the apple of my eye

"Poor Richard was to me as an eldest son, the apple of my eye"

Sir Walter Scott, Old Mortality, 1816

Your sons, your daughters, our students.  We, teachers and parents alike really want the best for them.  I recommend the following publications about raising and teaching boys and girls to help them achieve personal excellence, to guide them on their personal journey and set them off on their path in life.  The following books and references are enlightening, truly inspiring and written in a manner that is accessible to all and provide a significant number of anecdotes.

I will start with Dr Leonard Sax MD PhD who has considerable experience as a family doctor and psychologist.  In recent years, Dr Sax has spent his time visiting and observing girls and boys in different schools, learning more about gender differences and providing professional development opportunities for teachers in different countries.

"Every time I make any statement about how girls and boys are different, I will state the evidence on which my statement is based.  Every statement I make about sex differences will be supported by good science published in peer-reviewed journals. I will list some of the stated differences that are relevant to teachers in the classroom and why may of course, be very relevant to parents also."

Dr Leonard Sax, Why gender matters, 2005

He does, 38 pages of source notes at the back of his book Why Gender Matters, what parents and teachers need to know about the emerging science of sex differences.

See below my précis of Why gender matters by Leonard Sax.

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Every child is unique.  The fact that each child is unique and complex should not blind is to the fact that gender is one of the two great organizing principles in child development - the other principle being age.
Hearing

Boys don't hear as well as girls

eg boy sitting at the back of a classroom, staring out the window, he isn't paying attention, not because he has attention deficit disorder, but because he cannot hear the softly spoken teacher. Girls won't learn as well in a noisy classroom. 

eg experienced teachers usually seat the boys at the front of the class and the girls at the back, which is the opposite of how girls and boys usually seat themselves.

Sight

Our retinas are made up of layers, the photoreceptor layer contains rod and cones which send signals to the next layer, the ganglion cells.  Some ganglion cells are very large (magnocellular) aka M cells, others are small (parvocellular) aka P cells. P cells in our retina compile information about texture and colour, M cells compile information about movement and direction.  The male retina has mostly larger, thinker M cells, as a result  

eg. boys prefer to simulate motion in pictures that they draw and usually prefer colours such as black, grey, silver and blue.  Girls prefer colours such as red, orange, green and beige and will find the texture of a richly textured object such as a doll more appealing than a moving truck.

Brain

eg.Women typically navigate using landmarks that can be seen or heard or smelt.  Men are more likely to use absolute landmarks such as north or south or absolute distance such as kilometers or city blocks. 
Young women use the cerebral cortex while young men use the hippocampus, a nucleus deep inside the brain that is not activated in women's brains during navigational tasks.

Emotions

eg. A 7 year old will not be able to tell you why he/she is feeling sad.  Negative emotional activity in response to unpleasant visual images seem to be localized in phylogenetically primitive areas of the brain, specifically the amygdala. The part of the brain that does that talking, up in the cerebral cortex, has few direct connections to the part of the brain where the emotion is occurring, down in the amygdala.   

eg. Likewise a 17 year old boy will not be able to tell you why he is feeling sad because brain activity associated with negative emotion remains down in the amygdala.  For girls a large fraction of the brain activity associated with negative emotion moves up to the cerebral cortex, which is the same division of the brain that is associated with higher cognitive functions - reflection, reasoning and language.  

eg. Which is why a 17 year old girl is far better able to explain why she is feeling sad in detail and without too much difficulty.

Risk taking

eg. Many boys enjoy taking risks and most boys are impressed by other boys who take risks, especially if the risk taker succeeds.  Girls are less likely to enjoy risk taking for its own sake and are much less likely to be impressed  by risk taking behaviour in others.  Girls may be willing to take risks, but they are less likely to seek out risky situations just for the sake of living dangerously.  A boy is  much more likely to do something dangerous when he's in a group of boys than by himself.  Boys systematically overestimate their own ability, while girls are more likely to underestimate their abilities.

Stress

The female autonomic nervous system has been shown to be influenced more by the parasympathetic nervous system, which is energised by acetylcholine rather than adrenaline and which causes an unpleasant, nauseated feeling rather than the "thrill" of the sympathetic nervous system. 

eg.When young boys are exposed to threat and confrontation, their senses sharpen and they feel an exciting tingle.  When most young girls are exposed to threat and confrontation, they feel dizzy and "yucky".  

