Teacher Forum: Learning Differences
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- 4/1/2007 |
- 10:00 am
Sometimes I have to laugh. Recent articles have been published that claim - oh my! - boys and girls are different!! Wow! Who would have ever thought THAT?
Okay, sarcasm aside, isn't it time that people began to accept that this means boys and girls will also learn in different ways? Let's talk about that...
I've actually written an article myself that touches briefly on this very topic (you can find it at www.DomTesta.com under "Parent/Teacher Resources"/"Articles"/"Lost Boys"). There have been teachers who have spoken out on this subject for years, without very many people listening.
Perhaps now the tide is turning. Study after study is finally backing up what common sense told many of us long ago: Boys and girls not only play in different manners on the playground, they learn in different manners in the classroom. And why not, right?
The question is, how do we educate the parents? Many of you already know that the minute you try some new approach you're labeled "radical." Many parents are not trusting, which is too bad. Girls are able to learn things in tandem much better than boys, while the guys tend to learn in very focused, tight applications.
I've heard from some teachers who have altered their own lesson plans to allow for this. They have (quietly) prepared one set of exercises for the girls, with a slightly different set for the boys. One teacher claims that the results are, as she put it, "extraordinary." She also told me that, although her principal was on board with it, other teachers told her that parents would find out and complain.
Why? I suppose we're all supposed to be little carbon copies of each other.
I'm confident that time will be our ally. More and more curriculums will begin to adjust their plans to allow for the learning differences, producing better and better results. And, with the tunnel-vision approach to RESULTS RESULTS RESULTS (see CSAP / NCLB), it might actually work to our advantage this time!
Oh, the irony.
Dom Testa
Author of the Galahad series of books
www.DomTesta.com
