I was in a 6th grade class where the students were doing some writing. A boy turned to the girl next to him and asked her how to spell “attacked”. She rolled her eyes and spelled it for him. Of course, since she was an ESL student, it’s hard to figure out why she would be more likely to know how to spell a common English word than a native speaker. He was entirely oblivious of this. Well, either that, or he is just aware of his natural inferiority…

Another day this week I spent in a grade 3-5 behavior classroom. There were 4 adults and five students in the room, but more specifically, there were 5 boys in the room.

Why no girls? Why are behavior classes full of boys, and why do special ed classes seem to have more boys than girls?

On the one hand, it has been shown that boys are more likely to misbehave, and thus get the attention that would get them evaluated and placed. But why is it the case that boys with educational issues act out, while girls do not?

As I see it, the boys have fewer resources all told - emotional, mental, and social. Therefore, when they have academic issues, they have less to fall back on. They are already maxed out. Thus, they frustrate earlier and act out in response, rather than attempting other actions.

Another class I was in this week was a high school French class. I had a section of level 2 and level 5. Level 5 was 10 girls and 2 boys, typical ratio for an advanced-level class nowadays.