Exposure to stress enhances the growth of neural connections in the male hippocampus while it inhibits growth of connections in the female hippocampus.

Bullies

eg. A teenage girl who bullies is often a "good girl", polite to adults and clever at hiding her traces.  A girl who victimises other girls in an "alternative aggression" manner is often the most socially skilled and may even be one of the most popular girls, just the opposite of the typical boy bully who may have few friends, be socially inept and may not be doing well at school.

Learning

eg. Most girls will naturally seek to affiliate with the teacher.  They expect the teacher to be on their side, to be their ally.  Most girls won't hesitate to ask the teacher for help when they need it.  Educational researchers have found that girls are more concerned than boys are with pleasing the teacher and more likely than boys to follow the teachers example.  Girls are more likely to do their homework even if the particular assignment doesn't interest them.  Girls want the teacher to think well of them.  

eg, Boys on the other hand will be less motivated to study unless they find the material intrinsically interesting.  Likewise, most boys will consult the teacher for help only as a last resort.

Friendships

Girls friendships are about being together, spending time together, talking together, going places together.  Friendships between boys on the other hand usually develop out of a shared interest in a game or activity.

eg. If you are working with a girl, smile and look her in the eye when you're helping her with a subject.  That gives her nonverbal reassurance that you like her and you're her friend.  

eg If you're working with a boy, sit down next to him and spread out the materials in front of you, so that you're both looking at the materials shoulder to shoulder.  Don't hold an eye-to-eye stare with a boy unless you're trying to discipline or reprimand him.

Groupwork

Small group learning is a good strategy for girls because you can be confident that if they get stuck, at least one of them will come to you for help.  However,  if a group of boys get stuck there is no guarantee that any of them will ask for help, unless one of the boys is a geek and even geeks know that asking the teacher for help lowers their status in the eyes of the other boys.

Stress

eg. When a girl is under stress, she looks to other girls for support and comfort, they want to be with their friends more.  Few young girls will flourish in a high pressure, time constrained environment.

eg. When boys are under stress, they usually want to be left alone.  In the classroom, moderate stress improves boys performance in tests whereas the same stress degrades girls performance on tests.  Many young boys are energised by confrontation and by time constrained tasks. 

Spatial tasks

eg. Girls are more likely to use visible landmarks whereas boys are more likely to use compass directions.  

Women use the cerebral cortex, the most advanced part of the brain for such tasks, men use the hippocampus, a phylogenetically primitive area of the brain that is prewired for spatial navigation.

Maths

Similarly, girls and boys use different parts of the brain for maths tasks, because boys use the hippocampus, an ancient nucleus buried deep in the brain, with no direct connections to the cerebral cortex.  

eg. To get girls of a similar age eg 12 years old excited about "pure" maths and geometry, you need to connect it to the real world.

Reading
Girls and boys like to read different things

eg. most girls prefer fiction, books where they can be analytical about a charachter's motives and behaviours. Boys are more likely to prefer non-fiction, action, stories with male protagonists that are exciting. 

Dr Sax gives a wonderful example of a class of boys studying "Lord of the flies", the boys were asked to prepare a 3D map of the island.  They had to read the book carefully to be able to construct their map. Most girls would prefer a task of writing an essay describing "How would you feel if you were Piggy?"

Sports

Participation in extracurricular activities and especially in competitive sports, raises girls self-esteem.  

eg. Low self esteem is a major risk factor for drug and alcohol use among girls, so raising self-esteem lowers the risk of drug and alcohol use among girls.  

eg. Boys are different, they don't drink or use drugs to assuage low self-esteem. They drink and use drugs because they're sensation seeking or because they want to look cool.  

It may be the case that boys who are the greatest risk-takers are also the most likely to participate in competitive sports, in which case participation in sports may be a marker for boys who are at higher risk for drug and alcohol use.

