Gender Equity

Gender bias has been overblown in literature regarding public education.  This may have been a problem in our country’s past, but in 2011 gender bias is no longer a concern.  Accountability on many levels has evened the playing field for boys and girls.  Studies originally showed that girls fell behind boys in math and science.  According to Education Week, The Education Testing Service conducted a study where the results show that boys are now falling behind girls in these subjects.  Pai, Adler, and Shadiow make it clear that it is close to impossible to have a gender-free school.  For example, it is not appropriate to have a co-ed wrestling team or other contact sports team because of the biological differences of boys and girls.  It is much easier for schools to have gender-free curriculum than it is to have gender-free athletics. 

What the disparity boils down to in the classroom is the motivation of the student regardless of gender.  Rather than teaching a child in a particular way because of their gender, teachers should teach based on the student’s needs.  Needs of a student may be instructional presentation, extra help from the teacher, or help with motivation to learn.  Boys lose out as much as girls when it comes to lack of motivation to work hard and achieve to the fullest potential.  This is not an issue of bias, but lack of desire of the student and encouragement by educators and parents to succeed.

I would like to take the approach of being gender-sensitive in my own schools and districts.  Pai, Adler, and Shadiow describe this approach as only paying attention to gender when doing so can prevent gender bias or promote gender equality.  I think this approach is more appropriate than a gender-free approach.  Though I do not believe gender bias is still an issue, I think it is important that educators consider student needs that specific genders may have.  My teaching experiences are at the middle school level.  During these years of children’s lives, boys and girls have very different emotional needs.  The curriculum should remain gender-free, but the interaction and presentation should be gender-sensitive. 

From what I could tell, there was no evidence to support gender bias at the David School.  Because the film highlights two boys, it rarely shows interaction between the staff and other students.  There were times when students were learning skills that differ from society’s view of activities reserved for boys and activities reserved for girls.  In one scene, Cody was learning to sew while Mary (Chris’ girlfriend) was working on the building project.  The skills students learned while at The David School were not gender specific.  Additionally, the scenes from the academic classroom did not show bias to any one gender.  As far as extra support offered to students outside of the school, the film showed no evidence one way or the other. 

As stated earlier, I believe that academic gender bias is a problem of the past.  At least in my classroom experiences, this does not seem to be a problem any longer.  It is more of a motivational issue for students, which is not gender specific.  Learning how to connect with students on individual basis and applying gender-sensitivity is the best approach to addressing gender issues in public schools.