Takayama 1

Reece Takayama
Expository Writing 2
November 13, 2015
Falling Behind?
As few as 35% of todays college graduates are men, down from 50% in 1981 and
76% a half century ago (Draves, 2015). These alarming statistics point to a disturbing
trend that has been around for a decade or two, but recently surfaced and become an issue
amongst the general public.
Background and Current Situation
"Over the last 15 years, it has become apparent that girls do better than boys at
school, not only in Quebec but in most of the developed world" (Draves, 2015).
Subsequently, it has led to the question such as Why are males falling behind in school all of
a sudden while females are rising to the top? Its not like males have always been behind
females in school because at one point males were at the top. As recently as 1998 boys in
several achievement test studies did better than girls in computer studies, economics, math
and science (Draves, 2015). What is different now is that smart boys from upper socioeconomic levels are now falling behind their female counterparts (Draves, 2015).
Furthermore, girls generally enter kindergarten with skills suited for doing well at school,
like sitting still and using a pencil, while many boys act younger, having trouble listening to
adults and controlling their impulses (Miller, 2015).
As mentioned earlier, this problem has been around for at least a decade or two.
Draves (2015) He brings up the fact from a study down by The Education of Boys that

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this has only been a recent phenomenon because 30-60 years ago the statistics showed boys
were roughly equal to the same level scholastically as girls, it was just a slighter the
difference (Draves, 2015). The gap between boys and girls just became more noticeable in
1992 when the World Wide Web came around.
For instance, while girls use the Internet just as much as boys, but they use it in
different ways than boys. And they are less apt to fix, explore, hack, take apart, or put back
together as are boys (Draves, 2015). It displays the attractiveness of the World Wide
Web to boys which distracted them from school because it appealed to the more activity
oriented side of boys.
Another equally important problem to bring attention to is that there are fewer
male teachers. Anybody who's over 15 doesn't know what this means, because in the last 10
years, the number of elementary school classroom teachers has been cut in half. We went
from 14 percent to seven percent (Car-Chellman, 2010).
Previous Solutions
Therefore, it has led to a few proposed solutions such as schools need to be more
engaging with students other than having them sit and taking notes and incorporate more
activities that use technology. According to
To begin, as stated by Lise Eliot, an associate professor of neuroscience at the
Chicago Medical School at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science. girls
spend more time talking, drawing, and role-playing in relational ways, whereas boys spend
more time moving, targeting, building, and role-playing as heroes (Eliot, 2010). So it

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makes sense that most girls fit in more with the school setting and achieve higher than most
boys. While some classes do actually have activities and discussions amongst students not
all classes do. So in order to make it more even and appeal to a boys more active nature, but
still keeping enjoyable for both males and females, teachers could consider involving more
hands on activates to get the lesson across other than doing notes and a worksheet.
Activities such as group discussions, projects, in class demonstrations or maybe even a
game.
Furthermore, with new technology being introduced every few years it seems, being
able to access the vast internet and its resources has become easier. Many boys seem to be
interested in technology because it is something different from the everyday life of school
learning. Students can look up almost whatever interests them or even find online
homework help through videos since it is a more efficient and entertaining way to learn. In
other words, schools could provide classrooms with computers so students have access to
them in school as well as at home.
My Proposed Solution
Based on the different solutions I have found throughout one that I came up with a
possible solution being to start treating boys in a way that lets them explore, take chances,
and express their individuality because in the real world all those things that are normal. But
in school carrying out those normal attributes gets us punished.
A recent trend in learning called flipped classroom, is where students view short
video lectures online at home and devote more time to activities such as exercises or

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projects in the classroom. For example, last school year when I was in Honors Chemistry
the teacher had us do the lectures at home for homework so that we would be able to do
more labs in class to help us better understand how certain reactions take place in a real life
setting.
To start off teachers need to punish boys less for carrying out bad behavior like
taking risks or expressing their individualism. In schools around the nation boys win hands
down in demerits and detention. Although they do get in trouble way more than girls, boys
that exhibit those accompanying attributes could succeed with a possible future run by the
Internet where taking risks, being entrepreneurial, and being individualistic are rewarded.
For instance, by the year 2040 it could be possible to be in control of your own data and use
artificial intelligence to help better manage our workload (Baraniuk, 2014).
We are supposed to prepare youth for work in the real world, where conformity,
teamwork and being normal are valued. But schools are more bent on conformity,
discipline, and other behavior totally unrelated to learning. Schools have banned hats,
hugging, candy, band bracelets and many more. Shows some of the useless things schools
put a ban on just because it causes some distraction from their learning.
Address Possible Objections
Unquestionably, lessening the punishment on boy students could lead to a problem
with more boys acting up than before. For example, if a boy were to act up but, the teacher
would ignore it or nicely tell him to sit back down. Which could lead to the student either
stopping the attitude all together or finding another way to get a teachers attention.

