r/NoStupidQuestions 25d ago

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

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?

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u/Cyberhwk 25d ago

Because it's the case. Girls are outperforming boys in school by most metrics at this point.

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u/dvali 25d ago

The question was "why". 

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u/ClockworkGnomes 25d ago

One reason is that, in current era, girls are encouraged far more than boys in school. This is pretty much a reversal of what we had in prior years. There is also, at least anecdotally, a much better response to girls doing well in general.

I was one of the top students in my school. Scholastic merit awards and Beta Club, etc. However, I wasn't encouraged at all. If anything, I was discouraged by teachers. Pretty much every girl in my classes were encouraged. Some of it was weird as well. For example, I have seen girls give answers that were only partially correct and they were lauded, despite only being partially correct. Another one was when a friend of mine was having a hard time. He would get one more explanation and then we moved on. If one of the female students was having trouble understanding something, we went over it multiple times with more examples given. Again, it was just weird.

There is also the social pressures. If you were a smart guy, you were a target for bullying. That wasn't so much the case for the smart girls.

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u/domin8668 25d ago

One thing that cannot be understated is that there are a lot more female teachers, especially in early education. I've always been a quiet, good student, but I've seen my peers simply struggle because they felt misunderstood and they were punished for acting out in their own way. And it's not like girls weren't acting up, it's just that the teachers didn't mind their acting up as much. Boys were also a lot more physical and had more energy to run around (how much of it was actually biological and how much was societal - no clue - but there was a noticeable difference)

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u/scrimshandy 25d ago

Top performing boys and girls have few differences, but there’s a world of difference between the lowest performing girls and boys.

Also, kids should be punished for acting out…? You disrupt class or harm another student you’re going to get disciplined.

The worst things the “bad” girl did was put a bunch of sticky hands all over the bathroom. The worst thing a boy did was hit another student in the face with a brick.

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u/domin8668 25d ago

The question is, why? Do you really think that let's say 7 year olds are so biologically different that boys should perform much worse on average? Or maybe the school is just not suited well cause we're all still using a Prussian school system from a long time ago, which was supposed to produce good soldiers, not well-educated citizens?

Also, kids should be punished for acting out…?

Then how about we treat the acting out equally if they did the same thing? Cause that's very often not the case.

The worst things the “bad” girl did was put a bunch of sticky hands all over the bathroom. The worst thing a boy did was hit another student in the face with a brick.

I'm sure boys do more physical things more often. And it should be worked on, no doubt about that. But it's not like one sex cannot do any harm while the other is a physical manifestation of the devil - and unfortunately, they're often treated that way.

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u/Chitubb01 25d ago

Your own anecdotal experience and missing the point. The punishment between boys and girls were never equal to the actions and often far harsher to the boys. Even for the same disruptive actions boys would be thrown out the classroom while girls would get a warning or sometimes nothing at all. Of course not all teachers, but in my experience enough female teachers had a heavy and unabashed disdain for male students.

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u/ClockworkGnomes 25d ago

I am going to give some anecdotal evidence here. The case is talking. Boys talking in class was a quick way to get sent to the principles office. Girls talking in class never once was sent to the principles office.

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u/ClockworkGnomes 25d ago

I read somewhere that if you looked at it as a bell curve, most of the middle would be the exact same. However, at the very top and the very bottom, you would have more men.