10.05.06
A comment and commentary
I just had an interesting comment on a blog entry several months back, interesting enough to respond to. So it would not get lost in the archives, I thought I would share it with you readers.
From Female Superiority and Bullshit:
Roger,
Clearly you have not spent much time in schools, which are in fact highly conservative institutions.
Much of what I write about here revolves around the motivational differences which effect educational outcomes. Thanks mostly to societal changes – changes in peer influence and parental expectations – but abetted by changes in the educational system, boys have become lazy and have stopped working on their asssignments. They have chosen to do this even though it will impact their grades and their learning. A quality private education will help whatever student receives it. Girls in top-notch private schools come out at the top of the heap. But many private schools are not top-notch; the mere fact that a school is private or sex-segregated does in no way guarantee a quality education, for either boys or girls. Many private girl’s schools give distinctly inferior educations.
Your unattributed assertion – factoid – that boys in sex-segregated private schools taught by men will come out ahead of girls would also imply that female teachers are keeping down girls, and traditionally this has been proven true. Read “Failing at Fairness” by Sadker and Sadker for a researched understanding of the gender biases that have favored males in education.
The fact is that our educational system favors those who study and work hard, as do most educational systems. Is this discriminatory against boys? In previous generations boys competed to come out on top of the system and succeeded, taking most of the honors. The system has not changed, the participants have. Girls now work harder, seeing that their future success is open, not circumscribed by discrimination in college acceptance or job potential. Not that long ago girls were told not to go to college, as there were no jobs open to them. My older sister scored high on the “medical” portion of a career test and was told to become a nurse. Instead she became an anesthesiologist.
So far as your assertion that I “love CBS news”, please tell me about it. I haven’t watched television in years. Let me guess…your favorite news is Fox?
Oh yes, and for the purpose of this blog, I edited your comment for spelling and punctuation, leaving the original text intact at the original location for future perusal and inspection.
October 4th, 2006 at 11:45 pm It’s interesting that when schools are segregated and boys are taught by men teachers that boys will out perform girls on SAT tests. Could it be our female teachers have a hidden agenda? Our schools today are nothing more than factories for producing female superiority in society. Apparently you love CBS news, it figures.
October 5th, 2006 at 12:45 am e