Jump to content
IndiaDivine.org

Boys, brains and toxic lessons

Rate this topic


Guest guest

Recommended Posts

Overdiagnosis of attention deficit disorder?

 

From The Times

January 23, 2008

 

The gender gap in schools is all about the different ways children see

and hear – and it's no wonder that boys are unmotivated and

uninterested, the psychologist and doctor Leonard Sax tells our

correspondent...

 

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/education/article3234354.ece? & EMC

 

Alexandra Frean

 

Boys and girls should be educated in separate classes because their

brains are hard-wired to learn in different ways, a controversial book

says.

 

Too many schools are creating an environment that is " toxic " to boys,

turning them off learning and leaving them quite unprepared for adult

life, according to Leonard Sax, a family doctor and research

psychologist from Washington DC.

 

For the past decade parents and teachers have become worried

increasingly about boys, who are now routinely outperformed by girls

at every level and who show growing levels of disaffection and lack of

motivation.

 

In his book Boys Adrift, Dr Sax argues that this yawning gender gap is

the result of innately differently learning styles of boys and girls,

and that most classrooms play to the strengths of girls.

 

Dr Sax, founder of the National Association for Single Sex Public

Education in the United States, believes the answer lies in subtle,

but important differences in the brains of boys and girls.

 

" Until ten years ago, people said that boys are spatial and girls are

verbal. That's nonsense. There is not much difference in how girls and

boys think, but there are differences in how they see and hear, " he

told The Times at the start of a lecture tour of boys' schools in Britain.

 

Boys, for example, do not hear as well as girls. So a female teacher

with a soft voice may believe that a boy who is not paying attention

is playing up, when actually he cannot hear her properly. Her reaction

may be to discipline him. But Dr Sax says that she would get better

results by speaking louder and moving purposefully around the classroom.

 

Boys' eyes also respond better to movement and direction, while girls'

eyes are more affected by colour and texture. Asked to draw,

five-year-old girls produce flowers, pets and people. Boys will draw a

car crash, but may be reproached by teachers for producing something

that is " not nice " .

 

Similarly, he says, although most girls can sit still from a young

age, most boys need to be active to discover their own pace. " Asking a

five-year-old to sit still and read and write is something that many

girls can do, but many boys can't. I have visited more than 200

schools. This is what I hear the teachers saying, `Jason, why are you

standing?', `Gerard, are you making a buzzing noise?', `Robert, can

you stop tapping?', `Look at Emily, she's sitting still and is good'.

 

" The message that boys are getting from the age of 5 is that doing

what the teacher wants is unmasculine, " Dr Sax says.

 

One result, Dr Sax believes, is the overdiagnosis of attention deficit

disorder among boys who are considered inattentive by teachers.

Parents and doctors are tempted to treat this with medication, when

simply putting them in a boyfriendly classroom would be far more

effective.

 

The failure of schools to understand why gender matters means that

boys very often switch off from learning from an early age and never

reengage. Long after their sisters have gone to university, they are

still trapped at home suffering from " failure to launch " into adult life.

 

The solution, Dr Sax believes, lies in single-sex education provided

by teachers trained to understand the differences in brain function

between boys and girls.

 

" Let boys tap the table. Let them jump up from their seat when asked

to spell a word. It won't disturb the boy next to them. Girls are

bothered by extraneous noise levels 10 to 40 times lower than the

levels that bother men. Girls are aware of what is going on around

them. Boys are oblivious, " Dr Sax says.

 

When such these methods were used in single-sex classes in Florida,

pass rates for primary school fourth-grade boys (Year Three in

Britain) rose from 55 per cent to 85 per cent.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You are posting as a guest. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...