Monday, October 1, 2007

Newsweek Cont'd

The theme of my article was about how boys are struggling in school and why. Some people say it's because of distractions while others say it's all scientific stuff. Boys are two times as likely to get learning disabilities than girls and twice as likely to be placed in a special education class. Thirty years ago it was just the opposite, girls were struggling but since schools were forced to provide equal opportunities for girls in the classroom and in sports, girls have done much better. Coauthor of "Raising Cain", Thompson, cays that, "Boys are treated like defective girls".



An article I read on the internet hypothesized that it was the teachers. It said that they were testing to see if male students responded better to female teachers rather than male teachers. The study was based on third and fourth graders in Canada. It was a ten week study reading intervention where the researchers visited schools and worked with boys for thirty minutes. They did "duet reading", researcher and student reading at the same time, and solo reading. By the end of the researcher it was stated that the teacher gender had no effect.
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/80583.php

Newsweek Blog


This article is basiclly about how boys aren't doing so well in school compared to girls. They are more likely to be put into a special ed. class and more likely to be diagnosed wtih learning disabilities. Basiclly the article talks about what you can do to help, why boys are like this, and what schools are doing to help. For instance, some schools have books like "Real Boys" in their teachers lounge so teachers can get a better hold on their male students.


I picked this article because it was on the front page and it just caught my attention.