We're All the Same. Or Are We?

Today is Tuesday and that means I'm talking about teaching related stuff. My subject of the day is gender differences – do they exist? And if so, why do they exist? I used to think that boys and girls were the same (besides the obvious physical differences) and all of our behaviour was determined by how we were treated. But recently my mind has been changing.

Are boys and girls fundamentally different? According to Dr. Leonard Sax (and a lot of studies that he references), yes. In his book, Why Gender Matters, Dr. Sax discusses many biological differences between males and females that are present at birth. For example, one of the biggest things he talks about (and it's something that is widely supported by research), is that girls hear better than boys. He says that this is a very important fact that many teachers do not know. Therefore, if little Johnny is acting out, maybe he's doing so because he can't hear where he is sitting at the back of the class. The reasoning goes that a female teacher will talk in a voice that is appropriate to her, but not loud enough for a boy at the back of the class. And the reverse of this is that girls at the front of the class often think male teachers are yelling at them. This is all in the book, and for anyone who works with kids – or plans to have them one day! - this is an excellent read. The book covers topics from drugs and sex to discipline.

Of course I would never say that everyone fits into a certain mould. The book also talks about the boys and girls who do not fit this pattern (though it also says that they are in the minority). The other great thing about this book (and he even says it somewhere at the beginning) is that this book is written entirely based on research. Everything he says is backed up by something. Another important thing that Dr. Sax stresses is that he only mentions that males and females are different. They are both equally capable of the same things, but they take different paths to arrive at the same definition.

Since reading the book, I've tried to use the ideas it talks about when dealing with my students. It is really too early to say whether or not it's working, but nothing has gone horribly wrong. Either way I think it's an interesting read and certainly opened my eyes to a different way of thinking about gender.

So here is all the information you might need about the book:

• Author and Book Site
• ABE Books (where you can buy the book)
• Listing for the book at the Greater Victoria Public Library
• Listing for the book at the Hamilton Public Library

Sorry if you're not from Hamilton or Victoria, but that's where most of my readers are from...