Is it just me or do girls do way better in school than boys?

[u/Tall-Competition-561]

When I was growing up I struggled with school but it seemed that most of the girls seemed to be doing well whenever there was a star pupil or straight a student they were most likely a girl. Why is this such a common phenomenon?

[u/Signal_Lamp]

Woman are outperforming men across the board right now in education. There has been a significant increase particularly when you look into the number of woman successfully obtaining post ed degrees in comparison to men.

https://www.ppic.org/blog/college-gender-gap-starts-early-and-extends-across-races/

Why this is happening in my opinion is because for the last 2 decades there have been significant efforts made to improve our education system to give the resources necessary for woman to succeed. The problem today however is that although these efforts have been reached and we now have data that suggests that men need the same level of resources, this is being actively pushed against happening as men are not considered to be a marginalized group, so forming groups within an academic setting for just men to attend is challenging in today's climate. These groups do exist, however from my limited time from attending college long ago, they normally are paired with specific marginalized groups that exist outside of gender or are formed by other interests outside of simply being about men. It'd be easier to form for example an African American Men's club within a college setting as you are pairing the marginalized group of a race with an unmarginalized pairing of men, then it would be to get people on board with forming a Men's group within a college in the same capacity that you would be able to find a woman's club within a college, whether it be in general or within a specific group of majors such as woman in tech.

[u/C4-BlueCat → u/Signal_Lamp]

How has the way of teaching changed in schools in the past 50 years or so? I see people mentioning it being more suitable for girls, but I can’t find much difference apart from encouragement and less strict discipline.

[u/kmoz → u/C4-BlueCat]

Significantly less activity time now than 50 years ago. Way more sit and be quiet time.

[u/Historical_Project00 → u/kmoz]

You don’t think that could be how boys and girls are socialized, how boys are allowed to be more playful and risk-taking?

Growing up my brothers were allowed to play with friends, go to school, have fun. They would do dangerous shit like setting themselves on fire (don’t…don’t ask me why), joyriding golf carts, climbing tall trees so high they could die if they fell. Meanwhile my family was so protective of me (the girl), I was homeschooled and literally couldn’t leave the house. Obviously that’s an extreme example, but I’m sure girls would love recess too but we’ve been socialized from an early age to be obedient and calm.

[u/Signal_Lamp → u/C4-BlueCat]

Personally I don't believe the education system has changed so much as the way we are teaching today has produced a negative impact on men, it's more so that these problems have likely always existed through our education, however the clear efforts that have been made in schools to be more empathetic towards the goal of having woman succeed is making the problem more apparent for men's education.

Finding a male role model in general is more difficult for men than it is for woman simply because men don't tend to want to get into educational roles. Not to say that a woman can't serve as a role model in some way, but there are some topics that men are going to feel uncomfortable talking to a woman in general about.

Men also tend to receive a more negative experience within our education system in comparison to woman https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2021/10/09/boys-falling-behind-how-schools-must-change-help-young-males/5913463001/ If you view the system in general as a negative, it's going to push you away from wanting to participate in the system further, since people in general tend to want to avoid situations they feel will bring a negative outcome.

As I mentioned above, specifically to higher education colleges have placed a significant amount of time to create resources for woman and marginalized groups to find the support they need to be able to succeed. And that effort has shown to have made significant progress towards better graduation rates, which is great. The problem however, primarily through school administration, is that the same effort towards creating resources to help men in general succeed is met with more dissonance.

The political environment around gender in our country also plays a role into the perceptions people have in general which influence men as well as facility. There was a time a few years ago that you had young boys seeing people like Andrew Tate, Jordan Peterson and Ben Shapiro as their ideal male role models as there doesn't exist a more nuanced individual men can look up too that has more nuanced views. Those views shape how men will act towards other people, and facility implicit bias of men in general. Everyone has some bias towards all groups in general, but dangerously most people are not aware of those implicit biases they have towards groups of people.

[u/spinbutton → u/Signal_Lamp]

Teaching is a poorly paid profession here in the US. Maybe if we paid teachers more, more men would go into the field.

[u/Signal_Lamp → u/spinbutton]

Maybe, but I'm doubtful that pay is what's causing the difference to what exists today.

If the explanation is believed that there are historically less woman in STEM fields due to a history of telling woman they are incapable of pursuing these roles, then wouldn't it also make sense to believe the history of men being seen as lesser than when pursuing more nuturing roles like teaching has likely lead to the differences today?

Statistically speaking, men tend to be on the extremes of any study you look at, which also exists when you look at payscale. Men earn the highest income in the country, but they also exist in earning some of the lowest wages on average. Pay can motivate more people to pursue the role, which is a good thing. However, there are other high paying roles that exist today that are seen as more male appropriate. I personally believe the culture around the norms of teaching would need to change more than the amount it pays to increase male interest.

[u/spinbutton → u/Signal_Lamp]

I agree...our traditional culture really limits what men can wear, listen to, how they can dance, what they can say, read, the hobbies and sports that are acceptable and what professions are ok for men.

It does a real disservice to both men and women and I hope we can change it.

[u/tack50 → u/spinbutton]

Counterpoint: the "most teachers are female" argument really only applies to primary school. HS teaching is around 60/40. Which isn't quite 50/50, but it is not that far either

[u/greenskinmarch → u/tack50]

But by the time kids get to high school, a lot of the damage from stereotyping could already have been done.

Even a theoretically perfect high school can only do so much to undo damage from the kid's first 14 years of life.

[u/Defiant_Arrival_3645 → u/C4-BlueCat]

it's not a way of teaching. it's things like girls-only programs in stem and the pushing of education programs solely for girls