when i was a little girl in school, i excelled more than my brothers when it came to things such as reading and writing reports. back then, i thought i was just smarter than they were.
now, as a mother of 2 sons and 2 daughters, i can see the same thing happening with my girls, except i can spot the difference.... my sons are just as smart.
so how come my daughters are scoring higher in all subjects that contain reading than my sons?
after reading an article that mensa had based on a study of academics, i agree that curriculum has to change.
basically, their study suggested that when girls started going to school, that they had to "dumb" it down in order for that gender to "catch up".
before long, everything became more geared toward the female gender and was mainstreamed into all curriculum.
how many times have my sons had to read a book that was of no interest to them, but my daughters would love? as compared to the opposite? more times than i can count.
so this year, our local schools decided that they were going to separate reading and english classes. now the boys have a class to themselves and the girls have a class to themselves.
i was all for this at the time, based on what i read and how i felt about it.
guess what? it is great. the boys are now reading and writing reports on subjects that interest them. not only have i seen an improvement in our own children's grades but also in other children.
i think whatever needs to be done to ensure that learning can be made interesting and fun, so that children will want to excel has merit and should not be laughed at. education is of highest value to me.
~mother of 4
