Challenges of males in school

In certain countries in Asia, education is a privilege for boys. The Taliban violently keep girls out of school in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Under Spanish colonial rule, Filipino females had limited education. Under the Americans schooling was open to both females and males although there was gender-tracking in the curriculum. And the females responded very positively to this. In fact it was partly due to their level of education that they used to argue for their right to vote as in the case of suffragette Ines Suico Villa who acquired a master’s degree in the U. S. and Ph. D. in Spain.

Today when we look at our classes we see many females, even in what used to be male-dominated courses like law and engineering. More females have stayed to continue schooling than males. Statistics show that more males drop out of school than girls. Even the research of our UP Cebu High students in the Contemporary Issues class confirmed this. Related to this are research findings that show that parents allow male children to work earlier than girls. In fact, the research on child labor in the drug trade revealed that only males worked. No females worked as runners serving drug pushers. News show the opposite is true in the case of prostitution of young girls.

Gender gaps in schooling both here and abroad made me pick up the book “Why Boys Fail” by Richard Whitmire. The book cover describes him as: “A highly recognized and respected education reporter” whose “commentaries have been published in The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The New Republic and US News &World Report.” The book has been described as “American School Board Journal’s ‘Top Education Reads.’” The Washington Post considered it very clear and balanced. This must be because of his extensive research on the subject, including traveling all over the United States and even going to Australia.

According to Whitmire, the lower school performance of males compared to that of females is caused by most males’ weakness in reading and writing skills.

Some of the reasons behind this situation caught my attention: limitations in teacher training, the need for more reading instruction in the higher grades, the need to teach reading correctly, remembering to consider role models and the need for more books for boys.

In our present situation, we start instruction in the mother tongue because it has been recognized as scientifically more effective then we introduce the second language and the national language. Clearly the preparation of our teachers is a great challenge. I agree with the author on the need for better, more creative ways of teaching reading, especially comprehension and that teachers in other subjects need to be conscious of their teaching reading comprehension as well as the content of their subjects.

The author noticed that in the upper levels there are students whose reading limitations continue but are not dealt with since the teacher is now into the reading of literature.

He also pointed out that boys exposed to fathers who read at home, will most likely be encouraged to read. When he mentions the availability of books that boys would love reading, I decided to look over what books were available for young people. Do we have books published in our country that boys will actually enjoy, not just books they will reject as girl stuff?

Because of the author’s extensive exposure, the book contains cases of successful attempts to make males succeed as well as girls. He also proposed what needs to be done.

First, is the need to study the problem of the gender gap. All along the education process there is the need to investigate, to assess the phases and procedures to find out whether expected results are actually taking place. He also suggests making boys read early. He encouraged volunteer tutorials for boys with reading deficiencies. I remember that we once had a remedial reading program handled by Prof. Fe N. Reyes. I observed that to be helpful for our students.

I totally agree with his suggestion on a relevant education being helpful for boys. This has been the reason why students (who are teachers) of Master of Education Program in UP Cebu have been required to prepare culturally appropriate learning materials.

And he raises the question of whether it would be better for girls and boys to learn separately.

These are just thoughts from an initial reading, there is more for deeper reading and reflection.