The Blogfathers

Based on the amount of negative feedback, it’s clear I’ve hit a nerve among the readership. People are clearly pissed that I’ve lumped all boys under one defining feature. Yah, yah, stereotyping sucks. How dare I. Boys and girls are exactly the same. Anyone who says differently hurts my soul.

Personally, I think you’ve misread or misinterpreted my rant. I feel I must defend myself — and being a blog father, I’ve got some pull round here.

So, here goes:

I think competition is good for EVERYONE. Recent studies suggest that a competitive LEARNING (not sports, did I mention sports?) environment helps boys more than girls. Take, for instance, the Science Daily. In a recent study, according to that pub, it was found “It appears… girls are more concerned with learning than with outperforming their classmates.” and, “The researchers noted that the differences in grades between girls and boys disappeared once children’s concerns with learning versus outperforming others, engagement in disruptive behavior and learning strategies were taken into account.” Hmmmm… interesting. Girls: learning. Boys: outperforming others.

While this is only one study, it DOES suggest that competitive environments affect boys’ abilities to learn — not play sports — in a positive way. When learning differences are taken into account, all things become equal. Now, will a more competitive learning environment help some girls, and hurt some boys. Hell yes. Duh. But here’s my point: taking away competition in academics hurts more boys than girls because of the way the two sexes learn. You can use the “marginal case” all day long to find examples of how I’m wrong. I think that if you really think about it – and perhaps do some research – you might think otherwise.

Will these differences in learning change over time? They might. But for now, there are quantifiable differences in learning between the sexes that should be addressed when teaching to our childen.

I also am in no way pointing the finger at teachers. My mom is a teacher. She works hard every day. She defends herself to parents who think their child is failing because of her, the teacher, and not because of the fact that there are clearly family issues that the parent is not taking into account. And that’s first grade.

I think that this trend toward a less competitive environment was initiated, as many changes in schools are, by the parents, and the blame falls squarely in the parents’ laps. I’m not blaming the schools, I’m blaming the parents. As parents, we need to make the change back to more competition. It’s good for EVERYONE.

Spring Cleaning, Contract Hits, Mouthing Off