I think the issue in education is not so much a feminIST education system, but more of a feminINE system. I will step into the dangerous territory of generalisations here, but that's unavoidable.

I spent the last five years teaching in an English department dominated, not surprisingly, by women. For most of that time, I was outnumbered 33 to 1. What resulted was a curriculum that was strikingly feminine and, as such, inaccessible to many boys. Themes, issues and texts appealed to girls but alienated many boys. It was my job to work with this curriculum but to make it more accessible and appealing to all.

My hidden weapon in this battle was my Y chromosome. Unlike my colleagues, I know what it is like to be a boy in the English classroom. Admittedly, I have the corresponding difficulty of NOT knowing what it is like to be a girl. But, with a heavily feminised curriculum, I somehow managed to achieve balance. My girls achieved (and, in my new workplace, continue to achieve) strong results, and I had many parents letting me know that the year their sons had me as a teacher was the first they enjoyed English, or the first that they understood Shakespeare, or - most importantly - the first that they passed English. I don't think I did anything special except showing the boys that you don't have to be a ladyboy to write well, or present a good speech, or enjoy Shakespeare.

I don't mean to blow my own horn here - again, I stress that my gender was enough to achieve that balance. And I don't want to suggest that we should 'de-feminise' the curriculum - that would just reverse the imbalance. What I suggest is that boys need more exposure to men in academic - and particularly humanities - subjects at school. While I doubt that many boys aspire to be like me, I at least offer them an achievable example of success and happiness in life. I can't do it alone, though!

Ah Suzie,

the All men are liars blog has an interesting bit on Steve Biddup/
http://blogs.smh.com.au/executive-style/allmenareliars/2010/10/08/masks.html

<Chapter one of the "new" Manhood - like the old Manhood is titled "The Problem", which Biddulph says "can be put very simply".

"Most men don't have a life. What we call our life is mostly just a big act, a mask that we clamp on to our faces each morning and don't take off until we fall asleep at night," he writes.>

That is a good point Otokonoko. For some time there has been commentary on the difficulty of attracting men to the teaching profession - the pay rates have improved but do not compare with jobs in IT, Medicine, Law or Engineering in a time when most people still aspire to own a house and not be forever indebted to the bank.

It is a shame these discussions revert to form on OLO without stepping back and identifying if there is a problem, the nature of the problem and why, then come up with possible solutions.

I grew up in the 60s and 70s without role models other than my parents and some good teachers and turned out okay but the media was less influential and the notion of celebrity was not as pervasive.

We should be looking at how some family structures have changed and the fact many children are now institutionalised from a young age. What are the impacts and how can we offset them - a big ask but there is never just one reason or just one influence. The world is more complicated than just finger pointing at one aspect in a myriad of changes over the last 50 years.

Otokonoko
“or - most importantly - the first that they passed English.”

A question as to how these boys were allowed to continue on if they didn’t pass English?

In my time at primary school, if a student did not pass English, they would not be allowed to continue on, but had to repeat the grade. AND, if there were a large number of students not passing, there would be a major investigation of that school.

It does appear that the abysmal declines in our education systems are being covered up, but this decline is occasionally highlighted in such things as the Master’s Report in QLD Education.

For example: -

“In the final year of primary school in Queensland, the gap between the highest- and lowest-achieving 20 per cent of students represents about three to four years of school.

The gap between the top and bottom five per cent of children is equivalent to between six and seven years of school – in other words, equivalent to the total length of time these children have been in school.”

http://education.qld.gov.au/mastersreview/preliminary.html

What was also noted in that report was the almost total decline in maths and science, areas where boys are most often interested, with the majority of primary school teachers only spending a small % of their time teaching maths and science.

The feminist corruption of our education systems has resulted in an education system now heading downwards in almost every area, and a systems that attempts to cover up as mich as possible. This not only has had a major effect on boys education, but a major effect on our skills base and productivity levels

Excellent points Vanna, I agree, more male teachers are needed within the education system to benefit children and for a number of other reasons.

Those literacy and numeracy tests in primary school arrive too late [year 5 or 6 by memory] and to encourage children to learn their basics thoroughly, rewards such as exercising prior to the subject or after the subject outside, in addition to other 'little rewards' such as a change of environment apart from the classroom, given within a school term, to all who work through and pass science maths and english is a suggestion.

My Year 6 teacher from Victoria [the 70's] arrived at school dressed in her short tartan skirt, navy jumper and boots, swinging her long auburn hair [prettiest blue eyes I've ever seen in my life], kindly and respectfully [yet firmly] stating that if we all scored well in our maths and english tests we would be rewarded throughout each term by doing extra sport and rec activities outside in addition to learning other subjects under the oak trees on hot days.

Her approach worked a treat and there would not be one adult now who could ever forget the best primary school teacher amongst those hard cruel nuns we had, in primary school, who used a cane and feather duster in year 4 learning our times tables on a 44 degree hot day, rarely let out of the classroom for a sip of water.

Good point, vanna. I agree that passing English should be necessary for progression. Some time between my schooling days and my entering the teaching profession, there seems to have emerged a policy of putting kids through to save their self-esteem. I don't think it works. A kid who just needed another shot at Year 2 is pushed through into Year 3, where s/he faces harder work. If the kid couldn't cope with Year 2, how is s/he going to cope with Year 3? The kids fall further behind until we have kids in Year 10 whose diagnostic tests reveal that they read and write at a Year 1 or 2 level.

We used to run remedial programs, where students essentially did catch-up English in Year 8, with the intention of bringing them up to speed by the end of the year. We had some success, but the introduction of the Essential Learnings put an end to that - it was mandated that we had to impose a "one size fits all" curriculum across the year level. I don't have a problem with that - provided that we are allowed to keep kids back until they achieve these allegedly "essential" learnings.

As for the literacy and numeracy testing (conducted in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9), I think they represent a squandered opportunity. I am lucky enough to occupy a position in my school where I am able to decide just what will be done with the data from the tests. Where many schools focus simply on improving results on the tests, my school focuses instead on using the tests to highlight weaknesses in our curriculum and rectifying those problems. By doing that, I think our results naturally improve not as a superficial and inflated statistic, but as a true indicator of our students' achievements and abilities.

In case you couldn't tell, I'm very proud of my school and the opportunities it gives kids. There's a long way to go, but at least some schools in Queensland are making the most of a flawed system.