The Trouble With Boys (Newsweek)

The complete article is posted at:

http://mathforum.org/kb/message.jspa?messageID=4228270&tstart=0

> Does one size fit all? What should math teachers do?
> Your opinions are welcome!
> ============================
> The Trouble With Boys
> They're kinetic, maddening and failing at school.
> Now educators are trying new ways to help them succeed.
>
> By Peg Tyre
> Newsweek
>
> Jan. 30, 2006 issue - [snip]

> What's wrong with Danny? By almost every benchmark,
> boys across the nation and in every demographic group
> are falling behind. In elementary school, boys are
> two times more likely than girls to be diagnosed with
> learning disabilities and twice as likely to be
> placed in special-education classes. High-school boys
> are losing ground to girls on standardized writing
> tests. The number of boys who said they didn't like
> school rose 71 percent between 1980 and 2001,
> according to a University of Michigan study. Nowhere
> is the shift more evident than on college campuses.
> Thirty years ago men represented 58 percent of the
> undergraduate student body. Now they're a minority at
> 44 percent. This widening achievement gap, says
> Margaret Spellings, U.S. secretary of Education, "has
> profound implications for the economy, society,
> families and democracy."

In view of the billions that have been spent on computers, internet
wiring, etc., it is hard to believe that the promised wonders of
technology have not panned out. Is there any validity to this story?
After all, since 1989, the national propaganda campaign to promote the
NCTM standards and "math reform," funded so extensively by the National
Science Foundation, the
ExxonMobil Foundation, the Ford Foundation and other organizations, has
been telling us that students would be:
1. Doing "engaging problems."
2. Learning "21st-century mathematics."
3. Using technology to "free our minds" and to "solve real-world
problems."
4. Receiving "world-class education."

I have also read countless stories about how "excited" teachers and
students were about various "math reform" programs. If I may be allowed
some flights of fancy, I would speculate that this alleged behavior by
boys may be caused, in part, by the current state of
pseudo-education resulting from:
1. Our junk doorstops and assorted "math reform" rubbish.
that should be thrown directly into the dumpster.
2. The alienation and frustration resulting from the promotion of
"discovery learning" and other pseudo-educational flim-flam.
3. The mindless use of graphing calculators and other technology in
ways that have stunted the minds of students.

It is unfortunate that the Newsweek writers did not focus more on the
rubbish that pseudo-educators have been promoting for so many years.

Domenico Rosa