CEJ #2

Sophie

Feb. 5, 2012

The Boys At the Back

Christina Hoff Sommers
The New York Times
February 2, 2013
Opinion
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com


    The article, The Boys At the Back, is saying that girls have the ability to focus more than boys in school and do well because of it. The author uses a study called the Journal of Human Resources to back up her statements. Fifty-eight hundred students in kindergarten through fifth grade were studied in different races and schools, and the data showed that all of the boys had lower scores on the test they took than expected. According to Christina Hoff Sommers, “If the teachers had not accounted for classroom behavior, the boys’ grades, like the girls’, would have matched their test scores...”  Sommers says that since 1990 girls have had better SAT test scores and have “never looked back.”
    Considering this is an opinion article, there is definitely a bias. It is showed when Sommers stated things like, “That boys struggle with school is hardly news,” and “It’s long past time for women to claim their rightful share of the economic rewards that redound to those who do well in school.”  She believes that in younger grades, girls focus more and do better in school than boys. I think that gender doesn’t have a significant enough effect on a persons behavior to make them have better or worse grades in school. There are certain boys that can’t sit still, and there are lots of them, but that doesn’t mean that girls are all perfect. This study is testing kindergarten through fifth grade, so of course there will be fidgety boys who don’t want to sit criss-cross applesauce of the rug with their hands in their lap. There will also be girls who can’t sit still who may want to focus on something else. As someone who spaces out quite a bit, I know that it’s difficult to catch every single word the teacher is saying as they give a lecture. I think that part of the reason why the boys didn’t do as well on the tests is because they were so young. Though I’m sure the tests were designed to be to the students level, it must have been hard to take the test as a kindergartener. Women are very capable of doing amazing things. Whether it is Elizabeth Blackwell who was the first American Woman Doctor or Jane Goodall who has spent years studying apes, women can do amazing things and can be just as smart if not smarter than men. Women are also gaining more rights every day. Recently, a right was made that woman can be in combat. I believe there will always be smart women making changes in the world, as well as men and hopefully this study will not label women as smarter or better than men.