Discipline

eg. Boys respond well to strict and authoritarian discipline, the stricter the parents discipline style, the better the boys social-cognitive skills.  A "warm and fuzzy" parenting approach appeared to retard boys acquisition of social cognitive skills. 

eg. For girls, the results were just the opposite.  The "warm and fuzzy" approach promoted social skills whereas strict discipline had a slight negative effect on girls social development.

Learning

There are no differences in what girls and boys can learn.  But there are big differences in the best ways to teach them.

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I have been very fortunate attend lectures given by Dr Leonard Sax.  Besides Why Gender matters, Dr Sax has also written Boys adrift: The five factors driving the growing epidemic of unmotivated boys and more recently Girls on the edge.  If an opportunity arises for your school or institution to host Dr Leonard Sax, take it up.  Dr Sax's webpage with contact details is http://www.leonardsax.com/ and on his webpage there are a considerable number of other recommended readings which you may find of interest.

My second summary is of a lecture presented by Nathan Mikaere-Wallis MEd, a lecturer at The University of Canterbury, New Zealand.  Nathan's contact details are http://www.eshd.canterbury.ac.nz/people/mikaerewallis.shtml 

Nathan is a superb public speaker, he explains different concepts about the brain and brain research in a manner that is accessible to all.  He is another highly recommended speaker for your school or institution.

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The 90's were the "decade of the brain", there were a number of new methods available such as MRI scans which made it easier for the brain to be studied.

The first three years of a child's life is a crucial time, they must have as limited stress as possible, they need cradling, love, care, eye contact.  Calm a crying baby quickly.  The main caregiver (who may be a birth parent, parent, family member, friend) should be nurturing, sympathetic and understanding.  This is the time when a child's cortex must be given the opportunity to develop as fully as possible.  

 If a child under three is exposed to repeated stress then their brain stem will develop which will adversely affect the growth of their cortex.

A frightened child cannot learn.  Teachers need to listen to their students and use positive reinforcement.

A two year old has emotions but lacks the ability to control them.  A three year old will need repeated requests (maybe up to 100 times!).  It is not enough to tell a child not to do something, they need help to know what to do.  eg. say to a child to "use gentle hands".  You must explicitly describe what it is that they should do, and as mentioned above repeat that many times.

A teenager's frontal cortex is "shut for renovations", their brain is similar to that of a two years old, but don't worry that does not reflect how the teenager will be as a adult. 

The following image shows two brain scans, one of a person who had a loving, caring upbringing (left side) compared to a person who was subjected to trauma, abuse and neglect (right side).  Both images were taken while the persons were at rest, it is visually clear that the brainstem of the of the abused person is very active , so they are in "stress mode while their reasoning, thinking part of the brain the cortex is significantly less active that that image of the person who was subjected to a childhood of trauma.

The following is an image of a brainscan of a "normal" person compared to a brainscan similar to 92% of the people who are on death row.  The visual differences are clear and indicate that the cortex of the "normal" person is active, shown in red while the cortex of the murderer hasn't developed properly while their brainstem is over developed.

Excerpt's from a similar talk given by Nathan's have been uploaded to WikiEducator, click here

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I found Nathan's talk fascinating and enlightening while at the same time very concerning. 

In Canada, early childhood teachers are paid more than university lecturers, this is in recognition of the huge importance the early years have on a child's development.  Economically, wouldn't it make more sense to spend that little bit extra on early childhood education as opposed to having to spend money putting steps in place in deal with the social impacts of numerous teenagers and adults who as a result of traumatised, abusive childhoods have an enlarged brainstem and a under developed cortex.

Stop press: This cartoon (by Rod Emmerson) and article "New Zealand is letting it's children down" (by Paula Bennett, Minister of Social Development for New Zealand) published today in the New Zealand Herald emphasises how incredibly serious this issue is.

 We, as teachers, parents and members of the community need to take even more responsibility for the mental, physical and social health of our young people and I not talking about specifically within New Zealand. This is is a global problem, one that is (in my view) even more important than global warming.  The impact we have on our young people has a direct impact on their mental health and a resultant indirect effect on the short and long term health of our planet.  

This is a global problem, spread the knowledge and let's work together to raise happy, healthy, confident young adults.

On another note, as I step down from my soapbox...

Have a wonderful break over the Christmas period, be sure to catch up on your holiday reading....