The disparity between the achievements of males and females has been a concerning issue in education. Ideally, as a whole, students belonging to either gender should perform equally well in their studies, but rarely has that ever happened. Boys traditionally were educated while girls stayed home. Since then, attitudes changed, and girls were allowed to attend schools, though they generally performed worse than their male peers (Source 2). It is now required, in the United States, for both girls and boys to attend school. Recently, however, a different trend has occurred in gender achievement. On average, “In high school, girls get higher grades in every subject, usually by about a quarter of a point, and have a higher median class rank”(Source
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Take baby clothing for an example. Immediately after birth, baby girls are given pink clothes, while baby boys are given blue clothes. This all happens before they form their own opinions of their favorite color. After that, whether from family or peers, they are conditioned either consciously or subconsciously on what topics they should like. For instance, in Putting Down the Gun, Rebecca Walker writes that his son, who “loved animals, Japanese anime, the rap group Dead Prez, and everything having to do with snowboarding”, felt pressured to take up a sport, thinking that that will make girls like him (Source 3). This child, a complex human being with many interests, felt that people will not accept him for who he is. Rather, he feels like he must be a stereotypical male to be loved. This is especially challenging since young children and adolescents prefer to fit in because those who stand out are easy targets for bullying. Young, sensible boys are more likely to shy away from interests that will mark them as …show more content…
In fact, the real reason for male underachievement in schools is because they are conditioned to like genres not generally taught in school, so-called “masculine” genres. Mark Bauerlein and Sandra Stotsky write that “boys prefer adventure tales, war, sports and historical nonfiction”(Source 1). Bauerlein and Stotsky do not consider that boys push away emotive literature for fear of being called feminine in a world that expects them to be masculine. Some people have the mentality that “Males come from Mars and thrive instead on no-nonsense authority, accountability, clarity and peer rivalry”(Source 4). These people perpetuate the myth that liking certain “masculine” genres is the norm for boys. This idea needs to be done away with to allow all students to flourish no matter their interests. In essence, pressuring boys is the root of the gender gap, so the first step in remedying the issue is to look at the bigger picture and recognize that there is a problem with society. There is no easy way to fix society as a whole to accept differences, but using the public school system as a scapegoat is certainly not going to help boys achieve to the best of their abilities in what they like to
Take baby clothing for an example. Immediately after birth, baby girls are given pink clothes, while baby boys are given blue clothes. This all happens before they form their own opinions of their favorite color. After that, whether from family or peers, they are conditioned either consciously or subconsciously on what topics they should like. For instance, in Putting Down the Gun, Rebecca Walker writes that his son, who “loved animals, Japanese anime, the rap group Dead Prez, and everything having to do with snowboarding”, felt pressured to take up a sport, thinking that that will make girls like him (Source 3). This child, a complex human being with many interests, felt that people will not accept him for who he is. Rather, he feels like he must be a stereotypical male to be loved. This is especially challenging since young children and adolescents prefer to fit in because those who stand out are easy targets for bullying. Young, sensible boys are more likely to shy away from interests that will mark them as …show more content…
In fact, the real reason for male underachievement in schools is because they are conditioned to like genres not generally taught in school, so-called “masculine” genres. Mark Bauerlein and Sandra Stotsky write that “boys prefer adventure tales, war, sports and historical nonfiction”(Source 1). Bauerlein and Stotsky do not consider that boys push away emotive literature for fear of being called feminine in a world that expects them to be masculine. Some people have the mentality that “Males come from Mars and thrive instead on no-nonsense authority, accountability, clarity and peer rivalry”(Source 4). These people perpetuate the myth that liking certain “masculine” genres is the norm for boys. This idea needs to be done away with to allow all students to flourish no matter their interests. In essence, pressuring boys is the root of the gender gap, so the first step in remedying the issue is to look at the bigger picture and recognize that there is a problem with society. There is no easy way to fix society as a whole to accept differences, but using the public school system as a scapegoat is certainly not going to help boys achieve to the best of their abilities in what they like to