Boys are often disciplined more often than girls in the classroom and as a result a cycle of behavior ensues.
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People will often describe the act of getting small boys to sit still and follow directions as something akin to trying to nail jello to a wall, especially in situations where we want our boys to be their most settled. Attend any house of worship, or sit in the waiting room of any doctor’s office, and you will be sure to see at least one parent trying to prevent their son from climbing over a pew, or from sweeping all of the magazines off of the table. It’s to be expected that boys are just plain fidgety…
… except for in the place where they spend a third of their day, the classroom.
Schools are a place of structure, routine and oftentimes rigidity. Desk are placed in rows, class time is managed by bells, and movement is strictly prohibited. The young men who dare to break the rules pay for it in a major way.
Boys are often disciplined far more often than girls. Boys often receive “write ups”, phone calls home for class interruptions…a loud laugh, scraping a chair repeatedly across the floor, or getting up to sharpen pencils twenty times a day.
These annoying disruptions often lead to more serious discipline being levied against boys as a cycle of behavior ensues…
Boys disrupt classroom settings
Teachers notify parents and/or school disciplinarians
Boys are angered, upset or feel unjustly punished
Boys return to school defiant, sometimes with the goal to “do something REALLY bad since I am going to get in trouble anyway”.
This cycle may start off as an attempt to modify student behavior, but as the behavior continues, the level of discipline increases and serious repercussions for our boys steadily rises. A study released last year in the Journal of Human Resources illustrates that student behavior plays an important role when configuring student grades and that teacher bias in terms of their students’ behavior plays a part in student grading practices as early as kindergarten, often leading to educational labels that boys find hard to leave behind.
According to the book, Reaching Boys, Teaching Boys: Strategies That Work and Why, “boys are kept back in schools at twice the rate of girls. Boys get expelled from preschool nearly five times more often than girls. Boys are diagnosed with learning disorders and attention problems at nearly four times the rate of girls… Boys are more likely to drop out of school, and make up only 43 percent of college students. Furthermore, boys are nearly three times as likely as girls to be diagnosed with Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)”.
These alarming facts would indicate a need to find a more positive way to channel the mobility of our boys in a positive way. Incorporating hands on components into classroom lessons, or even adding a tangible end of lesson product, can aid classrooms in working towards a balance in classroom/school behavioral expectations, and creating a learning environment that embraces the learning styles of both genders.
Photo: WellSpringSchool/Flickr
I honestly love this blog! Connie K. Grier your insight and approach around the issues affecting our young men are very well thought out and even better articulated. I also enjoy reading the comments from the individuals that take the time to post with an opinion on the matters; its a refreshing dialogue that’s always packed with great points of emphasis!
Hello Kaliek
Thank you so much! I thoroughly enjoy engaging with you all around issues of importance regarding young men. I appreciate the different perspectives.
CKG
I used to volunteer in my son’s kindergarten class and it did seem the boys had more difficulty sitting and paying attention. Then I remembered that my daughter, who was older, liked to play ‘school’…which included behavioural norms. My son? Never! Made me wonder if the boys found it hard because they hadn’t been rehearsing school behaviour during play…no one had ever taught them how to sit quietly for 30 minutes or more. Smart teacher though…a playground break unless it was -40C.
Hello Jan
Well, the absence of “”teaching ” the behavior definitely can be seen as a reason as to why boys have a more challenging time with sitting still. The issue for me is, sedentary adults are encouraged to move/stretch frequently. Why would we not allow the same health intervention for children? It would seem to me that children might need it more. And yes, the teacher is correct to have recess in the winter. Fresh air,,,:-)…!!
Thank you so much for responding,
CKG
Do you have any info as to why boys are more fidgety? Is there an inherent chemical difference or brain structure difference to girls? Is it the way boys are conditioned? Are there things parents can do to help their boys cope better with the demands of the classroom? As the mother of a son I hope he can learn to be and thrive in a school environment.
And similarly why don’t all boys struggle with this?
