Boys Versus Girls

I seriously don't think that the reason boys don't do well in school is because they think it's too "girly". As a child in kindergarten, if you do something the teacher thinks is good, you get praise; it doesn't make a difference whether you're a girl or a boy. The thing is that girls may be more well behaved and less rowdy than boys, so that's why they get higher praise.

I find that the guys are (generally speaking) smarter, if intelligence is based upon test scores in Math or Science. Obviously, some girls are exceptional too in this regard, but I don't think, in my school at least, many of the girls outperform the guys. Maybe this is different for the arts...

I heard in many universities there are more girls than guys, which is interesting.

I don't ever remember girls having an edge. We probably do, but boys have the guts early on to raise their hand to answer questions. I find boys usually have the top grades because of their competitive streak, but they have more of a range than girls, making girls seem more like the academic sex.

Thanks for the comment! - Just wanted to clarify that it's only young kids (ie aged 5 to 8/9 maybe?) that the article is talking about. So the theory is that young girls are more often the "teacher's-pet" types because school activities favour their level of development -- being able to sit down quietly and write a story, for example. And because young boys shy away from girls, they also shy away from learning because being the teacher's pet is "girly." By no means do I mean that older guys still consider doing well in school too girly, only that a preschooler might.

It's a common misconception that guys and girls who didn't go to co-ed school won't know how to act around one another in post secondary and adult life. That's both untrue and ridiculous!

You shouldn't need to practice acting differently; yeah I know people wear masks, but still, you shouldn't need to act at all. And it's not like they're separated to a point that boys and girls are alien to one another.
I'm all for co-ed interaction...outside school. At least while you're still a mentally developing and psychologically maturing teen.

How different would it be? I've found that we tend to clique with our own gender anyways.

I'd hate to think that us girls are "over-sexualized and leading superficial lives", but I've got to admit, I have met and witnessed more than a handful of this behaviour. For example, the flirting to a point it's distracting (oh hey cleavage...er calculus), and the dumbing down "'cause it's cute", I see a problem there.

I know that I have acted/reacted differently depending if I'm with guy or girl friends. Yeah, that contradicts my earler statement but hey, I'm working on it.

Some of the most confident people I've met went to single-sex schools. They're confident in their character, morals, values, and self-worth/esteem/respect(etc.) rather than placing all that confidence on their success with the opposite sex, or success in general.

At that age/my age, all-girl/all-boy schools hold more benefits than drawbacks. Besides, boys and girls can party together on the weekend.

I find at my school that there is no correlation between being 'smart' and being 'girly'. In fact, most students praise each other for receiving great marks! The notion that boys oust learning and education because of 'girliness' is quasi-offensive and silly :p

I am a Rugby player and I also sing in a band; both being considered as 'manly' activities. But, I also receive average marks in school, and I love learning about the most obscure things!

Being 'girly' does not degrade the innate ability to discover.