In a sad way, I'm temporarily relieved by this information; I thought only I was losing the boys. I see less academic confidence in my boys, which I believe leads to their acting out as way to detract attention from the frustrating tasks at hand. Out of all my students I worried about potentially failing the writing TAKS, 85 percent were boys. Of the four students I've referred to the office this year, three have been boys. All three fourth graders sent to our district's disciplinary school this year (for 20 school days of doing book work in an isolated cubicle) have been boys. Two-thirds of our fourth-grade dyslexic students are boys. And the list goes on. Maybe public school as it is today just doesn't work for boys.
The question is: What works? Something will work. I hope researchers are studying this right now: What works for boys? Why is the current educational system failing them? These would make great thesis topics for someone in graduate school.
Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/leitakma3y/ / CC BY 2.0
