“I think boys on average are predisposed genetically to patterns of behavior and arousal that make then more vulnerable to learning aggression it it’s taught. The fact that boys are more physically aggressive than girls in virtually every culture in the world suggests that boys are more ready than girls to learn and demonstrate aggressive behavior.” – James Gabarino, p. 112, Adolescents at School

“…girls are also able to hear, smell, and feel tactile sensations better; have better overall verbal abilities; and are better able to control their impulses than boys because of differences in the ways their brains are wired. …those differences result in girls being less likely to take risks and cause boys to show a tendency toward aggressive behavior, both of which greatly affect how they see themselves and interac with others in the school context.” – Michelle Galley, p. 87, Adolescents at School Continue reading Let’s Talk About Sex (and gender in relation to violence) →

“The single greatest risk factor in school violence is masculinity.  The analytic blindness of previous work runs deep runs even deeper than gender.  All but two if the twenty-eight school shootings profiled in the FBI report were committed by white boys who lived in suburbs or rural areas.  As a result, the public had assumed that these boys were deviants, their aberrant behavior explainable by some psychopathological factor” – “I am not insane; I am angry.” – Michael S. Kimmel

The number of school shootings and gun violence as a whole for me represents one the greatest crises that we are facing as a nation.  A couple of weeks ago in my student teaching placement we had to practice being on lock down in the case of a shooter and it made me angry.  Angry that it has become such a problem that we have to have “drills” in case of a shooting, angry that we are perpetuating this culture of violence, angry that for young people coming to school no longer means that they are coming to a safe place and angry that our government as a whole chooses to ignore this problem.

When “Straight Outta Compton” came out a few months ago I remember news stations warning about violence at movie theaters and then when nothing went wrong remarked on their “surprise” that the movie premiere had gone off with no violent incidents.  My black friends were quick to take to Facebook, reminding the public that it is not black people that go around shooting up movie theaters.  The stereotypes about black people as “violent” or “thugs” are most quickly dispelled by the reality that white males are extremely violent, and arguably they have less reason to be so angry.  How did we become so entitled that if we feel bullied we feel that we are allowed to kill people in response?  When did taking someone else’s life ever become a solution to our inner problems?  Many blacks are constantly being barraged with insults and discrimination, yet when white male’s sexual identity is threatened and he feels so angry that he gets a gun and kills innocent people?  Throughout all this talk about racism and blaming of black people for their anger over systemic racism, we never question the white man’s anger.  What are they so angry about?   What has our society taught them that they even consider such mass violence an option?  I do not know, but I am angry that we are not doing more about it.

Galley, M. (2008). Would boys and girls tend to answer differently? In M. Sadowski (Ed.), Adolescents at School: Perspectives on Youth, Identity, and Education (2^nd Ed., pp. 85-98). Cambridge: Harvard Education Press.

“boys tend to rely on nonverbal communication, which Gurian says has enormous ramifications for them in an education system that relies so heavily on conversation and words.”

“The boys she studied who were educated in single-sex classes felt that they could take more risks in class and in making friends. They reported that it felt like a release to be in classes without girls and said that they asked questions they might not have felt comfortable asking if girls had been in the room. Thus, boys were better able to express their learner identities, including being able to speak freely and take risks, in classes that did not include girls”

I chose these two passages because they reminded of the student I observed last Friday for my focal learner study. I noticed a lot of nonverbal communication happening between him and a teacher. It seemed to me that this was some of the most effective communication that happened between this student and teachers. The teacher was able to understand what the student needed or wanted and respond in a way that quickly refocused him on the task at hand.

I also noticed that the student’s interactions with his female classmates seemed very different from those with his male classmates. Many of the curse words I heard were reserved for conversation with female classmates and my initial reflection is that the majority of times that he yelled out in class were related to female classmates.

These initial reflections on my observations have reevaluating the value of gender segregated education. My general opinion is that it wouldn’t be beneficial because we all need to learn to get along with each other at some point. However, these reflections seem to indicate that have separate classes or schools for boys and girls could be beneficial.

“…full-class debates about when, if ever, the words “fag,” “dyke,” and “queer” should be used, and by whom. Instead of brushing off words like “gay” or “faggot” with hasty or offhand reprimands of “don’t say that word!,” I try to prevent bullying while encouraging analysis of the varying meanings of these words…we can’t truly address bullying without closely examining the language that fuels it.” Loren Krywanczyk “There are Transsexuals In Our Middle Schools!” Continue reading Don’t Say That! … Why not? →

“At a time when many in the feminist movement were insisting that there are no differences between men and women, Gilligan…theorized that there are important psychological differences between the sexes.” (Sadowski, 2012, p. 85)

“While these theories and research findings may seem difficult to reconcile, one fact seems to emerge from all of them: There are differences between boys and girls in school.” (Sadowski, 2012, p. 87)

I thought that these two quotes were interesting because whether or not we realize it, education does tend to be biased and favor certain students. It is particularly interesting when we discus the issue of gender and education because as educators we might have the tendency to think idealistically and think that all of our students are equal and therefore we have to treat them all equally. But in reality we’re human and although, we may not realize it, we are treating the students differently. Continue reading Different is equal: understanding gender differences in the classroom →