Teaching Girls and Boys Differently

[ironmonk]

It's nice to see objective Psychologists who are concerned with facts and not agendas.... This topic has been known for sometime, and it's so true. ADD should not be treated with a pill. ADD is a scam.

God Bless!
ironmonk

Code: ZE05070905
Date: 2005-07-09
[b]Teaching Girls and Boys Differently[/b]

Psychologist-Doctor Tells Why Divergences Run Deep

NEW YORK, JULY 9, 2005 (Zenit.org).- Boys and girls have marked physical and psychological differences and hence they have to be educated differently. This is the thesis of a book published earlier this year by psychologist and family doctor Leonard Sax.

In "Why Gender Matters" (Random House), he takes issue with the modern tendency toward gender-neutral child-rearing. According to this theory boys and girls behave differently because of the way they are educated, or because of cultural factors. Sax describes how in the mid-1990s he began to see more and more young boys arrive at his office with requests for medication, due to their supposed attention-deficit disorder.

The real problem, Sax eventually discovered, was that the second- and third-graders were being educated by teachers who did not understand the differences in how boys and girls learn. For a start, he explains, a girl's sense of hearing is more sensitive than that of boys, so the tone of voice used by a female teacher may be fine for the girls, but does not engage a boy's attention.

This experience sparked off Sax's interest in the subject of sex-based differences. His research showed that behavioral differences are not just caused by cultural factors. Research into men and women who have suffered strokes reveals that in men the left and right hemispheres of the brain are strongly compartmentalized, with the former dedicated to verbal skills and the latter to spatial functions. This division does not exist in women, who use both hemispheres of the brain for language.

And analysis of human brain tissue shows that there is a difference in its composition, at the level of the proteins. This difference is not due to hormonal changes that occur at puberty, but is something innate and is present even in children.

Sax also notes that girls and women can generally interpret facial expressions better than most boys and men. He cites research carried out at Cambridge University, showing that even young babies reveal differences in the way they pay attention to objects. Female babies are more interested in other people's faces, while male babies prefer to pay attention to moving objects.

Seeing differently

In fact, evidence exists that from the composition of the retina to the way images are processed by the brain, there are notable differences between males and females. This results in females being more aware of differences in color and texture, while males discern with greater facility location, direction and speed.

This difference is then reflected in the toys that young children prefer -- dolls for girls and trucks for boys -- and the type of pictures they draw, with girls using more colors and including more people in their drawings.

This has consequences when it comes to schooling, Sax explains. Given that most kindergarten teachers are women they tend to encourage their students to draw people and to use lots of colors. This can lead to discouragement among boys, whose different style of drawing is not appreciated by the teacher, leading them to conclude that "art is for girls."

Male and female differences are also evident in the way people navigate. Men are more likely to use abstract concepts such as north and south, and to refer to distances. Women, by contrast, prefer using visual landmarks. Neuroscientists have found, Sax noted, that even by the age of 5 the male brain uses a different part of the brain to navigate, the hippocampus, while the female brain relies on the cerebral cortex.

Feelings

Notable differences also exist in how emotions are handled. Children are generally not capable of analyzing their emotions, because this area of their brain has not yet developed. In adolescence, emotions are increasingly dealt with by the cerebral cortex, the area of the brain associated with higher cognitive functions.

But this change is far more pronounced in girls' brains than in those of boys. So, if at school adolescents are asked by their teachers to write or talk about their emotions this places boys at a disadvantage.

Another area with marked differences between males and females is in the willingness to accept risk. Most boys enjoy taking risks, and are also impressed by other boys who take risks. This is not the same for girls, who generally are less likely to seek out risky situations just for the sake of it. Boys are also more likely to disobey their parents when told not do something risky.

Sax explained that while boys enjoy doing risky things, they also systematically overestimate their own ability, whereas girls are likely to underestimate it. Researchers at Boston University noted that almost all drowning victims are male, for example. They concluded that a major contributing factor to this was that males consistently overestimated their swimming ability.

Boys are also more attracted to violence and conflict -- for example, in their reading preferences -- than girls are. And in their relations with others, boys are notably readier to fight and to respond aggressively than girls.

Friendships are also carried out differently. Girls tend to organize their friendships around spending time together, talking and going to places. Friendships among boys, however, revolve around a common interest in games and activities, with conversation and secret-sharing not holding a high priority.

Brain development

Learning methods between the sexes vary greatly too. Most girls, Sax explained, naturally tend to seek out a teacher's help, are more likely to follow instructions, and to do their homework. Boys, by contrast, will generally only consult a teacher as a last resort and are less likely to study if they find a subject uninteresting.

And when it comes to motivating students, boys respond well to stress created by confrontation or time-constrained tasks, an approach that does not give good results for girls.

Sax is careful to point out that every child is unique and, also, that not all boys or all girls are the same. At the same time, he writes, this "should not blind us to the fact that gender is one of the two great organizing principles in child development -- the other principle being age."

