Boys and Learning: Common Myths

"Boys are just not as ready as girls are for success in kindergarten". Or "Boys are just more active than girls, that is why they can't sit still". Those are two of the more common myths about boys I have heard from parents and teachers over the years. I have seen no truth to either myth. For the past year's class of kindergarten students, the boys scored a respectable average of 87% on the SAT test given in the spring. While the girls earned an average of 80%. I know this is not a scientific study, but the scores are indicative of past performances at my earlier school. Both boys and girls score well on achievement tests in kindergarten. Sometimes the girls score higher and other years the boys score higher.

In an article written by Molly Mann for The Apple, she comments on how she thought it was a biased view that girls stick to their studies better than boys, then she writes, "but now research shows that now girls do in fact score better than boys on standardized tests". She also cited statistics from the National Center for Educational Statistics. Two items mentioned were that boys were three times more likely to drop out of school and four times as likely to be labeled as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder or ADHD.

In Richard Whitmire's book, Why Boys Fail, he cites these statistics. Boys are twice as likely to be suspended and three times as likely to be expelled as girls. Among whites, women receive 57% of the bachelor's degrees and 62% of the master's. Among black women it is 66% and 72% respectively. Clearly boys are being hurt in acquiring the skills needed to further their education.

There are many reasons why a great education is important for boys. One is job security. Yesterday in the Wall Street Journal, it was reported that the unemployment rate for workers 25- and-older with a bachelor's degree or higher was 4.6% in August. This compared to a 10.3% rate for workers with only a high school diploma. The article compared this 5.7% gap with a gap of only 2.5% when the recession began. A college degree helps workers keep their jobs.

There are many theories on why boys are struggling in school. Of course, I have my own thoughts.

You could easily blame it on the fact that over seventy percent of the K-6 teachers are female. Though there may be something to that, all of our K-6 teachers are female at Bios and all of our boys are excelling in their classes. So while it would be nice to have male teachers in the earlier grades, the fact that they are not has not been reflected in our boy's achievement.

Blaming learning materials because they don't fit into what our culture thinks boys should like isn't correct. As one writer for the New York Times did who suggested that boys may do better in school if they read "lowbrow, adventure, or even gross-out books that disproportionately appeal to boys." This isn't an answer. All our boys excel in both their reading and writing skills even though they have to read the identical books our girls read. Books like "Ann of Green Gables", The Secret Garden, and Jayne Eyre. While the boys may not as a rule enjoy the books, they can and do read these books as part of their literature assignments. The boys also read along with the girls books that may interest them more such as The Three Musketeers, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and The Lord of the Rings. The use of materials which do not catch the assumed special interests of boys do not hold to the fact that our boys succeed reading a variety of books. The fact that all of our boys excel in their language skills according to SAT results, AIMS results and daily work prove otherwise.

Another writer suggests boys are bored in school because they are taught in sedate ways and then act out. Again our boys are taught in "sedate" ways and don't act out. They excel.

So how do boys (and girls) excel in our school? Well, using the methods of Bios Christian Academy. Class sizes are important. Kindergarten and junior high/high school math are as low as ten students in a math class to as high as 21 in our music classes. Each class size is designed to be the maximum a Bios teacher is able to maintain our unique individual and differentiated approach while keeping tuition cost down.

Clear, measurable, daily , and individualized goals for each student help the teachers and students to know clearly what is expected for each class. A key component of this are the check sheets that every student has for every subject. At first almost all of the check sheets were designed by me. And now most of the new check sheets are designed by experienced teachers who have many years using our methods. The check sheets for each subject provide for teachers and students the measurable goals needed to be accomplished that day or period in class. In addition, check sheets provide an intrinsic reward aspect for the students. Everyday, right there in front of the student, their check sheet, is an immediate feedback on what they have accomplished. It is a very subtle, but powerful reinforcement of progress toward a goal.

Excellent teachers are key to an excellent education. In an article written on The Core Knowledge Blog by Robert Pondiscio titled "The $320,000 Kindergarten Teacher", two studies were focused on, one in Tennessee and the other with black Americans. Both had very similar conclusions. Excellent teachers in the early years provide long term differences in income, college education, success at marriage, retirement savings, discipline manners, and perseverance. We hire and train all of our teachers to be those excellent teachers. How do we train them you may ask? The same way as our students. Individual goals and clear expectations in a system with the simple name of "Continuous Training". Through out the year a trainer or myself will observe or teach the class with a follow-up conference soon after to discuss what went well and allowing for no more than two goals to be worked on by the teacher.

To give conclusion, the myths on boys not being able to learn or that they require special materials to learn new skills are proven wrong daily at Bios. All they need is a safe environment, with excellent teachers, using clear goals, and treating them as the unique creation God has made them to be.