Posted on 07/09/2005 5:35:25 PM PDT by NYer
NEW YORK, JULY 9, 2005 (Zenit.org).- Boys and girls have marked physical and psychological differences and hence they have to be educated differently. This is the thesis of a book published earlier this year by psychologist and family doctor Leonard Sax.
In "Why Gender Matters" (Random House), he takes issue with the modern tendency toward gender-neutral child-rearing. According to this theory boys and girls behave differently because of the way they are educated, or because of cultural factors. Sax describes how in the mid-1990s he began to see more and more young boys arrive at his office with requests for medication, due to their supposed attention-deficit disorder.
The real problem, Sax eventually discovered, was that the second- and third-graders were being educated by teachers who did not understand the differences in how boys and girls learn. For a start, he explains, a girl's sense of hearing is more sensitive than that of boys, so the tone of voice used by a female teacher may be fine for the girls, but does not engage a boy's attention.
This experience sparked off Sax's interest in the subject of sex-based differences. His research showed that behavioral differences are not just caused by cultural factors. Research into men and women who have suffered strokes reveals that in men the left and right hemispheres of the brain are strongly compartmentalized, with the former dedicated to verbal skills and the latter to spatial functions. This division does not exist in women, who use both hemispheres of the brain for language.
And analysis of human brain tissue shows that there is a difference in its composition, at the level of the proteins. This difference is not due to hormonal changes that occur at puberty, but is something innate and is present even in children.
Sax also notes that girls and women can generally interpret facial expressions better than most boys and men. He cites research carried out at Cambridge University, showing that even young babies reveal differences in the way they pay attention to objects. Female babies are more interested in other people's faces, while male babies prefer to pay attention to moving objects.
Seeing differently
In fact, evidence exists that from the composition of the retina to the way images are processed by the brain, there are notable differences between males and females. This results in females being more aware of differences in color and texture, while males discern with greater facility location, direction and speed.
This difference is then reflected in the toys that young children prefer -- dolls for girls and trucks for boys -- and the type of pictures they draw, with girls using more colors and including more people in their drawings.
This has consequences when it comes to schooling, Sax explains. Given that most kindergarten teachers are women they tend to encourage their students to draw people and to use lots of colors. This can lead to discouragement among boys, whose different style of drawing is not appreciated by the teacher, leading them to conclude that "art is for girls."
Male and female differences are also evident in the way people navigate. Men are more likely to use abstract concepts such as north and south, and to refer to distances. Women, by contrast, prefer using visual landmarks. Neuroscientists have found, Sax noted, that even by the age of 5 the male brain uses a different part of the brain to navigate, the hippocampus, while the female brain relies on the cerebral cortex.
Feelings
Notable differences also exist in how emotions are handled. Children are generally not capable of analyzing their emotions, because this area of their brain has not yet developed. In adolescence, emotions are increasingly dealt with by the cerebral cortex, the area of the brain associated with higher cognitive functions.
But this change is far more pronounced in girls' brains than in those of boys. So, if at school adolescents are asked by their teachers to write or talk about their emotions this places boys at a disadvantage.
Another area with marked differences between males and females is in the willingness to accept risk. Most boys enjoy taking risks, and are also impressed by other boys who take risks. This is not the same for girls, who generally are less likely to seek out risky situations just for the sake of it. Boys are also more likely to disobey their parents when told not do something risky.
Sax explained that while boys enjoy doing risky things, they also systematically overestimate their own ability, whereas girls are likely to underestimate it. Researchers at Boston University noted that almost all drowning victims are male, for example. They concluded that a major contributing factor to this was that males consistently overestimated their swimming ability.
Boys are also more attracted to violence and conflict -- for example, in their reading preferences -- than girls are. And in their relations with others, boys are notably readier to fight and to respond aggressively than girls.
Friendships are also carried out differently. Girls tend to organize their friendships around spending time together, talking and going to places. Friendships among boys, however, revolve around a common interest in games and activities, with conversation and secret-sharing not holding a high priority.
Brain development
Learning methods between the sexes vary greatly too. Most girls, Sax explained, naturally tend to seek out a teacher's help, are more likely to follow instructions, and to do their homework. Boys, by contrast, will generally only consult a teacher as a last resort and are less likely to study if they find a subject uninteresting.
