We have the same problem. I teach reading in Boston (USA). I wish there was a simple solution!

Jean Rooney, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

Don't boys outperfom girls by the time they get their university degrees?

Just a thought.

So what if it takes them longer to get there? Why shouldn't boys be alowed the time they need to become intellectually mature? Just because girls do it faster doesn't mean we're better off in the long run. We still get paid less, if you believe all that gumph.

If we start dredging the pond to bring the sludge to the surface, the whole pool gets muddy...

Liz Scott, Hastings, UK

there is more and more solid science showing that boys and girls have different brains and different ways of learning. therefore it makes sense that boys will do better if taught by men in ways that are most conducive to their energy levels and brain structures. By the way, when I last visited our local elementary school there were all kinds of special classes for the girls being advertised on the main hallway bulletin board. NOT ONE class just for boys. This is "equality" in the USA. Advantage the girls and wonder why the boys don't do as well...and then prevent them from closing the gap that the current "system" has manufactured.

David, portland, usa

The point is ARON,it's ok to write about culture but this is something everyone can debate and be fairly united on but if this country really thinks it is healthy for a high percentage of men to finish up as househusbands(and lets face it ,there are a lot around now)Feminism really has taken over.Many people in teaching say that boys and girls cannot be taught together
because girls are taught one way and boys another and because of the exodus of males from teaching due to female rules and the fear males have now of even getting anywhere near a child ,boys are uneasy with the method of teaching.
Are they being completely bonkers?.I doubt it.Perhaps we will have to reward manual labour more ,I don't know.

michael savell, eastbourne, uk

For decades the gender divide was got around by marking down the girls so boys had an unfair advantage. No one worried about the unfairness of that practice.
Teach everyone as well as possible according to their personal ability and work ethic and stop worrying about what they look like.

Thalia, London,

While not the only factor to be adressed, the fact that this discrepancy is ignored is worrying, what if the gap was reversed with girls scoring 10% lower than boys on average, how would the authorities react then?

Ben, folkestone, uk

why not have a 2 papers option for each exam...say ..a choice of pink or blue, Pink exam questions will demand mature emotional response What are your feelings about sedimentary rock formation/ the lifecycle of the butterfly ?etc (no less than 1000 words )and the blue papers will just require a simple yes or no ,Do you agree that sedimentary rock exists/ are butterflies distantly related to caterpillars? ( limit your answer to a monosyllable.) Let the candidate choose his/her preferred colour exam paper upon entering the room and see what happens to the disparity of achievement in the classroom

cathy, B.ham, G.B.

And one can only suppose that gender biased strategies in favour of women that have been foisted upon society for the last twenty years are not divisive.

Why not go back to the old system of employing and treating on merit alone without specific agendas?

www.familieslink.co.uk

Shaun O'Connell, Gosport, UK

There may be some correlation between the performance of girls and the number of female teachers. It would be interesting to see performance statistics comparing boys taught exclusively by male teachers with boys taught exclusively by females. These days it may be impossible to find any members of the former group, since male primary school teachers are very thin on the ground.

Mike Poulsen, Reading, Berkshire

Maxwell, you are so correct. I too remember these people skewing the exams, curriculum and courses in favour of girls. Being a front for a viciously pro-active feminist organisation (actually pro-anything-currently-in-dinner-party-circuit-vogue), the Equal Opportunitites Commission is finally happy with the results of its human educational experiment.

Now, everybody (except those nasty white, middle-class puppy dog tails) can have a Happy Education Certificate to show they have qualified from the Young Peoples' Inclusive Sunny Afternoons course.

Isn't life wonderful again. Everyone has passed!

Edwin Thornber, Bucharest,

I seem to recall that when I sat my O- levels 20 years ago, oneof the reasons for switching to GCSE's was to make the exam system more girl-friendly by e.g. introducing coursework & contextualising maths questions. Lo & behold 20 years later the system does what it was supposed to - favour girls to the detriment of boys. As always our children suffer because education is used as a political football and the teaching profession is stuffed with the likes of Aron.

Maxwell, Cheltenham,

From my experience as a teacher the cultural values of the family is the biggest influence upon achievement in the classroom: and not gender. I have taught a number of Asian girls who, because of a culture of ambition in their home and peergroup, do very well in maths and science. The class culture of the family is essential in whether kids do well at school or not. Schools tend to be based around middle class cultural expectations of academic achievement; logically the middle class or those with similar values will do well; they have what is called cultural capital. Some sociologists particularly functionalists, would suggest that in a capitalist hierarchy it is only logical that some children don't do well, as all positons of employment are essential to a healthy economy: graduates and non-graduates alike. The middle classes have a culturally determined view that academic success is a key to happiness - it isn't; however if this view is to be installed: it has to take place at home

Aron, London, U.K