Can I say that? Is it okay now? I listened to “Free To Be You and Me,” are we ready to move on? ‘Cause this discussion has been popping up all over my world. On the playground, at birthday parties, the school drop-off zone. It seems pretty simple, but somehow it got complicated through the years. Boys and girls are different. Not: one is better, one is smarter, or one is more creative – just different.
And me and many other parents pretty much agree, something needs to be added to the education system to meet this growing conclusion.
This has been on my mind for a while now. My son took OT and speech for 2 years at a private practice. And as I watched the amazing therapists work with him I noticed that: one, the physical work was a studied refinement of natural outdoor play. (For most kids this comes naturally, but my son needed help.) And, that the physical activity happened before the sit-down learning of speech. He played and then he was ready to learn. Get physically organized – then get mentally organized. I’ve read a lot of stuff about how effective that is for learners. Especially for highly active kids. Active kids who tend to be boys. Not always boys, but very very often.
At a birthday party I went to recently, there were several moms and one stay at home dad having this very discussion. The dad prefaced one of his comments with, “I mean no offense,” then said, “early education is so heavily led by females that it’s naturally geared toward girls and how girls learn.” None of us moms were offended, in fact, we all agreed. We have sons. They wiggle, they shout, they are busting out of themselves. We see how they struggle to sit still, grasp crayons, and stay on task at school.
For one example: Girls pretty easily sit at a table, pick out many colors of crayons, and draw with pretty colors, boys take out dark colors and scribble fast, fast, fast. Usually with sound effects. It comes back to physical differences, even within the eyes.
From Susan Kovalik, Gender Differences and Student Engagement: “Girls and boys see the world differently — not just figuratively, but literally. Regarding vision, a girl’s retina is built differently from a boy’s. When a girl and a boy look at the same landscape, they see different images.
How did we arrive at this critical piece of information? A study was done immediately after the children were born, while still in the hospital. Babies were given a choice between looking at a simple dangling mobile or at the face of a woman who smiled but didn’t say anything. All 102 babies were videotaped. The researchers, who didn’t know the sex of the babies, analyzed their eye motions. The differences were significant: The boys were more than twice as likely to prefer the moving mobile, while the girls were drawn to the living face.
The rods and cones within the retina are structurally different in the male and female eyes. Rods are color blind. Cones are sensitive to color. They both send their signals to the ganglion cells, some of which are large while others are small. They have different jobs. The large cells are wired to rods and are sensitive to motion. Think of them answering the questions, “Where is it now, and where is it going?” They are essentially a motion detector. The male retina has mostly these larger, thicker M (magnocellular) cells, and can track objects anywhere in the field of vision.
The smaller cells answer the questions, “What is it, and what are the colors and textures?” The female retina has predominantly the smaller, thinner P (parvocellular) cells that are concentrated in and around the fovea, the center of the field of vision.
If the male eye structure is geared to motion, then looking out the window or out the classroom door, watching the classroom action, and anything moving will catch boys’ attention — they are wired for that. Looking at a worksheet, in the center field of vision, is better suited for girls’ retinas. “
I’ve read a couple of articles that talk about how boys and girls see the world differently. After I thought about it, suddenly NASCAR made total sense, and so did flipping through a catalog to look at pretty pictures. Boys and girls are different, people are different. We all see, hear, and experience the world differently.
That said, the differences between boys and girls flow along a spectrum. Some girls are geared toward sports and competition, and some boys are geared toward reading and art. It doesn’t benefit to say one is all of one and one is all of the other. But, the fact is that the “male style” of learning needs to be addressed: The gross motor stuff, outdoor stuff, being a kid stuff. Exercise the body – then exercise the mind.
I believe you would find that most teachers would agree with this too. In fact, during one summer session I saw a teacher who, just by coincidence, had an entire class of about 10, 10 year old boys. One day I hung around, and while talking to some moms – I saw this teacher bring the boys back out and just run laps. Being the mother of a boy – I so got it.
But to go back a minute, another thing the dad at the party said, was that it’s really up to the parent’s to meet their kid’s needs. Schools can’t always be the complete one-stop-shop. I believe that’s true. So, for us, that means we walk to school (up hill, not both ways) when weather permits. That walk is important. It helps my son get some get some exercise and settle down before school.
Kids are all individuals. I’m fortunate to say that it’s been my experience, that teachers recognize this fact. Especially at the early stages, kids need different things and learn in different styles. Even though our teachers are bound to the testing and standardization of the public system. At heart, great teachers know that kids are unique and each one is gifted in different areas.
So maybe let’s throw some stuff in the education mix that can help out the boys and benefit all of the students. Maybe let all the kids go nuts first thing in the morning. Or, do calisthenics or jump rope, or something. Of course, talking about it here is easy – implementing it is another. But, it can be done. There’s a school in Naperville, Illinois that makes physical education the first class of the day. And the results are amazing…”Reading scores up nearly twice as much. Math scores up by a factor of 20.” “At the University of Illinois, Dr. Charles Hillman’s research shows that after a 30-minute stint on the treadmill, students actually do up to 10% better at problem solving.”
Now, I need to take my own advice. I just took myself for a walk, but maybe I should start thinking bigger? As Perseus said in the original Clash of the Titan’s: “It’s time for action, not words.”