And when it comes to motivating students, boys respond well to stress created by confrontation or time-constrained tasks, an approach that does not give good results for girls.
Sax is careful to point out that every child is unique and, also, that not all boys or all girls are the same. At the same time, he writes, this "should not blind us to the fact that gender is one of the two great organizing principles in child development -- the other principle being age."
Girls and boys, he explained, differ substantially in the speed with which their brains mature. The various regions of the brain develop in a different sequence in girls compared to boys. Therefore, rather than saying that boys develop more slowly than girls, it is more accurate to affirm that girls and boys develop at a different pace. Language skills develop earlier in girls, for example, while spatial memory matures earlier in boys.
In fact, Sax argued, these differences in cerebral capacities between the sexes are larger and more important during childhood and adolescence than the differences between adults, when both males and females have reached full maturity.
This difference, he argues, should be acknowledged by educators, and then used positively. Just trying to stop boys from fighting among themselves or playing dangerous games, for example, is insufficient. The solution is not to try and eliminate this aggression in males, but to transform it by providing constructive alternatives.
And when it comes to teaching, instead of prescribing medications to boys to treat attention problems, a better solution would be to separate the sexes and use teaching methods appropriate for each sex. In a word: letting boys be boys.
ping
An excellent summary! It seems that over the past few decades, boys have been 'expected' to act like girls. When I attended elementary school, the boys settled arguments in the school yard. Now they are expected to sit quietly at their desks, like the girls. Kudos to a psychlogist who "gets it".
Catholic Ping
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Psychobabbling freak. Boys and girls are different. No sh--.
Maybe if he had a normal relationship with a woman, she'd tell him all about it.
Duh,
Now they figure out that the educators pre 1960 had it right.
Bump
maybe even let girls be boys?
Every once in a while, a girl will be born with less "girl traits" and more "boy traits" (or vice versus). This was very true for me. Reading the article made me realize how much more male than female I am. No wonder I don't like having this female body; I feel like it's holding me back. Still, I am very glad that I'm far from being the average woman.
OHMYGOODNESS!
This is just so politically incorrect, it can't ever be the truth!
Testosterone, the "Great Right Wing Conspiracy!
Today all of this is different, boys and girls are always together, and I think this familiarity means that the sexual awareness which comes with pubery is just as likely to be projected toward members of the same gender.
I teach a class to 2nd graders, and a few years ago, a year or 2 into the program, I read an article similar to this. It changed everything. Instead of spending time correcting (as we were told to do) or disciplining for things like wiggling or not standing still, I simply switched my expectations and let the 'boys be boys', within our 'rules', of course. We had far fewer disciplinary issues and everyone was happier. And some of the odd behaviors diminished as well. One little guy would repeatedly fall out of his desk. Yes, hard to believe until you see it. I thought he was getting far too much attention for that. After I started more or less ignoring it, the incidences fell by more than half. I decided I could live with that because his class participation and effort increased much more dramatically. We now share this info with the new ccd teachers.
Perhaps now they'll leave the few remaining all-male colleges alone!
I think the list is down to Wabash, Hampden-Sydney and Morehouse.
When the subject comes up, the faculty are always behind the movement to co-ed. I hear that recruiting faculty to these institutions is hampered somewhat due to the liberal faculty biases against all-male eductation.
Conversely, the list of all-female institutions goes on and on, with enthusiastic support of the popular press and liberal faculty.
Tim Wohlford, BA,
Wabash College '84
While your sentiment is correct, don't short change the psychobabilist who is, when considering his peer group, venturing into new and heretical realms. Modern educational theory, that has blithly ignored the painflly obvious for the past 40 years, has now so completely lost touch with any semblance of reality that any stab at "getting it right" and not "getting it correct" should be applauded.
Boys and girls are different. I seem to recall that the President of Harvard Univ. was recently crucified for noticing that basic truth.
This just in! Psychologist/doctor reveals that boys and girls are different. We live in a wondrous age. Each day brings a new revelation from our scientists.
Althought this wasn't exactly news to me it was still interesting. It describes my son and daughter perfectly!!
I never thought of that.
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