TITLE

A Disadvantaged Start Hurts Boys More Than Girls
DESCRIPTION

There is a significant gender gap between boys and girls in that boys tend to have more significant problems emotionally, behaviorally, cognitively, and get into more trouble than girls.   The article begins with discussing how the gender gap begins early in preschool and continues throughout the entire educational enterprise.   The researchers look specifically at how poverty and family problems (single parent) families contribute to the differences between boys and girls.  The researchers offer a number of hypotheses as to the cause of the gender gap.  “For policy makers,…the study’s results show disadvantage should be taken into account when devising ways to help boys, and gender should be considered when helping poor children, since boys and girls seem to respond differently … For educators, research points to the importance for boys of early interventions, like high-quality preschool and mentoring …. For parents, the data show the payoffs of spending more time with children, especially boys… “

SOURCE

New York Times, October 22, 2015,  by Claire Cain Miller

LINK TO RESOURCE

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/22/upshot/a-disadvantaged-start-hurts-boys-more-than-girls.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fscience

(TinyURL)  http://tinyurl.com/orzwu42

CLASS DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

•According to the article, what accounts for the differences (gender gap) between boys?
•How does this gender gap manifest itself:  cognitively, behaviorally and emotionally?
•What do the researchers believe about the effects of parenting as a contributing source of the problems experienced by boys?
•What do the researchers believe about the effects of parenting as a contributing source of the problems experienced by boys?
•What do the researchers hypothesize to account for the differences?  That is, why do boys have more serious issues than girls in disadvantaged families?
•How are these problems explained in terms of nature vs nurture?