I’ve been wrestling this week with mixed feelings about boys, bullies, and the messy rites of growing up.
At my son’s school… well, actually, in my son’s physical and virtual social networks this week, a major rift happened when four boys went onto Facebook and posted a photo of all the 7th and 8th graders from a school outing and then tagged each student’s and teacher’s face with rude, racist, slanderous, malicious comments. They targeted appearance, socioeconomic status, weight, ethnicity, sexual orientation, heritage, intelligence, lack of coolness – everything bad you can think of, if you put yourself in a smartass 13-year-old frame of mind.
The thing blew up on Monday at school. Several girls confronted the boys in the lunchroom. Some kids went to the principal. Everybody talked about it. Everybody knew.
By Tuesday morning, two boys were suspended (I’ll call them Jerk 1 and Jerk 2) for a day, the other two (Jerks 3 and 4) spoke with the principal. Jerk 1 spent part of his day at home (presumably under the watchful eye of a parent?) texting Jerk 3 at school (in blatant violation of the no-cell phones policy) about how he was grounded for a month and sharing their indignation with the lunch table gang about how “people can’t take a joke” and the like. Jerk 4 somehow managed to talk his way out of trouble. A letter came home with all kids that afternoon, acknowledging the incident and repeating the no-bullying policy in bland legalese.
On Wednesday, the principal called an assembly of the 7th and 8th graders, during which Jerks 1 and 2 were made to give public apologies (consensus is that the boys were marginally contrite) and did some public squirming (Jerk 1 took blame for writing bad things about his classmates but baldly claimed no knowledge of who wrote the bad things about teachers, even though his classmates in the audience “all” knew Jerk 3 did that bit). Then the town safety officer spoke about Internet civility, and gave the students a chance to speak and to vent. During this portion, amazingly, Jerk 3 stood up and tried to argue that “it wasn’t that bad – it was meant to be funny.” The audience didn’t much buy that line. After the assembly, Jerk 1 handed out individual, hand-written apologies to the kids he dissed online. Despite the relatively identical nature of his message to each kid, that helped some. He also asked several kids “can we be friends,” since he’s under orders to make new friends as part of his rehabilitation. (Even though he was the ringleader of this debacle, his friends are being portrayed as the proverbial bad influence.)
Anyhow, the week ended today with confirmation that Jerk 1 is a serial offender, Yesterday during gym class he was overheard repeating out loud the same insulting remarks he made online about one of his female victim’s appearance. The girl’s mother marched into the main office this morning packing that piece of info. Jerk 1 clearly has some more lessons coming on the subject of respect…
So, is this “boys being boys” or something more? Certainly, kids have been obnoxious toward each other since Neanderthal days. Name-calling is nothing new – and the more hot-button bad words you can string together the better, right? General stupidity isn’t exactly a rare human condition either. Nor is it a surprise that teens who are left under-supervised will tend to get into trouble. In education, they term such kids “at-risk,” and usually school officials can see these problem children coming a mile away. At worst, they’ll see abusive behavior surface on the playground or “out back after school.”
But in the new world of online interaction, the school doesn’t necessarily see all that goes on. Nor does it necessarily have authority to punish or arbitrate offenses. Parents are likely fairly out of the loop. In cases of cyberbullying, it happens in perhaps the worst combination of ways – acts of abuse taking place within a relatively closed network of individuals who are ill-equipped to respond appropriately. In English, that means kids are online slamming each other without adult intervention and the victims are either intimidated or embarrassed into not responding and left to deal with the hurt or humiliation on their own.
Thank heavens, then, that this week’s particular act of mayhem hit a large group all at once. Almost no one was spared, which helped the victims deal collectively with the pain and anger. That doesn’t necessarily make it any easier to take for the weigh-conscious girl who was called fat and ugly, or the academically challenged African American boy who was labeled a dumb black blob, or the Hispanic girl who was labeled an immigrant whore. Nor for the so-called “Goth wannabe,” the “rapist,” or the “flat-chested” girls. Labels have a way of sticking, even among the best of friends. The stigma can’t so easily be erased.
There is no easy solution. Just as we all did during our own uneasy youths, these kids too will process and (one hopes) shed this unfortunate incident. Out of misery can come growth for all involved. That doesn’t make it any simpler to help navigate or monitor as parents or educators. It just means there’s one more playground we all have to watch.
