Former president of South Africa, Nelson Mandela, once said that “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world” (Mandela). Education has been something that throughout history has been greatly valued, and highly sought after by a majority of people. This is due to the fact that if a person obtains a proper education, they can ultimately dictate their own path in life. The education system as we know it today in the United States is an incredibly dynamic system, that gives opportunities to the majority of people within it. However, this has not been how this system has operated for most of history. In the past, only those in positions of power, or of a higher status received an education. Women, poverty-stricken
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Although there have been tremendous improvements to the educational system over the years, there are still some significant flaws within it. One of the biggest flaws to this day is that the educational experience is not the same for both men and women. Even though male and female students attend the same schools, and learn the same curriculum, their educational experiences are not equal. Classrooms have been shown to be more male dominated in nature, and the system as a whole has a tendency to favor male students over female students. In order to successfully provide equal education to all students, both male and female, changes need to be made. In order to obtain a gender neutral classroom that provides equal opportunities for both male and female students, small group discussions need to be implemented more often, teachers need to have an increased awareness about this problem, and be open to modifying the way in which they teach, and less emphasis needs to be placed on stereotypical gender roles throughout a person’s …show more content…
This gives students, both male and female, the opportunity to express their opinions in a less hostile environment. It can be frightening at times to voice your opinion in a large class discussion. This is mainly because there are more people listening, which means that more people can judge you. By allowing students to break up into smaller groups, it might encourage them to speak up, or say what is on their mind, because only a few people will hear what they are saying. Deborah Tannen, professor of linguistics at Georgetown University, writes in her article “How Male and Female Students Use Language Differently” that “One reason men speak in class more than women is that many of them find the “public” classroom setting more conducive to speaking, whereas most women are more comfortable speaking in private to a small group of people they know well” (Tannen 371). Tannen’s ideas are shown to be true by findings of Jesse Prinz, distinguished professor of philosophy at the City University of New York’s Graduate Center, which are highlighted in his article “Gender and Geometry”. Prinz claims that “Men speak four times as often and shout out answers eight times as often” (Prinz 638). Both Tannen and Prinz make observations on the discrepancy between how often male and female students speak within a classroom. Prinz provides statistical
Although there have been tremendous improvements to the educational system over the years, there are still some significant flaws within it. One of the biggest flaws to this day is that the educational experience is not the same for both men and women. Even though male and female students attend the same schools, and learn the same curriculum, their educational experiences are not equal. Classrooms have been shown to be more male dominated in nature, and the system as a whole has a tendency to favor male students over female students. In order to successfully provide equal education to all students, both male and female, changes need to be made. In order to obtain a gender neutral classroom that provides equal opportunities for both male and female students, small group discussions need to be implemented more often, teachers need to have an increased awareness about this problem, and be open to modifying the way in which they teach, and less emphasis needs to be placed on stereotypical gender roles throughout a person’s …show more content…
This gives students, both male and female, the opportunity to express their opinions in a less hostile environment. It can be frightening at times to voice your opinion in a large class discussion. This is mainly because there are more people listening, which means that more people can judge you. By allowing students to break up into smaller groups, it might encourage them to speak up, or say what is on their mind, because only a few people will hear what they are saying. Deborah Tannen, professor of linguistics at Georgetown University, writes in her article “How Male and Female Students Use Language Differently” that “One reason men speak in class more than women is that many of them find the “public” classroom setting more conducive to speaking, whereas most women are more comfortable speaking in private to a small group of people they know well” (Tannen 371). Tannen’s ideas are shown to be true by findings of Jesse Prinz, distinguished professor of philosophy at the City University of New York’s Graduate Center, which are highlighted in his article “Gender and Geometry”. Prinz claims that “Men speak four times as often and shout out answers eight times as often” (Prinz 638). Both Tannen and Prinz make observations on the discrepancy between how often male and female students speak within a classroom. Prinz provides statistical