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Moreover, teachers should punish the boys no less than the punish the girls because it
wouldnt make sense for a teacher to become biased towards one gender just in order for
them to learn a bit more and better prepare them for the real world.
However, with the consideration of adding computers to classrooms, it would cost a
substantial amount of money. For example, if a school were to implement the Ubiquitous
LAN with Local Server and High Speed line it would put a PC model on the desktop of
every student and teacher. But it would cost around $400-$500 per PC (Computers and
Classrooms, 1998) so with a school as big as Mililani High School, it would cost roughly
about a million dollars and thats without the cost of maintenance, which can usually range
from $3,600-$10,250 per school(Computers and Classrooms, 1998).
Admittedly, I can understand people having a problem with this proposal, especially
parents because with the idea of lessening the amount of punishment, it could lead to bigger
problems. For example, if a school were to reduce the amount punishment such as seeing
the VP or getting sent to detention and only used it for special cases such as a fight, creating
a disturbance to another classroom or even for being tardy for school or to class 10 times. It
leaves the teacher in charge of handling any trouble a student might cause which could be a
real problem depending on what the situation is. Regardless, it would take time away from
the lesson.
Nevertheless, this should be attempted because the attributes that boys have such
taking risks, being entrepreneurial, and being individualistic that schools punish boys for
doing or having is as mentioned before is normal in the world outside of school. In fact,

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that very same

behaviors for which they are punished in school, boys are rewarded for

when they enter the workforce. This is because taking risks, being entrepreneurial, being
individualistic are all behaviors that lead to success in the workforce today (Draves, 2015).
Call to Action
Why is this important to solve? One might ask. Well with girls beating boys in
education achievement by a huge gap it could cause boys to feel like they will be forever
behind in education which lowers their drive to excel in school. Ironically, school could be
the actual problem for that, and not the boy themselves because some are just as smart as
the girls, possible smarter, but still end up doing worse.
Why should we care? Caring for this problem could be the deciding factor between
making a change and helping males further improve their academic skills, or letting them
drop down to the point of no return. For example, if there are parents who have a son and a
daughter, those parents would want both of their children to excel and do well in school and
not just one.
Therefore, we need to find a way to encourage boys to try harder by holding their
attention in school whether it be through using hands on activities or games to get a better
hold of the lesson or adding computers to a classroom to make a lesson more interactive or
engaging because whatever school has been doing up until now for the most part seems to
be in favor of girls. Education is supposed to provide a equal opportunity for all students.
Being how this was a problem in the past how long will it take to solve this problem and
close the gap once again?

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Works Cited
Baraniuk, Chris. What will the internet look like?. British Broadcasting Cooperation
(BBC). 15 Oct. 2014. 12 Nov. 2015.
Car-Chellman, Ali. Gaming to re-engage boys in learning. TED. Oct. 2010. Lecture.
12 Nov. 2015.
Computers and Classrooms: The Status of Technology in U.S. Schools. Educational
Testing Service. 1998. 7 Nov. 2015.
Draves, William A. Why boys under-perform in school. LERN. 31 October 2015. Web.
7 Nov. 2015.
Eliot, Lise. "The Myth Of PINK & BLUE Brains." Educational Leadership 68.3 (2010):
32. MAS Complete. Web. 8 Nov. 2015.
Gender Gap in Learning. Pickering News Advertiser (ON) 14 Apr. 2015: Newspaper
Source Plus. Web. 8 Nov. 2015.
Miller, Claire Cain. A Disadvantage Start Hurts Boys More Than Girls. New York Times
22 Oct. 2015 late ed.: Al. Print.

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Sax, Leonard, MD, phD. Boys Adrift: the Five Factors Driving the Growing Epidemic of
Unmotivated Boys and Underachieving Young Men. New York: Basic Books.
2009. Print.

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Males Increasingly Poor Academic
Performance in School
An Annotated Bibliography
Baraniuk, Chris. What will the internet look like?. British Broadcasting Cooperation
(BBC). 15 Oct. 2014. 12 Nov. 2015.
Chris Baraniuk, a freelance technology journalist reported that the World Wide
Webs creator hopes to create a world where in the next 25 years where people will no
longer have to worry about their privacy on the internet because they will be in control of it
and no one else. According to Baraniuk and the many articles he has read discussing the
future of the internet, there are many threats that could underlie the process but the amount
of progress and the ability to drive the innovations people yearn for is worth the trouble.
This article is useful because it talks about the hypothetical future of the internet and how it
could progress to the point where we would be in more control of what is let out into the
world.
Car-Chellman, Ali. Gaming to re-engage boys in learning. TED. Oct. 2010. Lecture.
12 Nov. 2015.
Ali Carr-Chellman pinpoints three reasons boys are tuning out of school in droves,
and lays out her bold plan to re-engage them: bringing their culture into the classroom, with
new rules that let boys be boys, and video games that teach as well as entertain. Along with
these she brought up another important thing in education, the fact that there are

