This is old news, but I didn't blog about it last time, so now I will note the Kansas City Star reporting on changes to classrooms to better accommodate the differences in the way girls and boys learn. Rick Montgomery writes,
Even as toddlers, girls tend to score higher in language ability, face recognition, fine motor skills and “social sensitivity.” Their higher doses of oxytocin, a hormone linked to bonding, probably plays a role, scientists believe.
Girls even test out better at multitasking.
Some schools have experimented with making different areas to complement the sexes: a quiet, carpeted area for girls, an open area where boys can move freely.
Maryland physician Leonard Sax is so convinced of nature’s role in learning, he founded a national group calling on public schools to segregate classrooms by gender. “Both girls and boys have been disadvantaged by a system that disregards their hard-wiring.”
Montgomery discusses several different studies of brain-based gender differences, and talked to a variety of experts. Many are nervous about calling any trait hard-wired or gender-specific. But it can at least be a good starting point for what some teachers call "one mind at a time."
A very good read about education and gender.
