Sunday, Jun. 08, 2003
Boys vs. Girls, posted at 8:42 p.m.
Epiphany in Baltimore has moved to epiphanyinbaltimore.blogspot.com A couple of people have asked about my comment in my last entry that teenage boys are easier to teach than teenage girls. First off, the comment was probably made too stridently. No harm was intended. What I will speak of is all generalities and some stereotypes, and certainly is not true in every case.But... so far in my teaching career, I have found young men to be a bit easier. My teaching situation is especially so, as my school is about 25% males and 75% females - and my classes have generally an even higher disparity. This, I think, contributes to more docility from the boys, and less an opportunity to do that teenage male boastful thing. The girls will put them in their place if they try it. Plus, the fact that studies have shown that young African American females are the group of young people that suffers the least amount of demonstrated self-esteem issues contributes to my perception. In general, my female students are louder and less likely to back down. As a male teacher, I think it's fairly natural that I relate perhaps a bit better with my male students. All of these factors give me the perception that boys are somewhat "easier" to teach than girls in some ways.
Indeed, every time I get a new class list, I go through and count the number of boys. Boys stand out at my female dominant school, and they tend to be more at-risk and drop out more often.
Now, Boston Betty, a 20-year veteran who is transferring to an all-boys school, agrees. She has different reasons, but, just like mine, they're all just anecdotal. She says that when a boy is caught doing something wrong, he'll fess up to it and say, "Okay, you caught me" and then accept the consequences. When a girl is caught doing something, she'll get huffy, deny it, then gossip about the teacher and call her a bitch for weeks.
Of course, not every case. This is mass generalization, and arguably not very useful at all. I enjoy all of my students and strive to find ways to connect with all of them. But it's generally easier to connect with the majority of the boys than it is with the majority of the girls, and if a student gives me attitude in class or talks back to me, it's almost always a girl. Rules of probability dictate this a bit, but I think it's telling that I've taught at this school for two years now and of the five or so discipline problems I've had, only one has been with a boy.
I hope no one thinks I'm revealing sexist tendencies here; I'm just trying to be honest about my perceptions. Some of what I say is backed up by studies, but much of it is just anecdotal from an admittedly brief career in an admittedly unbalanced gender school.