tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7844167015224368882.post54787805406004742..comments2023-07-30T06:56:42.018-07:00Comments on Parenting is Political: The Boy Crisis in Education, Part 2: Science Fact and FictionStepfordTOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08340282997915000608noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7844167015224368882.post-25256052023882442332013-05-03T10:49:14.441-07:002013-05-03T10:49:14.441-07:00Wander099 -- Thanks for your comment.
I agree th...Wander099 -- Thanks for your comment. <br /><br />I agree that schools have become more authoritarian in recent decades, despite an increase in progressive rhetoric about "child-centred" teaching methods and "safe spaces." As a parent it's sad to see my kids disliking school even more than I did at their age! As for the balanced day, I've written about it in another <a href="http://northtomom.blogspot.ca/2010/12/balanced-day-less-play.html" rel="nofollow">post</a> on this site; I agree that it is on balance (ha!) not great for kids.StepfordTOhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08340282997915000608noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7844167015224368882.post-42643014696445050862013-04-30T16:09:19.972-07:002013-04-30T16:09:19.972-07:00Ontario has changed in many districts. Ontario us...Ontario has changed in many districts. Ontario used to have 3 recesses - two fifteen minute outdoor recesses and an hour lunch, half of which was outside. So 90 minutes break total, 60 minutes outside, and a nicely spaced out day. This is what I had and I liked it.<br /><br />Now my district has a new model, the balanced school day. The parents I and my family know don't like it and fought it, but lost. What it is is two breaks per day 40 minutes in length, so that is a 10 minute loss in break time. About half of each break is allotted to eating (supposed to bring two small lunches), so kids get about 40 minutes outside per day - a 20 minute loss! The kids don't like it because they have to rush eating and barely get to play. The teachers like it because they only have to supervise one out of two breaks. I wonder why kids are so restless...hm...<br /><br />And schools are very authoritarian, even when I was at school in the 1990s, but even more so now. They are extremely unfriendly environments to all children, not just boys. As a girl in school I was not happy. Anything but complete and unquestioning obedience was unacceptable. I was a questioner and they don't like questioners. Now it is worse with so many zero tolerance policies - if some of these had been around back then, I would have been tossed out so fast, along with half the class.Wander099noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7844167015224368882.post-69008402305681531702013-04-25T12:02:50.092-07:002013-04-25T12:02:50.092-07:00Anonymous -- Thanks for your comment. I think ther...Anonymous -- Thanks for your comment. I think there may be a US/Canada difference here: In our (local) elementary schools there are still three full recesses daily (including a half hour lunch recess), plus something called DPA (daily physical activity) that the province (Ontario) mandates for 20 minutes on each day that kids don't have phys. ed. Yet we hear that schools are unfriendly to boys here too. I do think the situation you're describing is unfriendly to boys. But I also think it is unfriendly to girls -- to all kids. The problem seems to me to be one of increasing authoritarianism rather than "feminization," a problem related to (or compounded by) the absurd mania surrounding standardized tests. (See Chris Liebig's <a href="http://ablogaboutschool.blogspot.ca/" rel="nofollow">A Blog About School</a>.) And I think the climate in authoritarian schools obsessed with raising test scores is not healthy for any kid. Our local schools are also more authoritarian than when I went to school. Here, too, kids are subjected to more standardized testing than in previous eras. It's part of the reason my daughters hate school, whereas I only mildly disliked it. :-) StepfordTOhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08340282997915000608noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7844167015224368882.post-69580305722193027152013-04-24T19:01:34.085-07:002013-04-24T19:01:34.085-07:00This boy thing wasn't as much of an issue in t...This boy thing wasn't as much of an issue in the 60s and 70s because schools were very, very different then. In my elementary school in the 70s, we had recess three times a day, in all weather (we had "indoor recess" if it was pouring rain). We were allowed to eat our entire lunch each day (in fact, we weren't allowed to throw food away) and we had no homework before fifth grade (and then it was minimal). I believe we took only one standardized test in the first eight years of school. We didn't even get letter grades until high school.<br /><br />Although it was a co-ed school, there were separate playgrounds for boys and girls. The boys' gym teacher (a man) would be on the boys' playground as coach/ref as the boys played kickball, flag football, etc. The girls' playground actually had more stuff than the boys' playground (foursquare, hopscotch, a jungle gym, slide, and a big sports field), but was more "free choice," with fewer structured/monitored sports. I have good memories of my elementary (grades 1 thru 8) school experience. And trust me, there was nothing hippy about the school I went to. It was a regular school like all the others at the time. <br /><br />Schools today, of course, are very different. The tone is much more serious and the behavioral expectations are much higher. Now the kids (at least in my kids' school) are expected to sit in a chair all day, usually with about ten minutes total recess (if that--no going out if it's too cold or too wet) and ten minutes lunch in the cafeteria. The rest of the day is a grind. Let's just say the boys aren't outside playing flag football for 45 minutes in the middle of every day. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7844167015224368882.post-45780973224561212132013-04-23T20:07:57.384-07:002013-04-23T20:07:57.384-07:00Thanks, FedUpMom.
School is not designed for my ...Thanks, FedUpMom. <br /><br />School is not designed for my two girls either. I often wonder why boys didn't find school a problem -- or why no one talked about it being a particular problem for boys -- in the sixties and seventies. Has it really become more "feminized"? I doubt it. I think school is not really designed for *kids*. That's the problem!<br /><br />StepfordTOhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08340282997915000608noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7844167015224368882.post-49232980213458300032013-04-23T17:49:10.451-07:002013-04-23T17:49:10.451-07:00Dynamite! I'm looking forward to the next ins...Dynamite! I'm looking forward to the next installment. <br /><br />I often see the contention that "school is designed for girls", and I honestly don't know what that means. It isn't designed for either of my girls, that's for sure. I guess it means that school is designed for a particular type of eager-to-please, other-directed, totally compliant girl. But there are many other kinds of girls in the world.FedUpMomhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00951858601020687242noreply@blogger.com