Gender Bias in Schools Revisited

Fifteen years ago, at the height of the focus on the alleged gender bias against girls in our educational system, I wrote an article for a professional newsletter that argued it was actually the other way around. Boys were at least equally disadvantaged in the classroom, if not more so. The key difference was outside the classroom where girls grew up in a society that didn't value their achievements and opportunities in the marketplace and on the athletic field. I took some flack for my point of view back then. Now, in 2008, it's still a critical and misunderstood issue.

It is essential to put this issue of how boys perform in school into a historical perspective. Since the first public school opened in Boston in 1635 until the middle of the 20th century, the abundance of boys who did not fit the necessary mix of academic intelligence (learning best in a language-based environment) and who lacked a "successful-student-personality" (calm, organized, eager to please) were not a problem. Those boys generally left school by the eighth grade to go to work on their father's farm, learn his trade/ business, or, as unions became dominant, took on apprentice roles and went on to good jobs. After WWII, everything began to change. Fathers began commuting to work, farms disappeared, unions gradually diminished, and all boys were now expected to be successful students.

Since this didn't work for many boys, terms like "minimally brain damaged" and "hyperkinetic" became the labels to explain their failures (currently replaced by a multitude of labels such as Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, Sensory Integration Disorder, Non-Verbal Learning Disabilities, Dyslexia, and Spectrum Disorders). For decades, many of these boys still managed to get through the system and find reasonable jobs waiting for them. But now they face the information revolution, where jobs are increasingly language-based. This has caused schools and parents to put even more pressure on all boys to succeed in school. Thus, the marked increase in concern about the many boys who still don't fit our school system, which has never adapted its model to accommodate the varied learning styles not only associated with gender but across all children.

Many of you may be familiar with some of the many statistics that back up these concerns. It begins early. In elementary school boys are twice as likely to be identified with learning disabilities, emotional and behavioral problems, and to end up in special education. Young boys are 60% more likely to repeat a grade. By middle school, it's not just the appearance of test score gaps that concern us. It's data that shows boys skip school more often, get injured in fights much more often (though I do realize that girls hurt other girls in non-physical ways that can be even more devastating) and suicide rates, though small, are three times as likely in boys.

Then we get to high school. Boys are a third more likely to drop out and to be doing heavy drugs. Test scores and participation in advanced classes now significantly favor girls. These gaps are even more pronounced in our urban schools but be clear, they are not limited to poor, inner city children. Teenage boys dominate special classes and have significantly higher suicide rates. (The girls show their distress through high rates of eating disorders and rising rates of smoking.)

The pattern continues beyond high school. 58% of undergraduate students are now female and the higher ratio of women continues right on into graduate school. It won't take more than another generation before boys and men can't find a male to be their primary care physician.

Of course some will argue this matters little since women allegedly still have their glass ceiling and there is still a lack of equal pay for equal jobs. But within a decade or two, the shortage of reasonably educated men will change this. Some women note that females have suffered for centuries. They suggest males in our society will need to face up to this "new" problem and do something about it just the way women did in the latter part of the 20th century.

Well, part of the problem was, and still is, that both genders face issues and to remain a healthy productive society, a better understanding of boys and girls and the similarities and differences in how they develop needs to be better understood and addressed. From where I have been watching for the past forty years or so, our educational system is harmful to most children regardless of gender. So it is not my intention to slight the needs of girls in our schools or women in the work world by pausing to focus on some very significant issues facing males in our schools as well as society in general.

It has been well documented that boys develop more slowly in certain aspects of their neurology. In general, (there are always exceptions to stereotypes) young girls are more verbal, more able to sit still, and learn to read more quickly. This substantially increases their likelihood of immediate success in a school system that places early emphasis on all these skills. Given the heightened anxiety of today's parents about their children's early academic success determining life success, preschools have become increasingly skills oriented, starting the frustration for boys at even earlier ages. Meanwhile, as teachers are increasingly forced to teach to statewide tests, they lose the flexibility to teach in more creative ways that would benefit both genders. But it especially increases the challenges boys have to face.

