Gender Differences - The Sight and The Sound by:Janet Allison
My current read is Why Gender Matters by Dr
My current read is Why Gender Matters by Dr. Leonard Sax. He is a proponent of single sex education and uses a wide range of scientific research to highlight gender learning differences. He emphasizes that
Sex differences in childhood are larger and more important than sex differences in adulthood.
Absolutely, gender matters and it matters even more in education!
The question isare we paying attention?!
The Sound of your Silence may be his ADD diagnosis
Hearing - When adults hummed the Brahms lullaby over and over to premature babies as music therapy, those girl babies were able to be discharged, on average, 12 days earlier than the girl babies who were not hummed to.
HOWEVER, there was no difference in the boy babies because the boys did not even hear the higher frequency sound!
Science is proving that females hear a wider range of sounds.
Implication: If your son has a soft-spoken female teacher (or mom) and is showing signs of inattention, perhaps his disinterest is just because he doesn't hear? Sax says
Some boys diagnosed with ADD may just need the teacher to raise her voice a bit.
Profound, isn't it?
Implication: Teen-age girls often think their fathers are yelling at them. Even when dad thinks he is speaking in a normal voice tone, she may be experiencing his voice almost ten times louder than he experiences it!
Girls draw Nouns, Boys draw Verbs
Vision: Science has proven that newborn girls prefer looking at faces, while newborn boys prefer looking at moving objects. Now, scientists have discovered that each gender has a different configuration of rods and cones in their eyes and sends information to the brain in a different way.
Sax emphasizes that
these are not small differences with overlap - they are big differences with no overlap at all.
Young girls typically draw symmetrical pictures of people, pets, flowers and trees, preferring 'warm' colors like: red, orange, green and beige. They use, on average, 10 or more colors in their pictures.
Young boys typically draw action - planes shooting flames, robots attacking, and aliens eating each other. They prefer 'cool' colors like: black, gray, silver and blue. They use, on average, about 6 colors in their drawings.
Implications: Children are intrinsically adept at deciphering what their parents and teachers prefer. Teachers have been trained to encourage children to draw people-centric pictures with lots of colors. Feedback from an unaware teacher or parent gives boys the subtle message that their drawings are somehow not okay. I continue to encourage parents and teachers to accept 'gross' from boys. Otherwise, boys soon figure out that 'art is for girls' and once again may feel dissociated from the school experience.
Brain differences have been well-documented. As gender differences continue to be revealed it is imperative that we spread the wordwe can make the world a place where all children are understoodand, meanwhile, if you are a femalespeak up!
For more on Brain Differences and Gender Behavior see:
http://www.parenting-advice-from-mom.com/brain-development.htmlAbout the author
Janet Allison is a Parent Educator, Family Coach and Waldorf Educational Consultant. She teaches extensively in the Pacific Northwest on a variety of topics. Her passion is guiding parents and teachers in using language as a catalyst for change, deepening relationships and inspiring confidence. Author of: Discover What You Believe About Being a Parent and Boys Alive! Bring Out Their Best! You can find her at
http://www.parenting-advice-from-mom.com and
http://www.languageofparenting.com
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