Showing posts with label Education. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Education. Show all posts
November 7, 2008
August 6, 2008
Summer homework, or not
My son—for better or worse—falls in the camp of kids whose school requires a certain level of homework during the summer vacation months. (His buddy Conor, from the next town over, has no such burden, Nick reminds me. Cheap!) It’s not such an overwhelming load—a dozen pages of math review problems from the past year plus three books to read. Oh, and a science project.
The math is almost done. Two and a half pages to go, and apparently it was no heavy lifting (though my wife and I have yet to check his calculations.)
The science project isn’t so bad either—an expanded version of a water-cycle write-up and drawing that his class did this past year. I can’t say I get the point of it, but that’s another matter.
And the reading has been happily consumed. Nick’s on the third of his required books (Fever 1793, Tangerine, and King Arthur), and has finished at least three of his own choosing as well, and there’s still a month of summer left. He’s supposed to write a short comment about each required book on his English teacher’s blog, plus he’s been keeping a blog of his own that chronicles his summer exploits in includes full-length book reviews of everything he’s read. That’s his summer writing “assignment,” concocted by task-master dad, though he’s proud of the blog and (mostly) a willing author.
My wish for him is that he finishes his math and science work by this weekend—the book will be no problem. Then he can live every kid’s summer dream of no schoolwork.
Apparently that dream is a hot topic, at least as laid out in yesterday’s Washington Post. The article goes into great detail on educators’ opinions pro and con about piling on the schoolwork to keep young minds sharp and minimize backsliding over the summer. I have mixed feelings about this. On one side, I too fear that, left to their own devices (i.e., total slack-off), kids risk losing much of what they gained during the previous school year. This hinders the learning process at a time when our schools already are falling short of the mark, and adds stress for kids when they have to re-immerse themselves in intellectual activity after two months of goofing off. That doesn’t mean resorting to 6 hours a day of lessons while their friends head off to the beach, but it does require some small amount of effort in each of the primary subject areas. On the flip side, however, I believe kids need time to rejuvenate. And that means run around, get fresh air, veg out in front of the TV or PS2, laugh, play, etc. I know from my own experience that, after intense practice at something, I often make the biggest leap in learning by then NOT doing that thing for a while. Somehow it seeps in deeper than banging my head against the wall again and again.
And that is why I hope Nick finishes his summer schoolwork soon, so he has a couple weeks to not think about it. School time will come soon enough, and summer is supposed to be time off. He earned the break; he should get to enjoy it.
The math is almost done. Two and a half pages to go, and apparently it was no heavy lifting (though my wife and I have yet to check his calculations.)
The science project isn’t so bad either—an expanded version of a water-cycle write-up and drawing that his class did this past year. I can’t say I get the point of it, but that’s another matter.
And the reading has been happily consumed. Nick’s on the third of his required books (Fever 1793, Tangerine, and King Arthur), and has finished at least three of his own choosing as well, and there’s still a month of summer left. He’s supposed to write a short comment about each required book on his English teacher’s blog, plus he’s been keeping a blog of his own that chronicles his summer exploits in includes full-length book reviews of everything he’s read. That’s his summer writing “assignment,” concocted by task-master dad, though he’s proud of the blog and (mostly) a willing author.
My wish for him is that he finishes his math and science work by this weekend—the book will be no problem. Then he can live every kid’s summer dream of no schoolwork.
Apparently that dream is a hot topic, at least as laid out in yesterday’s Washington Post. The article goes into great detail on educators’ opinions pro and con about piling on the schoolwork to keep young minds sharp and minimize backsliding over the summer. I have mixed feelings about this. On one side, I too fear that, left to their own devices (i.e., total slack-off), kids risk losing much of what they gained during the previous school year. This hinders the learning process at a time when our schools already are falling short of the mark, and adds stress for kids when they have to re-immerse themselves in intellectual activity after two months of goofing off. That doesn’t mean resorting to 6 hours a day of lessons while their friends head off to the beach, but it does require some small amount of effort in each of the primary subject areas. On the flip side, however, I believe kids need time to rejuvenate. And that means run around, get fresh air, veg out in front of the TV or PS2, laugh, play, etc. I know from my own experience that, after intense practice at something, I often make the biggest leap in learning by then NOT doing that thing for a while. Somehow it seeps in deeper than banging my head against the wall again and again.
And that is why I hope Nick finishes his summer schoolwork soon, so he has a couple weeks to not think about it. School time will come soon enough, and summer is supposed to be time off. He earned the break; he should get to enjoy it.
June 25, 2008
Spell check, or check out?
