Yeah, but they are generally much weaker physically and don't tend to be as aggressive and competitive.

Re: Girls Get Better Grades Than Boys

#59

Post by [deleted] »

alukima wrote: post #9
yummyfajitas wrote: post #4

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 affec…

To try to be fair, life is often more about obeying arbitrary rules than mastering certain subjects. Many of the things named in the article are important life skills that should be taught and encouraged.

[deleted]

Re: Girls Get Better Grades Than Boys

#60

Post by j2kun »

If the difference is just by one year, as one of the studies suggests, why not shift grade/age by one year for boys? So six year old boys will be kindergarten age with five year old girls, etc.?
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