Wednesday, 5/14/97 Short Changed? EDUCATION: Schools don’t know
how to channel the aggressiveness of boys, contends author Michael
Gurian.
By J. Sharon Yee Daily Bruin Contributor Although bias against
girls in classrooms has been the subject of much public attention,
a new spokesman has come forth to discuss the struggles boys face
in school. Monday afternoon, in front of a highly engaged group of
professors, educators,and students at the Graduate School of
Education and Information Studies (GSEIS), Michael Gurian discussed
his new book, "The Wonder of Boys," with PBS education
correspondent John Merrow. The book argues that boys are often
"short-changed" in public school systems beginning in elementary
school, contending that the typical classroom model fails to
recognize what he feels are boys’ natural tendencies to be more
aggressive and disruptive. "As a society, I think we have
sensitized ourselves to girls’ experiences and not boys’," Gurian
said. He discussed how boys’ problems are often overlooked by
teachers while the problems girls face, such as low self-esteem and
self-confidence, are widely acknowledged. Written "in a spirit that
is both male and female positive," Gurian’s book primarily deals
with the reasons why boys are constantly troubled, as they are
three times more likely to be victims of violence than girls and
represent the majority of learning-disabled students. As the
discussion continued in talk-show format, Gurian further explained
that because 90 percent of teachers are female and did not grow up
with boys in the family, the classroom runs primarily on a "female
model," relying heavily on the verbal over the active and
indirectly favoring girls over boys. If boys are seen to be talking
loudly or talking back to adults, it may be because boys are
socialized to act a certain way, Gurian said. The natural solution
is therefore to reverse the effects of socialization on the child.
But Gurian asserted this was not the correct way to view such
behavior, but rather it should be seen as biological and part of
natural male behavior. Because boys are naturally aggressive and
have weaker verbal skills, they are often misinterpreted as
disruptive, sent to principals’ offices, diagnosed with Attention
Deficit Disorder (ADD) and put on medication, he said. "If Huck
Finn and Tom Sawyer were going to school today, I have a feeling
they would be medicated," Gurian added. "Then, are there too many
female teachers?," Merrow asked. "No, because quite often, the
teacher may not know that a feminized moral model exists in her
classroom and does not realize that she is favoring girls over
boys," Gurian said. Having grown up in a troubled family, diagnosed
with ADD and prescribed Ritalin, Gurian recognized early on that
young boys needed help. "I never believed that boys didn’t have it
hard," he said. He then began gathering research for this topic 10
years ago through counseling sessions with clients, studying
families in other cultures and reading in academic journals and
books. "Right now," he concluded, "the educational system is not
set up well enough to handle a certain group of children called
boys." Gurian then revealed that one solution to making schools
more "boy-friendly" is to first acknowledge the extraordinary
amount of energy boys have and then channel, rather than suppress,
that male energy. One way society has done this, Gurian argues, is
with the use of sports, where boys, tending to have better spatial
skills, are taught very early that it is acceptable to hit
inanimate objects but not acceptable to hit animate objects.
Jessica Corn, an audience member, voiced concern about how the
mentality of "boys will be boys" is an excuse often used to justify
violent crimes. "I am concerned about how this notion of ‘boys will
be boys’ becomes one of the biggest myths that justifies rape," she
said. "How do you make sure that aggression and rage that boys have
because of testosterone isn’t manifested in violent ways?" she
asked. "Part of being male is learning where to draw the line and
being capable of suppressing feelings," Gurian said in response.
"And part of the problem is that there aren’t enough older males in
boys’ lives to say, ‘Here’s the line.’" Fred D’Ignazio, a teacher
educator and children’s book author, said that, as a father of one
boy and two girls, he felt torn when trying to provide equal
educations for his three children. When his son dropped out of
school in the 10th grade, D’Ignazio and his wife had to also deal
with a public school system that, in essence, had failed them and
their son. However, there was a warning sign at a very early age.
After dropping their son off at preschool, they could hear the
sound of him slamming his body against the door, wanting to get
out. "I don’t know which way to turn, because I want to address the
issue of my daughters getting a better share," D’Ignazio said. "But
then I also know that the classrooms my son attended were not very
‘boy-friendly’ to him." Betty Dennis, an alumna of GSEIS and
grandmother of five, voiced concern regarding the media’s effect on
young boys, who, she believes, are drawn to the TV more than girls.
"Are we doing enough, as a consumer, to control what’s on TV? Is
the media in control?," she asked. In response to her question,
Gurian described how children are raised in a what he calls the
"three-family reality." The first is the nuclear family, which
includes immediate members of the family. The second is the
extended family, which does not necessarily include only
blood-related members of the family, but also close family friends.
The third, or educational, family, includes schools and the
surrounding community. Only recently, however, has the media become
the third family, influencing kids to a much greater extent than
ever before. Perhaps the unifying theme of the discussion revolved
around the idea of a "boys movement," where raising greater
consciousness about issues affecting boys helps to understand their
behavior. "Movements develop and they change the culture, which is
why we have to convince society that if we don’t raise and treat
boys a certain way, they will go out and commit acts of crime and
vandalism," Gurian said. The event was part of the "Merrow Report
on Education," one segment of a 13-program series dealing with
children’s education issues to be aired on National Public Radio in
the fall. It was the first of three programs to be taped this week
here at UCLA. The reason for designing such a series was to
primarily discuss two issues that parents are concerned with when
it comes to children – how to raise them and how they learn – said
John Tulenko, producer of the Merrow Report. Other segments of the
series have been taped at Harvard University, Columbia Teachers’
College, University of Wisconsin and Brown University. UCLA was
chosen as a location because it is one of the top 10 schools of
education, Tulenko said. Overall, the audience was very impressed
with the talk. "I thought it was great," said Jan Powell, a teacher
at the University Elementary School, "It’s [the subject of Gurian’s
book] an area we don’t talk enough about." GENEVIEVE LIANG/Daily
Bruin Author Michael Gurian speaks to UCLA professors and students
about his book, "The Wonder of Boys." Previous Daily Bruin stories:
Women focus of affirmative action talks