From a psychology and gender studies perspective, boys are no more or less likely to be fidgety than girls. Boys are perceived to be more fidgety, therefore teachers are more likely to focus on or look for boys to be fidgety. Girls are equally as likely to be climbers, like boys are often referred to. Girls are equally as likely to resort to daredevil behaviors. Also, boys don’t learn a certain way. Specific people learn in specific ways. My brain is geared toward the humanities. My husband is geared toward engineering. His brain gets to the answer to a problem… Read more »
Hello Karee While there are never any absolutes, the brains of boys and girls tend to develop differently. Of course, there are girls who are also in need of more recess/breaks within the academic setting and who excel in arennas traditionally thought to “belong” to men. Below is one example of a Nuerological explanation,but againn, no one explanation cann fit all students “In general, the development of boys’ brains and overall nervous systems is delayed compared to girls (Berk, 2002; Leaper, Anderson & Sanders, 1998). And since the brain affects cognitive development, attention and emotional regulation, this impacts a boy’s… Read more »
Hello Dan Fidgety behavior is actually seen as an indicator that the person is not getting enough movement. The need to move overcomes the rule of sitting still and movement occurs. Instead of indulging the need with frequent breaks throughout the day, many schools are reducing gym and recess, and try to teach from “bell to bell” , leaving little time for movement. Generally speaking, Boys’ brains develop at a different pace than girls. Here is an excerpt from a study that you may wish to explore : “In general, the development of boys’ brains and overall nervous systems is… Read more »
Hi Connie, Great article as always, but for me it makes somewhat depressing reading. It saddens me that the educational establishment seems to want to treat the underachievement of boys as either being of little to no concern or as being a ‘condition’ that needs to be corrected through behaviour altering drugs. At the end of the day, all we will end up with is an undereducated sub-class of males and a high-flying creed of upwardly mobile females. Surely this would be bad for society! I don’t support the idea of single sex schools as being the solution to the… Read more »
Hey Batty
Thanks so much!
I totaly agree,, I think that the educational system needs to seriously reconsider ideas like “sitting still” and the academic consequences that follow when students are not compliant.
How come girls never seem to get punish as much as boys considering the fact that in many ways they are meaner than the boys? Remember the move Mean Girls?
Minority boys get write up and expelled twice the rate of whites. In addition, kids are being drugged in order to keep them quiet at school instead of trying to find out what is the problem(s) behind their behavior and nowadays, the police officer assigned to the school is being used to arrest the kids and send them to jail instead trying to resolve the problem.
Hello G,
Part of the issue is that there is a possibility that there is no “problem” Science shows that boys often require a different instructional style to keep their attention. When they are forced to sit still for hours on end with no recess and no mobility, the energy will come out somehow
I think the disparity between boys and girls misbehaving and getting caught and punished for it has to do with how boys handle conflict vs. how girls handle conflict. Boys are much more physical. We’re more likely to resort the throwing punches and hurting the other guy. Girls, on the other hand, mostly manipulate and backstab those they don’t like. The former is much more obvious and easier to spot than the ladder. The fact is, mean girls are much better at hiding their misdeeds than boys are. Growing up I knew girls that were masters at doing this sort… Read more »
Hello David
The issues that boys face in the classroom discussed in this blog mostly deal with classroom disruption that is of a non-violent nature. Even as adults, we need too stand up once an hour, get water, stretch, walk, etc. In the traditional schhool setting, such breaks are rarely encouraged as they would be disruptive to a traditional lesson delivery.
Thank you so much for your response,
CKG
Ms Grier,
Great post and I agree. I wish you would write another solution detailing solutions. More than the 1 sentence at the end of this post. As a teacher, I don’t send kids out of my room. I incorporate movement. I give as much 1:1 attention as I can. I would love to hear more ideas on how to reach the fidgety boys in my classes. Thank you.
Hello BK
Thank you so much. If I received clearance for a follow up piece, I would definitely consider doing a part two that offers detailed instructional supports.