In the race for higher scores in public examinations, some boys are still falling behind while some girls continue to press ahead. As a result, the national examination statistics show a widening gender gap that researchers have been trying to understand.
One simple explanation, writes Falkirk teacher Stuart Baird, is that “boys will be boys”. They have been for quite a long time, of course, but as the rest of society gets less tolerant of laddish behaviour, school classrooms become less welcoming for some sorts of boys. Any inclination to work for exams therefore diminishes.
Stuart Baird is a contributor to Generation - Youth Issues Online, an independent project in Scotland which is promoting radical approaches to youth and adolescence through web pages at: http:www.generation.clara.net.
The research report on “What’s wrong with boys?” is a recent addition to a growing collection of analyses written by Stuart Waiton, Stuart Baird, and others: http:www.generation.clara.netpage63.html.
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