At the risk of this turning into a rant, I feel compelled to talk about the craft of writing and the slippery slope that today’s school children – at least in my community – find themselves careening down (rather than scaling successfully).
In my community, the prevailing wisdom (and I use that phrase very loosely) seems to be that spell-check is the great solution to all that ails the beleaguered education system, a system that apparently doesn’t have the time, will, leadership, or vision to put basic communication skills high enough on the list of “basics” that our children need to learn in elementary school.
For my son, an incoming seventh grader, his last spelling drilling took place in 3rd or 4th grade – around the same time he had his last instruction in cursive writing – though that’s a subject for a separate rant, er, I mean, blog entry. Anyhow, since then, there has been sporadic spelling work, though it’s usually wrapped into vocabulary homework for social studies, meaning that the meaning of the word is more important than the spelling thereof. In 4th grade, there was a little of this and that for spelling, grammar, and handwriting, but certainly how words were spelled was not a priority. And in 5th grade, where written homework increased both in quantity and required quality of expression, the fact that spelling mistakes occurred just wasn’t that big of a deal. My son’s teacher – a wise but career-end-stage teacher – said, quite frankly and on more than one occasion, that since kids mostly use computers to do their homework, spell-check will take care of most of their spelling mistakes. There was simple no acknowledgment that whether the child could actually spell correctly without spell-check was or should be a point of concern.
So far, I’ve only dealt with spelling…grammar is yet another sad story. Other than a glancing blow past the concept of outlining (yes, the classic subject-predicate-dangling-modifiers graphic scheme of olde), there was absolutely no attention paid during class time to whether kids used necessary nouns and verbs, proper punctuation, correct capitalization, sensible sentence structure, or anything else. The language arts/social studies teacher seemed more concerned with covering the requisite course material than making sure the kids could communicate their knowledge.
And – in one of those mixed-up bits of edu-think these days – the teacher followed a strand of prevailing thought about “reaching all learners” by requiring the students to do posters and drawings and storyboards for some of their assignments – and grading the students on the quality of their projects. What the heck ever happened to putting words on paper to demonstrate one’s knowledge? Or giving a speech in front of the class? And what consideration or accommodation is given to kids who are crummy artists, or can’t translate fact-based content into sketches and pretty colors? No knock to the kids who actually can draw better than write…but for the kids who find drawing a struggle, or an unsatisfying way to communicate, they become double losers – penalized in their learning process and their grades by having to draw a picture rather then put into words what they learned about, say, the trading/commercial practices of ancient Africa. And note, this doesn’t even begin to approach the question of why the kids aren’t learning to express themselves via 21st-century tools such as websites, blogs, wikis, Nings, PowerPoint, podcasts, and video as opposed to antique approaches like drawing with freakin’ colored pencils! (Check out Vicki Davis' Cool Cat Teacher blog and some of my other ed-blog links for a glimpse at the possibilities.)
Where does all this lead? In the near term, it presents a class of seventh graders who are entering a new school term woefully unprepared to perform at the level or writing quality that their teachers will expect – thus dragging down the learning process. It means our kids are being taught using old-school methods when the world is moving to Web 2.0 and beyond. And in the longer term it points to kids who are going to struggle in high school if they somehow don’t learn writing and spelling and note-taking skills ASAP. (Did you hear the rumor about the Brookline high schoolers who can’t read the blackboard when the teachers write in cursive?)
As a parent, it leave me angry for my son, livid as a taxpayer, frustrated as an editor who spends his days covering 21st-century education gains, and disheartened as someone who simply cares about our nation’s role and standing in the future. Do I think it’s all a lost cause for my kid? No. My son is a smart boy who will pull it together in his own time. But, man oh man, I don’t like what it says about my local school district and it’s ed policies.
In my community, the prevailing wisdom (and I use that phrase very loosely) seems to be that spell-check is the great solution to all that ails the beleaguered education system, a system that apparently doesn’t have the time, will, leadership, or vision to put basic communication skills high enough on the list of “basics” that our children need to learn in elementary school.
