Why Johnny Can't Read: Schools Favor Girls

Stolen by me from SYG
(I like to credit places for my finds - and hope it's reciprocated)

Studies have long shown that boys in the United States and around the world do not read or write as well as girls. There are several reasons, according to the common wisdom:

• Girls mature more quickly.
• Boys are more likely to suffer dyslexia and other reading disorders.
• Race and poverty play a role.

But a new study finds that the problem cuts across socioeconomic lines and pins part of the blame squarely on schools, whose techniques cater to the strengths of girls and leave boys utterly disinterested.
Can't read a newspaper
The research, by psychology professor Judith Kleinfeld at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, finds that nearly one-quarter of high school seniors across the United States who are sons of white, college-educated parents have woeful reading skills, ranking "below basic" on a national standardized test.
"These boys cannot read a newspaper and get the main point," Kleinfeld told LiveScience. "These boys cannot read directions for how to use equipment and follow them."
And the problem is getting worse.
The federal government's 2002 National Assessment of Educational Progress reported that 26.3 percent of high school seniors scored below basic in reading skills. In a finer analysis of that data, Kleinfeld found that 23 percent of white sons of college-educated parents scored below basic, up from 13 percent in 1992. (Among girls with white, college-educated parents, only about 6 percent fall into the below-basic category.)
Kleinfeld presented her results last month at the White House Conference on Helping America's Youth in Indianapolis. She has not yet submitted the findings to a journal for peer review.
Lack of motivation
The problem is partly developmental, Kleinfeld said.
"Girls mature more quickly than boys," she said. "They enter school with bigger vocabularies and better fine motor skills, so it's easier for them to learn to write."
And as boys enter junior high and high school, their motivation wanes.
"Many boys are disengaging from school," Kleinfeld says. "The U.S. Department of Education’s surveys of student commitment show that boys are far less likely than girls to do homework or to come to school with the supplies they need."
In an interview, one boy summed up the problem for Kleinfeld. He said: "Why would anyone want to read novels? They aren't even true!"
What schools should learn
In separate research that Kleinfeld is also preparing for publication, she has possibly gotten to the root of the problem.
"Here's a fascinating fact," she said. "There is no literacy gap in home-schooled boys and girls."
"Why? In school, teachers emphasize reading literature and talking about character and feelings," she said. "This way of teaching reading does not turn boys on. Boys prefer reading nonfiction, such as history and adventure books. When they are taught at home, parents are more likely to let them follow their interests."

Thanks Karl for the stimulus. I really don't want to investigate the minute details of the US education system, though many on SYG would love to, for several pages, as they re-discover the wheel.

Let's just take the main points from Mizz Judith:

• Girls mature more quickly.

Who defines maturity? I'd love to hear the definition.
So the 'men should grow up' tactic is now being applied to any young lad who does not immediately subscribe to the rules of Femidom?

• Boys are more likely to suffer dyslexia and other reading disorders.

I have mixed-race fraternal-twin sons. One is dyslexic, the other is not. On non-verbal tests, the dyslexic one scores higher but his brother gets more praise and reward from his female teachers and I'm proud of his ability to work with the system - he's smart in the conventional way.
I made up some tests of my own. The dyslexic one (who, if allowed, will spend a whole day drawing an intricate picture) recognises Chinese characters much more quickly than his brother.
My theory is is that he's more interested in the meaning than the sound. It's just a theory, but to a feminist it would be proof of something or other if it suited her purpose.

• Race and poverty play a role.

Ya don't say? And the sky is blue, right?
I spent fifteen years teaching English to poor immigrant kids(from all corners of the world) in the UK - and another seven or eight devising programmes and monitoring schools. Muslim boys were the most problematic. Their high status and responsibility within their community, contrasted sharply with their low status in school. The clever ones could play along for as long as it took to go out into the western world and make money. The others accumulated a lot of negative baggage.

The rest of the article falls back on the old defence of 'blame the teachers - don't blame the schools'. Don't blame the local worthies that run the schools. Don't blame the government departments that rule the local worthies that run the schools. Don't blame the politicians who rule the government departments that rule the ........ Usual Bullshit! (can I say that?)

What's the angle in this article? Is anybody seriously interested in helping boys? Or is it just another covert tactic for demonstrating that boys have inherent genetic faults that are expensive to repair?

Reality is just around the next corner.

The most important sentence!

I would have to say the home schooling point caught my attention more then anything else.
barry

I think women judge maturity a lot different than men do, just look at examples of our so-called "immaturity".
Play video-games, you're immature,
Play or watch football, you're immature,
Play practical jokes on people, you're immature,
Watch cartoons like The Simpsons, Family Guy, American Dad, you're immature,
Sing football songs, you're immature,

You'll notice that everything that makes us immature, is actually fun, but when we're boring, then we're mature, so it's simple, boys are fun, girls are boring, feminists have just changed the meaning, so they say boys are immature, girls are mature.

Well that's my theory.