新編大學(xué)英語第二冊u(píng)nit9 Text B: Boys Are Teachers' Pets

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UNIT 9 AFTER-CLASS READING 1; New College English (II)

Boys Are Teachers' Pets

1 The classroom is a man's world, where boys get two-thirds of the teachers' attention even when they are in a minority. They are allowed to tease the girls and they receive praise for sloppy work that would not be tolerated from girls. Boys are accustomed to being teachers pets, and, if girls get anything like equal treatment, boys will protest and even disrupt lessons.

2 These claims are made in a book out this week, written by Dale Spender, a lecturer at the London University Institute of Education. She argues that discrimination against girls is so typical of co-educational schools that single-gender classes are the only answer.

3 Her case is based on tape-recordings of her own and other teachers' lessons. Many of them, like Spender, had deliberately set out to give girls a fair chance. "Sometimes," says Spender, "I have even thought I have gone too far and have spent more time with the girls than the boys."

4 The tapes proved otherwise. In 10 taped lessons (in secondary school and college), Spender never gave the girls more than 42 percent of her attention (the average was 38 percent) and never gave the boys less than 58 percent. There were similar results for other teachers, both male and female.

5 In other words, when teachers give girls more than a third of their time, they feel that they are depriving the boys of their rightful share. And so do the boys themselves. "She always asked the girls all the questions," said one boy in a classroom where 34 percent of the teachers' time was allocated to girls. "She doesn't like boys, and just listens to the girls," said a boy in another class, where his gender got 63 percent of the teacher's attention.

6 Boys regarded two-thirds of the teacher's time as a fair deal and when they got less they caused trouble in class and even complained to a higher authority. "It's important to keep their attention," said one teacher. "Otherwise, they behave very badly."

7 According to Spender's research, double standards pervade the classroom. "When boys ask questions, protest, or challenge the teacher, they are often met with respect and rewards; when girls engage in exactly the same behavior, they are often met with criticism and punishment."

8 A boy seeking attention will quickly get a response from a teacher. "But girls can be ignored; their hands can be held up for ages, and their often polite requests for assistance are disregarded as the teacher is obliged to remain with the boys."

9 One girl, talking about a male teacher, commented: "You wouldn't want to have your hand up to tell him there was a fire, if you were a girl. We'd all burn to death before he asked you what you wanted to say.

10 Boys' written work, too, is judged by different standards, says Spender. When she asked teachers to mark essays and projects, the same work got better marks when teachers were told that it came from boys. "When a boy decides to make a thing of it, there's not a girl that can match him," one teacher said of a project on inventions. But, in fact, the work had been done by a girl.

11 Neat and tidy work from girls was treated with some contempt. "I think she could have spent more time on getting some facts than on making it look pretty, was one comment. "Typical, isn't it? All that effort just to make it look nice YOU can't beat girls for being concerned with appearances," was another. But when Spender indicated that the work came from a boy, the tune changed dramatically.

12 Spender concludes that, in mixed classes, the girls are at a disadvantage. If they are as noisy and ambitious as the boys, they are considered "unladylike"; if they are quiet and passive, they are ignored.

13 A few schools have introduced single-gender groups for math and science, says Spender, and have found significant improvements in girls' results. Separating boys and girls within schools for certain subjects rather than a return to single-gender schools is the most hopeful solution she suggests.