Girls are smarter than boys?

When it comes to language skills there is certainly evidence that a Girls brain is more advanced than that of a boy for example at the age of 16 months old girls tend to produce up to 100 words whereas boys of the same age may produce 30, this extends to the schooling environment where writing, spelling and language tends to come easier to the girls.

One possible explanation is that we need more teaching from males in primary education. Only one in four primary schools have male teachers working in them, Education secretary Michael Gove in his speech said “We need more male teachers especially in primary schools to provide children who often lack male role models at home with male authority figures who can display both strength and sensitivity.” In this speech the education secretary recognized that children often lack male role models in the classroom meaning that it is harder for boys to understand how to act as a male and this also means that the classes are more "Female Friendly" because it was organised by a female.

the problem also lies at home as there is an increasing amount of single parents in the UK and the parent is generally the woman, he also stated his intent to launch a “troops to teachers” programme, aimed at turning members of the armed forces into teachers, which he says will boost the number of male role models in schools. the reason it is an issue is because if the boys have no male role model then they will have nobody to show them how to act and behave as a male so if there are female only teachers the possibility is that they will become confused and will be unable to get the best out of their education.

There are other possible reasons for why boys are being outperformed by girls such as the differences in attitudes towards studying, boys who are seen studying are considered ‘not cool’ and are often bullied for working hard in class, while this can also be true in girls it is at a much smaller scale than it is with boys who have managed to develop their own ‘laddish’ culture and anyone who does not ascribe to it is seen as an outcast. A teachers expectation of pupils can be disfigured at times, for example if the child is seen as a troublemaker teachers will often see him as someone who is unwilling to learn or less capable even though there could be a number of reasons as to why he is acting that way which are not tackled and so the pupil may end up being neglected by the teacher. Teaching assistant jobs are also an option to bring male teachers into the classroom without the need to go to university however it is very difficult to see this happening as males simply won't to do it so it might be that there needs to be more of an outside influence brought in to the classroom.

Since the beginning of world war 2 the role of men in society has undergone a metamorphosis, the traditional family in the UK saw males as the ‘breadwinners’ while women stayed at home and looked after the house and kids however that idea has been challenged when the war broke out and the men went off to fight and that meant that someone else had to do the jobs that, until then the thought was that only men could do the job because of the physical demand it required.

women proved that they were just as capable as the men in performing these tasks which set major alarm bells off for our society but mainly for the women who, until that time where dejected to performing only menial tasks that didn't challenge their intellectual needs and decided that the best way to challenge the man orientated society was to start burning their bras in opposition. While this simply made a lot of men drool, it was their sound arguments and proven track record that got Women the rights that they should have had to begin with.

Another factor in the change in roles of men was the De-industrialisation of Britain, in the past 30 years Britain’s manufacturing sector has shrunk by two thirds which meant a loss of jobs and a change in the way the country went about its business in which Women, being very good at communication skills and organization have managed to gain a foothold in the work place.

Education was now the focus of our country and it is thought that this was a difficult transition for men who felt their masculinity fading away and had lost their role within the family unit, this has happened within one or two generations so it is understandable why society hasn’t been able to fully adapt to it yet.

There are a number of things the teaching authorities are trying, for example when Michael Gove became secretary he wasted no time in voicing his intent to get more male teachers into the classroom and giving them someone to look up to. They are also changing the national curriculum to include more ‘male friendly’ activities such as practical and problem solving exercises which the majority of males find easier and so they are looking for ways to incorporate that into the national curriculum.

Cracking down on the laddish culture is another way of trying to improve the disparity, the idea that its ‘not cool to study’ is the mental attitude that a lot of kids have at a young age so the theory is that by changing the pupils mindset of studying to a more positive outlook then they will be more open to learning new things ergo they will get better results. To tackle this issue a number of ideas have been tried but failed miserably and it is not hard to see why if we examine it, one of the ideas was that if you come into school you get a free pencil case with the logo on the front saying ‘it’s cool to be in school’, perhaps a re-think is in order on that one before they enact these ideas.

Outside of school has also been a beneficiary in the underachievement of boys also with the growing trend of single parent families and while it is not to say that boys are more affected emotionally than girls are with the breakdown of their family it is however mostly the case that it is the father that leaves while the mother keeps the children and raises them which confuses the boy because he has nobody to show him how he should act as a male.

In conclusion it is a very complicated issue and the is no one answer or solution to the problem and while teachers can do what they can within the classroom it still might not be enough as it depends much on the parents also, the best thing to do is to keep trying to find the root cause of the problem and to act on it as soon as possible.

Neither females nor males are smarter but there are differences the two brains operate:

The left Hemisphere of the females brain is more dominant -This means that women are more adept at performing tasks such as Language, Lateral thinking, Linguistics, Inter Personal Skills, Communication and building Relationships.

The Right Hemisphere of the Males brain is more dominant - Meaning that males are better at tasks that involve Analysis, logical thought, deduction, observation, Critical thinking and sensory interpretation.

We are not at competition with each over because we are both made for different things, that isn't to say that females can't do the things males can or vice-verse it simply means that we find it easier and more comfortable to do the jobs that we are more adept at.