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What's going wrong for boys? : Comments
By Peter West, published 10/5/2005Peter West argues for positive programs to lift the educational performance of boys.
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I think that there are only a few people in society who believe that males are only physically different to females, and not mentally or emotionally different also. If there is a necessity to teach boys differently to girls then the right environment has to be created, and a reluctance to create this environment becomes sex discrimination.
However an environment that is beneficial for boys is not going to work very well in a mixed class environment, and I think it is becoming more evident in time that boys and girls are best taught in separate schools or classes. This can help both boys and girls, as it allows greater flexibility in teaching methods.
But just having boys only schools or classes will not necessarily help boys as the type of teaching that occurs still becomes important.
The NZ education report “The Achievement of Boys” http://www.ero.govt.nz/Publications/eers1999/Boys/boys1.htm#Contents
seems to indicate that boys only schools are generally better (IE “Boys in single sex schools tend to achieve higher examination results than boys in co-educational schools. ERO analysis carried out for this report indicates that this is true for schools in all socio-economic status (SES) deciles.” ). However this only occurred if these schools were well resourced and also had the right teaching environment.(IE “The evidence in this report suggests that boys achieve particularly well where there is a supportive school environment that provides positive role models and in which students are encouraged to set goals and take responsibility for their own actions.”)
Any suppression of reports and findings into boys education in Australia, or putting boy’s education into the “too hard basket” is also sex discrimination, and the more it is done the worse the problems will become for those involved.