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significantly less men teachers than women. This lecture is useful because she brings up
some points that I think most people would overlook and not even bother with because
some think that its the boys fault for falling behind when it could be a completely different
factor. Overall, the lecture is trying to bring attention to the school being the problem behind
the underachievement of males in school and some solutions that could help.
Computers and Classrooms: The Status of Technology in U.S. Schools. Educational
Testing Service. 1998. 7 Nov. 2015.
Education reform and the quality of schools are on top of the list of national
concerns now days and the use of technology in classrooms stands as a way to improve
education. It provides a baseline of information for the cost of a computer, the different
plans that can be implemented, and the costs for maintaining those plans. This is useful
information because it is a way to improve education and make classes more engaging
along with giving a baseline for what a school would have to do in order to provide all the
students in a classroom with a computer to use.
Draves, William A. Why boys under-perform in school. LERN. 31 October 2015. Web.
7 Nov. 2015.
There is a growing widespread concern about the academic performance of boys in
school and that only 35-40% of the people entering college now days are men. He starts off
with bringing up some commonly known theories and clarifies why they dont quite hold
up. According to Draves the school is at fault for boys doing poorly at school stating that the
schools are afraid use internet and technology which ends up hurting boys, who

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coincidently are more into those things. I would say that it is a useful source because it
provides some problems with the more common theories that some may not see. Overall,
the goal of the article is to bring attention to school being the soul problem and not the boy
itself.
Eliot, Lise. "The Myth Of PINK & BLUE Brains." Educational Leadership 68.3 (2010):
32. MAS Complete. Web. 8 Nov. 2015.
Boys differ in many ways: in physical activity level; self-control; and performance
levels in reading, writing, and math. But above all, they differ in interests. However, she
mentions that society as a whole cannot ignore the striking gender gaps in academic
performance. Girls have outperformed boys in reading and boys have outscored girls in
math on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in every year assessed
since 1971. Overall it comes down to the culture that the boy grows up in because while
they start out different to begin with the area in which they live in can rapidly magnifies
these differences. This compares to some of my other articles because it draws attention to
culture being the main problem towards boy doing poorly in school. The goal of the article
seems to be trying to highlight that the area they grow up in affects them greatly and that
girls and boys learn differently from one another.
Gender Gap in Learning. Pickering News Advertiser (ON) 14 Apr. 2015: Newspaper
Source Plus. Web. 8 Nov. 2015.
Studies have shown that boys trail behind girls when it comes to reading and this
gender gap begins to show itself during the early years of middle school. While it exists it is

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important to not create gender based stereotypes. All children learn at different levels and
each student move at their own speed. So if boys are interested in reading about sports or
even reading comics parents shouldnt try to stop them because it can help in closing the
reading gap between boys and girls. The goal of the article seems to bring attention to the
importance of letting the child learn at their own speed and not stop them if their reading
things not related to school. This information would be useful because it provides an
example of a subject that boys are falling behind in and suggests a helpful tip that could be
applied to any of the subjects being taught in school. This is similar to some of my other
articles because it mentions how students learn differently and where it starts its just that it
focuses more on the reading skills of each gender as an example.
Miller, Claire Cain. A Disadvantage Start Hurts Boys More Than Girls. New York Times
22 Oct. 2015 late ed.: Al. Print.
Boys are falling behind and as society becomes more unequal it seems to hurt them
more. According to a study poorer boys as soon as they start kindergarten are already less
prepared than their sisters, being 8.5% less prepared than more well off boys at a 3.1% less.
She seems to focus more on cultural problems being the main reason why most boys are
falling behind girls in school along with how the image of masculinity is affecting their
attitude and behavior in school. It is a useful source if I wanted to focus solely on how
culture is affecting boys but with many other reasons on this topic alone I may have to
either not use it or mention it somewhere. She seems to be a bit biased towards masculinity
and cultural problems being the main reasons when it could be other reasons as well.

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Sax, Leonard, MD, phD. Boys Adrift: the Five Factors Driving the Growing Epidemic of
Unmotivated Boys and Underachieving Young Men. New York: Basic Books.
2009. Print.
Sax recently noticed that in his work of study hed find a family were their daughter
were motivated, hardworking and successful. While the brother who was equally as smart
was an under-achiever and had no drive. According to his study he did for the past seven
years he believes that there are five reasons why boys have no drive and are underachievers: changes in education, video games, medications for ADHD, Endocrine disruptors
in the environment and the decline, and disintegration of the masculine ideal. It is a useful
source because it highlights other reasons from life besides from school why males are
doing poor in school. The goal of the book seems to be bring attention to other reasons
affecting males performance in school other than school itself.