News: The Trouble with Boys
"The Trouble with Boys"
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10965522/site/newsweek/
Everyone's talking about this article, it seems. It says that boys are falling behind girls in school, and it's because they have to sit still too much and besides, their brains develop differently.
I don't really like the article's take, that a narrow, test-driven definition of academic success harms primarily boys, and that boys need to be taught differently, even if it means segregating kids by gender (that separate-but-equal thing - where have I heard that before?). One-size-fits-all education and narrowly-defined assessment systems harm everyone, and I don't think you can predict a student's needs based on any one characteristic, including gender.
The article has seemed to touch a nerve though.
posted by Karen Cole @ 11:14 AM
1 Comments:
I just returned from an meeting with a director of a private school. I was so disoriented and dismayed with the attitude and cookie-cutter education offered that it depressed me. I left there feeling I haven't done enough for my son(or daughters for that matter) and when shown what they considered the norm for a 4 year old boy and what tests he would need to complete, etc. I was floored. There was no room for his individuality at all. My son has no interest at 4 (actually he'll be 4 in march) in sitting down and doing regimented worksheets that through thoughtless memeorization of symbols and numbers, he could get "a's" but they would have no meaning to him or understanding of numbers or of their value. It was the same for everything. My son has a photographic memory. His intersts lie with the oceans and dinosaurs. He won't count apples or try to spell "C A T" but he can count his dinosaur figures and spell "T - REX" and can tell you more facts about the ocean and all the eras of the dinosaurs than most adults. Am I wrong to want his knowledge to be full and not just what their little test says it should be? When did learning and comprehending and working hard to complete a lesson or task get replaced by testing and scores and just getting by with a grade that suits the teacher or schools needs?
I am very unhappy with what I see and won't allow it for my kids. They go to a Montessori school now and have surpassed what the $20,000 a year private school could have taught them in a year.
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