THE CLASSROOM - A MAN’S WORLD
- QUESTIONS ON THE TEXT
1)Give five examples of sex discrimination in the classroom.
2)In your own words explain the reason given by some teacher for spending more time on boys
3)How do many teachers react when
-boys
-girls criticize them?
4) What suggestions does Spender make to improve the situation?
- QUESTIONS BEYOND THE TEXT
1)What is the artist saying in the cartoon?
2)In your own words explain what the girl is trying to say when she uses the example of the fire (underlined lines)
- TEXTPRODUCTION
1)You have just read this article in the paper. Write a letter to the editor expressing your own opinion. Support your statements with examples!
2) Your English friend attends a single-sex school. You write a letter to her and tell her
about your school, the advantages and disadvantages of mixed schools (find your
own examples) and the way you feel about schools in Austria.
The classroom is a man's world, where boys get most of the teacher's time. They are allowed to tease the girls and are praised for work that would not be accepted from girls.
This is what Dale Spender says, who works at the London University Institute of Education. She argues that there is so much discrimination against girls in mixed classes that the only answer is to have classes with only girls in them. Spender tape-recorded her own and other teachers' lessons. The teachers were both men and women, working in secondary schools. She found that girls had about 42% of the teachers' attention and boys about 58%.
Boys thought it was fair that they got more of the teachers' time - and when they had less they caused trouble and even complained to the head teacher. "It's important to keep their attention," said one teacher. "Otherwise they spoil the lessons."
Spender says teachers react differently to boys and girls: "When boys ask questions or criticize what the teacher says, the teacher often respects them for it; when girls do exactly the same thing they are often punished."
A boy wanting attention will quickly get a reaction from a teacher. But girls' hands can be held up for ages and they get no reaction. One girl, talking about a male teacher, said: "If you were a girl you wouldn't want to put your hand up to tell him there was a fire. We'd all burn to death before he asked you what you wanted to say."
Boys use up more room, too - for their chairs, desks and their legs. They also move around the room more. Boys often insult girls and are not punished for it.
Boys' written work, too, is judged differently, says Spender. When she asked teachers to mark essays and tests, the same work got better marks when teachers were told that it came from boys. One teacher said about same work, "She should have got some more facts instead of making it look pretty". But when Spender said that the work came from a boy the tune changed dramatically.
Spender found that in mixed classes the girls are at a disadvantage. If they are as pushy as the boys, they are thought "unladylike"; if they are quiet, they are ignored. A few schools have introduced single-sex groups for maths and science and have found significant improvements in girls' results. Single-sex groups for certain subjects - rather than single-sex schools - is the best answer, she suggests.
(adapted: Ziegsar, Training English, Textaufgaben für das 10. Schuljahr)