For my son, an incoming seventh grader, his last spelling drilling took place in 3rd or 4th grade – around the same time he had his last instruction in cursive writing – though that’s a subject for a separate rant, er, I mean, blog entry. Anyhow, since then, there has been sporadic spelling work, though it’s usually wrapped into vocabulary homework for social studies, meaning that the meaning of the word is more important than the spelling thereof. In 4th grade, there was a little of this and that for spelling, grammar, and handwriting, but certainly how words were spelled was not a priority. And in 5th grade, where written homework increased both in quantity and required quality of expression, the fact that spelling mistakes occurred just wasn’t that big of a deal. My son’s teacher – a wise but career-end-stage teacher – said, quite frankly and on more than one occasion, that since kids mostly use computers to do their homework, spell-check will take care of most of their spelling mistakes. There was simple no acknowledgment that whether the child could actually spell correctly without spell-check was or should be a point of concern.
So far, I’ve only dealt with spelling…grammar is yet another sad story. Other than a glancing blow past the concept of outlining (yes, the classic subject-predicate-dangling-modifiers graphic scheme of olde), there was absolutely no attention paid during class time to whether kids used necessary nouns and verbs, proper punctuation, correct capitalization, sensible sentence structure, or anything else. The language arts/social studies teacher seemed more concerned with covering the requisite course material than making sure the kids could communicate their knowledge.
And – in one of those mixed-up bits of edu-think these days – the teacher followed a strand of prevailing thought about “reaching all learners” by requiring the students to do posters and drawings and storyboards for some of their assignments – and grading the students on the quality of their projects. What the heck ever happened to putting words on paper to demonstrate one’s knowledge? Or giving a speech in front of the class? And what consideration or accommodation is given to kids who are crummy artists, or can’t translate fact-based content into sketches and pretty colors? No knock to the kids who actually can draw better than write…but for the kids who find drawing a struggle, or an unsatisfying way to communicate, they become double losers – penalized in their learning process and their grades by having to draw a picture rather then put into words what they learned about, say, the trading/commercial practices of ancient Africa. And note, this doesn’t even begin to approach the question of why the kids aren’t learning to express themselves via 21st-century tools such as websites, blogs, wikis, Nings, PowerPoint, podcasts, and video as opposed to antique approaches like drawing with freakin’ colored pencils! (Check out Vicki Davis' Cool Cat Teacher blog and some of my other ed-blog links for a glimpse at the possibilities.)
Where does all this lead? In the near term, it presents a class of seventh graders who are entering a new school term woefully unprepared to perform at the level or writing quality that their teachers will expect – thus dragging down the learning process. It means our kids are being taught using old-school methods when the world is moving to Web 2.0 and beyond. And in the longer term it points to kids who are going to struggle in high school if they somehow don’t learn writing and spelling and note-taking skills ASAP. (Did you hear the rumor about the Brookline high schoolers who can’t read the blackboard when the teachers write in cursive?)
As a parent, it leave me angry for my son, livid as a taxpayer, frustrated as an editor who spends his days covering 21st-century education gains, and disheartened as someone who simply cares about our nation’s role and standing in the future. Do I think it’s all a lost cause for my kid? No. My son is a smart boy who will pull it together in his own time. But, man oh man, I don’t like what it says about my local school district and it’s ed policies.
June 18, 2008
Great expectations
It’s a wonderful thing when a piece of architecture does the job its builders intended. And I don’t mean just keeping the rain off our heads.
I am in Washington, D.C. today – home to a lot of spectacular architecture – to attend an event at the Library of Congress. It’s a “hall rental,” if you will – the building is just the stage. But, oh, how well it works in that regard. The Great Hall is designed to celebrate and elevate the written word, noble ideas, and the men and women responsible for them through the centuries. It is a breathtaking space, for its scale and craft as well as for the message.
That tonight’s event is a confluence of commerce and high ideals is notable, perhaps, but in the end, the high ideals win out. Cable in the Classroom, the education foundation of the NCTA, is hosting its annual Cable’s Leaders in Learning Awards in the Great Hall to celebrate the innovative work of a dozen educators from around the U.S. Lots of ed-speak will be spoken, and a fair bit of cable business will be done too, among the invited guests – educators and education proponents, and lots of “industry” types, which in D.C. means cable owners and operators and the senators, congressmen, committee staffers, and aides who matter to them. Celebrating the good work of teachers is a “win” for educrats, and celebrating cable’s role in supporting and promoting those teachers is a “win win” for cable, especially in “today’s competitive climate” (i.e., not everyone likes cable – just ask FCC chair Kevin Martin … better yet, don’t).
