Characteristics+and+Concerns+about+Gender

Back to Home Page "Sitting in the same classroom, reading the same textbook, listening to the same teacher, boys and girls receive very different educations." (Sadker, 1994)




 * Our culture encourages spatial reasoning and analytical thinking in males more than females.
 * Boys are often most classified in the mathematical and scientific realms of academic giftedness.
 * Gifted males can have a tendency to follow their curiosity rather than worry about consequences
 * Some boys are diagnosed as ADHD simply because they are so curious, when really they should be considered for a gifted program.
 * Gifted boys are often thought of as immature because they are not on the same social level as both gifted females and their peers. They often struggle to interact with peers of their own age early on because they feel that they have nothing in common with these people.
 * Gifted males often shy away from embracing the more artistic aspect of education and are sometimes discouraged from doing so.




 * Gifted females often hide their abilities early on in an attempt to blend in with their surroundings, especially from a social perspective.
 * With math and science deemed "masculine" areas of study in today's culture, gifted female students often anticipate failure in these areas, and therefore do not put forth their best effort.
 * Many girls believe, due to culture and familial influence, that girls should simply grow up to become mothers or work in a less professional setting.
 * Female students are more apt to embrace the arts.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">Many gifted programs seem to favor females over males. Research has shown that females are more often accepted into gifted programs because girls are typically more reserved in the classroom. This desired behavior causes teachers to recommend girls into gifted programs at a higher rate than boys. New York City's gifted programs are unbalanced and favor females. I found the following short article about this quite interesting. Click here to read it!
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">By the time a girl reaches about age 10, she has usually been socialized in a way that she will hide her gifted ability if it has not already been encouraged and identified. In early middle school, girls just try to blend in with those around them as a coping mechanism.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">Girls develop academically and emotionally at very unpredictable levels. Often times their emotional maturity does not line up with their intelligence. Furthermore, they often struggle to fit in with their peers because of this.

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">Katie Gamble

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">(Picture Credits:)

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">- http://wwwdelivery.superstock.com/WI/223/1527/PreviewComp/SuperStock_1527R-1203960.jpg <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">- http://theapple.monster.com/nfs/theapple/attachment_images/0009/4401/gifted_student_crop380w.jpg?1278538946

Sources: <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">- Bailey, S. (1992) How Schools Shortchange Girls: The AAUW Report. New York, NY: Marlowe & Company. <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">- Jones, K., Evans, C., Byrd, R., Campbell, K. (2000) Gender equity training and teaching behavior. Journal of Instructional Psychology, 27 (3), 173-178. <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">- Klein, S. (1985) Handbook for Achieving Sex Equity Through Education. Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press. <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">- Marshall, C.S. & Reihartz, J. (1997) Gender issues in the classroom. Clearinghouse, 70 (6), 333-338. <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">- McCormick, P. (1995) Are girls taught to fail? U.S. Catholic, 60, (2), 38-42. <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">- Sadker, D., Sadker, M. (1994) Failing at Fairness: How Our Schools Cheat Girls. Toronto, ON: Simon & Schuster Inc.