The Hindu Business Line : Think twice before sending your son to a co-ed school

It used to be believed that boys catch up with girls "in math and science courses starting in 10th or 11th grades." The new finding is that they are simply "falling behind."

THIS is a society that generally wants boys, glorifies them, and accommodates their foibles. But now at last a secret is out: that boys are not good learners. USA Today got a research done in 1,000 high schools, spanning more than 25 States in the US, and from a survey among 40,000 `typical' students (that is, neither stars nor low performers), it has been found that boys have "a deep-seated malaise about learning."

For five out of six girls, it is important to continue education beyond high school, but only two out of three boys have a similar interest. In percentage terms, it is 84 versus 67.

If that is hard to digest, here are a few more numbers from the newspaper's editorial: While 70 per cent of girls thought it was useful to do well in school to achieve life goals, only about one in two boys felt the same. Also, 31 per cent of boys scored low on federal reading tests, compared with 20 per cent of girls. In colleges, at the end of the 1990s, for every 100 boys who got their bachelor's degrees, there were 133 women and this could go up to 142 by 2010, according to the US Department of Education.

It is argued that boys who may not be good at skills needed for college but may be good material for working in factories. There again, the report rues that "working on cars, computer chips or military gear requires adeptness in understanding instruction manuals."

Again, it used to be believed that boys catch up with girls "in math and science courses starting in 10th or 11th grades." The new finding is that they are simply "falling behind."

Where is the problem? The research identifies these as "obvious culprits": Schools let boys off the hook when it comes to reading skills, so "by 12th grade, 44 per cent of girls rank as proficient readers, compared with 28 per cent of boys"; parents do not stress the importance of boys' education; and, sadly, girls raised by single-parents get the message early on "that they will have to make it on their own."

The high rate of dropouts accentuates the problem because it is skewed against boys; it is at times even double the number of girls discontinuing education. For high-school dropouts, the market is merciless: on an average he would earn "$2,000 a year less than someone with a high school diploma, $6,000 less than someone with a two-year college degree and $20,000 less than someone with a bachelor's degree."

If you thought there is the law of averages which always wins, the report shows that the "society writes off average students." Those whose disabilities — that is below average — get the care of federal laws for education; likewise, the brilliant ones are the favourites of the schools where they study. "But average students who struggle in school receive no special protections."

It is feared that, if the trend is not checked and reversed, the number of men entering workforce will get severely hampered. Demotivating stuff, but don't lose heart, because an op-ed piece in USA Today, by Sally Shaywitz looks at why differences exist between boys and girls and questions if schools are setting standards that they apply to all students based on what is normal for girls, because most teachers are women.

Are teachers, thus, holding boys to the behavioural standards of girls? By such a yardstick, boys who are normal as boys may be seen as being more inattentive, more active and exhibiting more behavioural and academic problems. "Behaviour is used as a proxy for a learning disability and here, the normally increased activity level of boys is perceived as pathological," notes the author.

Would it be too much to conclude that boys are not the oppressors they are usually made out to be, but get oppressed by the education system?

SayCheek@hotmail.com

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