Staged in the Library of Congress, this evening’s event will send a potent message: education ranks right up there among our nation’s highest aspirations. It is not a bad thing that there’s a business angle to the proceedings, don’t get me wrong, because without the support of the cable industry's system operators and programming networks, the teachers who are the stars of the event tonight might not be able to shine, or shine as brightly. It’s just good to remind oneself, while being overwhelmed by the awesomeness of tonight’s event and setting, that in order to achieve lofty goals – whether educational or architectural – somebody’s got to foot the bill. Cable deserves credit for understanding that and making the most of it.
I am in Washington, D.C. today – home to a lot of spectacular architecture – to attend an event at the Library of Congress. It’s a “hall rental,” if you will – the building is just the stage. But, oh, how well it works in that regard. The Great Hall is designed to celebrate and elevate the written word, noble ideas, and the men and women responsible for them through the centuries. It is a breathtaking space, for its scale and craft as well as for the message.
That tonight’s event is a confluence of commerce and high ideals is notable, perhaps, but in the end, the high ideals win out. Cable in the Classroom, the education foundation of the NCTA, is hosting its annual Cable’s Leaders in Learning Awards in the Great Hall to celebrate the innovative work of a dozen educators from around the U.S. Lots of ed-speak will be spoken, and a fair bit of cable business will be done too, among the invited guests – educators and education proponents, and lots of “industry” types, which in D.C. means cable owners and operators and the senators, congressmen, committee staffers, and aides who matter to them. Celebrating the good work of teachers is a “win” for educrats, and celebrating cable’s role in supporting and promoting those teachers is a “win win” for cable, especially in “today’s competitive climate” (i.e., not everyone likes cable – just ask FCC chair Kevin Martin … better yet, don’t).
Staged in the Library of Congress, this evening’s event will send a potent message: education ranks right up there among our nation’s highest aspirations. It is not a bad thing that there’s a business angle to the proceedings, don’t get me wrong, because without the support of the cable industry's system operators and programming networks, the teachers who are the stars of the event tonight might not be able to shine, or shine as brightly. It’s just good to remind oneself, while being overwhelmed by the awesomeness of tonight’s event and setting, that in order to achieve lofty goals – whether educational or architectural – somebody’s got to foot the bill. Cable deserves credit for understanding that and making the most of it.
June 9, 2008
Girls, Boys - What's the difference?
A new posting by Glenn Sacks takes the AAUW to task for its latest research report, “Where the Girls Are: The Facts About Gender Equity in Education." Not enough solid research; not enough proof in their pudding, says Sacks, who pokes holes in the report’s data as nothing more than a thin layer of gloss on the argument that boys and girls are actually equals in school – or, worse, that a) boys so-called gains are made at girls’ expense and b) that, if there is a crisis, it is limited to minority and low-income children.
Considering the obvious facts that children within narrow age ranges or individual grades cover a wide developmental and intellectual spectrum, not to mention that all kids simply are not created equally, such definitive, attention-getting reports as this new one do a disservice to efforts to “teach to the child” that should be the goal of today’s education system.
As I listened recently to a friend explain why she is pulling her 7th grader from our public school system in favor of a private school where the entire faculty is trained in an individualized-teaching philosophy, I cringed at what this says about our best-in-town school. In a world that has increasing demands for multifaceted individuals who can think creatively and resourcefully, who understand collaboration and cultural difference, who have facile minds, is it even remotely good enough to “teach to the middle” or not to recognize the differences among individual students and put education resources in place for each student – boy or girl – to find his or her own way to succeed?
As the product of an all-boys high school (who absolutely hated it at the time), I am today envious of schools that separate boys from girls at middle school or high school. It’s not just the removal of the distraction of the opposite sex that matters (though that helps too). It’s the recognition that boys and girls do learn differently – at different rates, in different ways, at different times – and by separating them you have a slightly better shot at teaching each child. It seems so simple. Yet, hurdles keep being put in the path. Apparently, thanks to the AAUW, now we have another one.
Considering the obvious facts that children within narrow age ranges or individual grades cover a wide developmental and intellectual spectrum, not to mention that all kids simply are not created equally, such definitive, attention-getting reports as this new one do a disservice to efforts to “teach to the child” that should be the goal of today’s education system.
As I listened recently to a friend explain why she is pulling her 7th grader from our public school system in favor of a private school where the entire faculty is trained in an individualized-teaching philosophy, I cringed at what this says about our best-in-town school. In a world that has increasing demands for multifaceted individuals who can think creatively and resourcefully, who understand collaboration and cultural difference, who have facile minds, is it even remotely good enough to “teach to the middle” or not to recognize the differences among individual students and put education resources in place for each student – boy or girl – to find his or her own way to succeed?
