<p>Just a few comments (all of which apply to secondary school, not primary school, to warn you beforehand):</p>
<p>I have read most of this thread, and found many of these posts very interesting. I would like to share another viewpoint: at my school, there is a completely different phenomenon occuring than what seems to be the general consensus of the public school treatment of boys and girls.</p>
<p>I am in a high school, by the way, where the majority of our teachers happen to be male. I am in a situation where, especially in math and science classes, girls are hardly encouraged to pursue interests in these subjects. These (primarily) male teachers devote much more time to male students than female students. They are more likely to offer assistance to male students who need help than female students who need help. They seem unconcerned by the large numbers of female students who are lagging due to teaching methods directed towards the advancement of boys. Even English classes include more "masculine" literature--there are no female authors or female protagonists in our entire literature curriculum.</p>
<p>For example, I once discussed my hopes of pursuing a biomedical research internship at a nearby university with my biology teacher (whose class I had a 98 percent in). His exact words in response were "Why would you want to do that? You're a girl." He meant the words jokingly, but his play on archaic stereotypes was still a huge turn-off. I had a similar experience with my algebra teacher. He requested volunteers from our class to assist in tutoring struggling pre-algebra students. I was amongst the few who offered my services, but my teacher turned down my offer with something like "Actually I was hoping for more male students to volunteer..." and launched into a lecture about how the male mind was better structured to appreciate logical and mathematical concepts.</p>
<p>My classes were nonstop lecturing. Our grades depended almost entirely on final exams. There was little to no homework, which I know many kids would view as a plus, but which I found frustrating. I eventually even began assigning myself homework, and my friends and I would hold long study sessions to practice lessons taught in class, but which we were never encouraged to actually use. The way I personally learn best, through assignments such as essays and research papers, were never assigned because my teachers didn't want to take the time to grade them. The only records of learning we had were the results of weekly scantron tests. For me personally, it is a horrible system of learning.</p>
<p>I am by no means a passive, uncompetitive, quiet teacher's pet, which seems to be the extreme end of spectrum of girls in the letter in the original post. I will admit that I do not intentionally break rules for the thrill of it, I do not engage in brawls over trivial matters, and I am not "overtly aggressive" which is the extreme end of the boys' spectrum. I do defend my views, I stand up for my rights, I hold leadership positions in ECs, I work hard in school, and believe myself to be fairly intelligent. But I never learned any of this about myself from my school, which caters to boys, is designed to help boys achieve success in life, and pursue their dreams (in my experience, at least). I had to make these realizations for myself, through my family, friends, and experiences.</p>
<p>I understand why so many of you are disappointed with the system's lack of appropriate teaching methods for boys. I am (inversely) in the same position, stuck in a school with teachers who do not know how girls think and how many of us need to learn. But I also don't think that the solution is to slide the tables towards males. For the sake of political correctness, that is what happened at my school. Administrators seemed to believe girls were benefitting too much through the education system and such teaching methods were unfair to boys. But girls require a certain learning environment as well. To suddenly invite open aggression, insubordination, and "masculinity" makes no sense to me whatsoever.</p>
<p>In the case of high school, at least, I also don't think it would be an alternative to have seperate classes for boys and girls. I enjoy attending school with boys, remaining open to their differing viewpoints and opinions, and I will have to work with and be exposed to them in the "real world" (which interestingly still supports males). On such a mass, national scale of separation of classes, many men and women would be alienated by each other in the "real world" because they often wouldn't understand the psychological nature of the other after having few learning experiences with each other. Just as it wouldn't make sense to seperate all workplaces into offices for men only and offices for women only, I don't believe the same should be done for schools.</p>
<p>Perhaps a better solution would be to encourage equal numbers of male and female instructors to pursue primary teaching careers (which I know has been tried) and to have smaller classrooms with less need for rules and order to control a large number of children. Instead of having a pure lecture class or a pure discussion class, combine a bit of both. Or have parents or students choose which particular teachers or classes they would prefer. I realize that these idea are not always plausible at the moment and may not even work successfully, but changes have to be made.</p>
<p>Well, that was just the opinion of a female student who is suffering what appears to be the same experience many males claim to be suffering. I have lost much of my interest in school and its subjects. I remain hard-working and pull decent grades, which may or may not be attributed to my nature as a girl. I have no thoughts or intentions of abandoning education or dropping out of school, but I still feel motivated by nothing more than my need to succeed. My teachers don't care about my success, and other than my friends, neither do my peers. I feel stuck. I know how it feels.</p>