Re: Improving Boys' Verbal Performances


ddnoe@xxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
Improving Boys' Verbal Performances
August 08, 2006
Vox Populi
By Denise Noe

Ever since the abilities of school-age children have been measured by
standardized tests, girls have scored higher than boys on verbal
ability and boys have outperformed girls in math.

The poor performance of females in math was alarming to many people.
After all, ours is an increasingly technological world in which people
without math skills are often left economically behind as well as
simply baffled. Why did so many girls and women appear to possess poor
math ability? Several well-done studies pointed to biological
differences between the genders. Boys and men appeared to have a
"math edge" due to genetics, hormones, and/or brain structure.

[Isn't this the approach Summers took, just before he was canned?
There are no credible studies showing that women can't do math. There
are no credible studies showing a huge difference in the way women's
and men's brains work. There are no studies at all showing that
hormones prevent women from doing math. There are no studies showing
that genetics has anything to do with math skills. What we DO have IS
the reality that the brains of women and men are much, much more alike
than different, and that the few differences that DO exist are
peripheral, having nothing to do with preventing one sex or the other
from equal accomplishments.]

However, the possibility of a biological element in men's
mathematical superiority does not mean that women's ability in this
area is immune to improvement. In the last couple of decades, efforts
have been made to help females develop better math skills. Although
their performance in this area still does not equal that of boys, girls
have made splendid strides.

[Taking sexism out of the classroom is what has helped girls perform
well in math. There is no sexism in the classroom directed against
boys, at least none that has been proven or brought to light. And I
have not personally observed any sexism directed at boys. Also, girls
tend to learn in more cooperative ways and cooperation in the classroom
has, possibly lead to improvement for girls. If girls feel oppressed
by the cultural expectations between boys and girls they may not
perform as well, but when these expectations are eliminated in the
classroom, girls perform better.]

There has been no comparable improvement in boys' verbal scores -
but neither has there been a campaign to help them in this area.

[The reason we wanted to "help" girls was because of the cultural
discrimination girls faced in classrooms where boys were expected to do
better in math and where teachers paid more attention TO boys. That
same situation does not exist for boys in the classroom. So what is to
be 'done' that would not foster SPECIAL RIGHTS for boys?]

One> should be launched and it ought to be supported by anyone who has
the
best interests of boys at heart.

[Denice, you would appear to support the idea of having SPECIAL RIGHTS
for boys in order to bring boys up to the standard girls exhibit. Why
is that?]

Now, it will be argued that men and women are naturally different and
that, for genetic and hormonal reasons, females are by nature verbally
superior to males. Perhaps. However, even if there are biological
factors contributing to male weakness in this area, there is much that
can be done culturally to strengthen them.

[That's true, but without any discrimination being leveled against
boys, why should we invest more time and money in their education than
we do for girls? ]

If anyone doubts that we can> lift male reading and writing abilities,
he or she need only look at the rise in female math scores to see the
positive results of concerted
education.

[Again, why are you demanding SPECIAL RIGHTS for boys. If boys are
falling behind based on some kind of discrimination against them, which
was the case for girls....I'd be happy to support such a program. But
I don't see any discrimination against boys.]

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