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Here is an interesting article about boys underachieving academically. The author attributes this to a misguided notion of masculinity. I think homework policy plays a role. Here's a link to the article. Here is the comment I left to the article.
I think we miss the point
if we do not come to terms with the fact that, in our frenzy to improve
education, we have pushed kids to work much more than they should. We've
allowed the school to co-op the home with increasingly large amounts of
homework to do. Typically, boys are less mature than girls, they have more
difficulty sitting still and paying attention, and, although they are better at
gross motor functions, they are weaker than girls in their fine motor
coordination. The notion that they will come home, at young ages, to mountains
of homework which strains their patience and hurts their hands, runs counter to
what boys can easily do. I don't think a misguided notion of masculinity
creates a disinterest in school. I think that pressures to work beyond reason as
young children, creates a negative feeling about school. In the past, kids went
to school and then came home to play, or at most, to light amounts of homework.
Today, we are forcing kids (in fact forcing them over their own parents' best
judgments) to work far too much. This is the primary reason why boys get turned
off to school.
I came across an article on PBS Parents, about raising boys. The article is quite accurate covering the issues of boys, aggression, and school. I recommend it.
I also found missing (and am trying to contact the producer) any comment of homework. The article covers problems with educational models that favor the behaviors and learning styles of girls and try to suppress boys as they are. It reminds me of an article I was interviewed for last year called, How To Catch a Falling Son.
The PBS piece seems aimed at parents and how they should address their son's aggressive forms of play, and teachers and how they should address boys in the classroom, but makes no mention of how parents should address homework demands, or how teachers should adjust their expectations of boys when it comes to the work that gets sent home. It is an odd omission since it gives good advice to each side about what to do in their own zone of control, but, like many people do around the topic of homework, throws its hands up in frustration, as if there is nothing anyone can do, about the practice of teachers, respected authorities, making demands on parents, who, despite being the expected authorities at home, are not supposed to challenge the teacher's decision.
For more information on Dr. Goldberg's model, read other postings on this blog, visit his website, The Homework Trap, or read his book, The Homework Trap: How to Save the Sanity of Parents, Students and Teachers.
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