As the product of an all-boys high school (who absolutely hated it at the time), I am today envious of schools that separate boys from girls at middle school or high school. It’s not just the removal of the distraction of the opposite sex that matters (though that helps too). It’s the recognition that boys and girls do learn differently – at different rates, in different ways, at different times – and by separating them you have a slightly better shot at teaching each child. It seems so simple. Yet, hurdles keep being put in the path. Apparently, thanks to the AAUW, now we have another one.
June 7, 2008
Rocky start
My son and his sixth grade class had a get-to-know-you session the other day with his seventh grade social studies teacher. It's one of those rights of passage that helps set the tone for the next year.
As the teacher strolled through the room tossing out U.S. geography quiz questions, he stopped at one boy's desk and looked down.
"What's your name?"
"Boris," the boy said somewhat sheepishly at having been singled out.
"Boris, eh..." said the teacher. "So, is your girlfriend Natasha?"
"Um, huh??" said Boris, puzzled. (Heck, everybody knows Boris likes Emily.)
Around the room, perplexed faces stared at this strange teacher and his weird question. Then one kid giggled. He knew. And he knew he was the only one who knew about Rocky and Bullwinkle.
You never know what can get a student-teacher relationship off to a good start. If it's a sly reference to the squirrel and moose, that's fine with me.
As the teacher strolled through the room tossing out U.S. geography quiz questions, he stopped at one boy's desk and looked down.
"What's your name?"
"Boris," the boy said somewhat sheepishly at having been singled out.
"Boris, eh..." said the teacher. "So, is your girlfriend Natasha?"
"Um, huh??" said Boris, puzzled. (Heck, everybody knows Boris likes Emily.)
Around the room, perplexed faces stared at this strange teacher and his weird question. Then one kid giggled. He knew. And he knew he was the only one who knew about Rocky and Bullwinkle.
You never know what can get a student-teacher relationship off to a good start. If it's a sly reference to the squirrel and moose, that's fine with me.
June 6, 2008
Mean boys?
One of my side activities is as a parent rep on our school advisory council. During a meeting today about the school improvement plan for next year, the discussion turned to middle school socialization issues... namely bullying, inappropriate text messaging, teasing, and just what is the difference between some of these behaviors as a normal part of kids growing up and when it turns into a pattern of behavior that warrants attention by school officials or parents.
A big blind spot at our school is over girls versus boys. Perhaps this betrays a pattern of its own, developed over many years, during which women were in all positions of command -- principal, vice principal, guidance counselors, aides, most teachers... Somehow, concerns over "mean girls" got attention via lunch groups, visits from teen counselors, mentoring activities, and the like. Meanwhile, the boys were left to fight it out on the playground, or across the lunch table, or in the local parks. "Boys will be boys" has been the prevailing attitude, usually accompanied by a shrug.
Finally, there seems to be some creeping recognition of a need to look at both halves of the classroom. Parents are asking for a guide to middle school, both in terms of social issues and the shifts in curriculum and academic demands. Curiosity is being raised by the new principal's drafting of a bullying policy. And though they are still infrequent visitors, more parents of boys are showing up at PTO meetings to learn what they can from other parents and from school officials. It's a long way still from open recognition that boys need as much help -- just different help -- as girls in learning how to get along, figure out their pecking order, and help each other grow up. But it's a start.
Recommended reading:
The Minds of Boys: Saving Our Sons From Falling Behind in School and Life by Michael Gurian and Kathy Stevens
A big blind spot at our school is over girls versus boys. Perhaps this betrays a pattern of its own, developed over many years, during which women were in all positions of command -- principal, vice principal, guidance counselors, aides, most teachers... Somehow, concerns over "mean girls" got attention via lunch groups, visits from teen counselors, mentoring activities, and the like. Meanwhile, the boys were left to fight it out on the playground, or across the lunch table, or in the local parks. "Boys will be boys" has been the prevailing attitude, usually accompanied by a shrug.
Finally, there seems to be some creeping recognition of a need to look at both halves of the classroom. Parents are asking for a guide to middle school, both in terms of social issues and the shifts in curriculum and academic demands. Curiosity is being raised by the new principal's drafting of a bullying policy. And though they are still infrequent visitors, more parents of boys are showing up at PTO meetings to learn what they can from other parents and from school officials. It's a long way still from open recognition that boys need as much help -- just different help -- as girls in learning how to get along, figure out their pecking order, and help each other grow up. But it's a start.
Recommended reading:
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