Girls and boys, he explained, differ substantially in the speed with which their brains mature. The various regions of the brain develop in a different sequence in girls compared to boys. Therefore, rather than saying that boys develop more slowly than girls, it is more accurate to affirm that girls and boys develop at a different pace. Language skills develop earlier in girls, for example, while spatial memory matures earlier in boys.

In fact, Sax argued, these differences in cerebral capacities between the sexes are larger and more important during childhood and adolescence than the differences between adults, when both males and females have reached full maturity.

This difference, he argues, should be acknowledged by educators, and then used positively. Just trying to stop boys from fighting among themselves or playing dangerous games, for example, is insufficient. The solution is not to try and eliminate this aggression in males, but to transform it by providing constructive alternatives.

And when it comes to teaching, instead of prescribing medications to boys to treat attention problems, a better solution would be to separate the sexes and use teaching methods appropriate for each sex. In a word: letting boys be boys.

[kateri05]

well duh! lol funny how it takes "studies" to show what our mothers have always told us: boys just don't think the same as girls do!

[Thy Geekdom Come]

[quote name='ironmonk' date='Jul 9 2005, 06:10 PM']Research into men and women who have suffered strokes reveals that in men the left and right hemispheres of the brain are strongly compartmentalized, with the former dedicated to verbal skills and the latter to spatial functions. This division does not exist in women, who use both hemispheres of the brain for language. [right][snapback]637582[/snapback][/right]
[/quote]

Gosh darn noodles!

[iggy]

hey, they mentioned waffles

[Oik]

This is a gret article! Thanks!

[Socrates]

Thanks to decades of P.C. feminist orthodoxy, we need scientific studies to "find" what everyone has always known by simple experience and observation! (And these "findings" are always predictably "controversial," though never proven false.)

[Carrie]

I've always felt uncomfortable with the ease in which people are diagnosed with ADD and ADHD and then given pills like water. It just seems like the easy way out.

[photosynthesis]

boys aren't the only ones who get diagnosed with ADD/ADHD. I have it. :bugeyes:

[reelguy227]

All this article says is that women are better than men and that all men can do is kill and play trucks . psh

Edited July 10, 2005 by reelguy227

[cmotherofpirl]

[quote name='reelguy227' date='Jul 10 2005, 12:33 PM']All this article says is that women are better than men and that all men can do is kill and play trucks . psh 
[right][snapback]638374[/snapback][/right]
[/quote]

I don't think so. The author is pointing out the different learning abilities
inherent in males and females, and how educators need to be aware of them.

[homeschoolmom]

Asking a 6 year old (especially a boy) to sit in a desk for six hours and work on fine motor activities seems like cruel and unusual punishment to me. And when he gets wiggly... well... there must be something wrong with him.

[Jaime]

There are indeed tremendous differences in the way that boy and girls (and men and women) learn and interact. Feminist psychology demonstrates some amazing differences in how males and females approach conflict and moral decision making. It was traditionally held for quite a while that men were generally better at making moral decisions. What feminist psychology demonstrated was not that men were better, women had a different goal.

One of the examples given was when boys and girls are playing a game and something unexpected happens. If boys are playing baseball and the ball gets stuck in a tree, boys will gather up, discuss the situation and create a new rule for the game. Then the game continues on. Girls in the same situation will be more likely to simply choose another game to play. The reason being is that females will generally be more concerned about the group than about the resolution.

But what is demonstrated is that while male/female mindsets are distinctively different, they are complementary. It isn't necessary to put them in separate teaching facilities. But it is important to understand the differences and reinforce how the complement the other gender.

And yes SSRIs given out for ADD are given out waaaaaay too easily.

[reelguy227]

Let me rephrase that ,all this article points out is how girls can learn so much more better than boys can ,I mean come on ,the whole article points out how girls can do everything better than guys in each category .

I get it ,guys are stupid and girls are superior.

[Carrie]

This issue really eats at me.

I've got experience with kids who are diagnosed with all sorts of things. I've gotten alot of kids in, especially boys, who have been diagnosed with ADD or ADHD and frankly, most of them just don't have it!

But try telling that to a parent who is at their wits end with their hyper (but healthy) child. So many parents insist that their children need medication, even when you tell them that its unnecessary. Lots of parents walk out and will go to someone else who has no problem recommending medication without a second thought.

And did we really need an article to tell us that males and females think and learn differently?

[Carrie]

[quote name='reelguy227' date='Jul 10 2005, 03:17 PM']Let me rephrase that ,all this article points out is how girls can learn so much more better than boys can ,I mean come on ,the whole article points out how girls can do everything better than guys in each category .

I get it ,guys are stupid and girls are superior.
[right][snapback]638450[/snapback][/right]
[/quote]

That's not what it says dear.