We Swear

When I’m Rich and Powerful (that sounds like a category all by itself), I want to address issues like these:

It’s no surprise that the number of boys who said they didn’t like school rose 71 percent between 1980 and 2001.

…

Schools claim to celebrate diversity yet insist on providing one-size-fits-all education. Whether in co-ed or single-sex classes, boys need boy-friendly instruction: more non-feminized male teachers, more competition, praise for boldness, more active learning (for example, drama and simulation) and less seatwork, less relationship-centric fiction and more how-to books, teachers’ simply accepting that boys will, on average, wiggle more than girls–and that does not require ongoing criticism, which, not surprisingly, leads to more oppositional behavior, to the school psychologist, to the little yellow bus of special education, and even more often to Ritalin. The number of boys drugged with stimulants to control “hyperactivity” has, in the past 20 years, risen 3000%!
I bolded one part, but I want to rephrase another: … boys do not require ongoing criticism, which leads to more oppositional behavior….

Give that some thought.  Criticizing boys on a regular basis will make them lash out.  Hell, doing that to *men* will make them lash out!  Ever heard of a man who couldn’t stand his wife’s nagging anymore?

This sort of stuff just drives me nuts.

The article hits on the same points I notice.

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There are a few friends who think this post is just for them.  That’s kinda my point – I talk to great people on a weekly basis who have lots of problems with their kids – especially boys, but also strong-willed girls – who have real problems with the public education system.  I want to fix that….

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 20th, 2008 at 12:01 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.