While more research is needed and new teaching strategies need to evolve, I think there are a couple of additional factors that play a key role in making the life of boys particularly disadvantaged at this time in our society. Boys lack male role models for academic learning and developing a strong, positive sense of their masculinity. In addition, young boys have dramatically lost their opportunity to be physically active and to use social play as a way to explore and understand the world they live in.

Mothers, and other women, are the primary caretakers of young children. Boys are then handed off to female teachers for the next several years. Rarely do boys have the opportunity to observe and model their academic behavior after a same sex adult. But it also works the other way. Female teachers have less tolerance for a bit of chaos and roughhousing. I recall from my early days as a psychologist when I was in charge of a number of inner city preschools. When I would visit the classes, it would turn in to king of the hill battles and kids climbing all over me. My female teachers understood the importance of this and didn't mind it one bit.

But, over the years, when I have consulted with preschools and elementary schools, teachers are more concerned with the possibility of someone getting hurt (some of which reflects our increasing litigious society) and the sense of things getting out of control than recognizing the importance of this high energy activity for boys (and many girls as well). I have watched too many female teachers reprimanding boys for behavior that should be considered normal, slightly aggressive, overactive male behavior. It should be built in to the program, not frowned upon. Meanwhile, recess and phys ed classes are being decreased so teachers have more time to raise those classroom test scores, making it even worse for boys. It doesn't do anything for the epidemic of obesity either!

Boys (and many girls) need to be allowed to run free, ride their bikes around town, play for hours outside, wander into the woods and climb trees, bring home turtles, frogs, and bugs. Frightened parents, even in more advantaged communities, allow fear of the unlikely (stranger abduction, pedophiles) to keep boys inside. Girls, too. Now parents are paying the price of children who explore the world via the internet and are realizing this may be more risky than letting them actually leave the house!

Meanwhile, we need more male teachers. We need more men coming in to visit the elementary classrooms. We also need more Big Brothers. The problem is not just the lack of men in the school life of our boys. Between high rates of divorce and of young, poor fathers abandoning their children, it is estimated that an astonishing 40% of our boys are growing up without a father in their lives. Being a minority male in our inner cities means you are more likely to end up in jail or dead by 21 than graduating high school, no less going to college.

We need to offer boys and girls an education that addresses the total child, not just the academic skill part. We need to design middle schools and high schools that offer many pathways to earning a reasonable living and have more men involved right from the beginning. We need longer school days if a significant part of that time can be spent playing and exercising. We need to identify each child's strengths, regardless of gender, and allow that child to use those strengths to be productive in school in a variety of acceptable ways, not just a few narrow ways that relegate most children to feeling inadequate.

Parents have an important role in addressing this problem. One thing is to err on the side of safety and regardless of how mature your son seems to be, don't make him one of the youngest in his class. Second, too often parents will present to me a picture of a son whom they describe as lovable and caring, sensitive, having good friends and being terrific with young children. But they are distressed because he is very inconsistent in his school performance, only seems to work at what interests him, and resists doing homework because he would rather play. This is a great young boy with the kind of values and spirit that we hope he'll continue to demonstrate when he's a man. He might make a great teacher some day! We need parents to focus more on their child's successes and less on their perceived shortcomings, especially with their sons. Parents must be more conscious of their own gender bias.

In addition, the very behaviors and attitudes which cause many boys to under perform in school serve them well in the real world. High energy, totally absorbed by only what strongly interests them, challenging the rules, and having strong leadership skills often are the foundation for successful entrepreneurs and great innovators in many spheres of life. Parents and educators need to be able to identify that potential and not destroy the drive and self-confidence of these "academically underachieving" boys before they get a chance to prove themselves in the real world.

And just for emphasis, I want to state again, we need boys to have meaningful relationships with men from birth on.