WHY MALES ARE UNDERACHIEVING

Why Males Are Underachieving

Why Males Are Underachieving

Chapter I

Introduction

Take a seat in any school staffroom in the country and at some stage, the conversation is bound to come around to the pupils. No matter how hard we might try to avoid the subject, we simply cannot stop ourselves. They might be the light of our lives or the bane of our existence but they are, nevertheless, our raison d'être. They are our reason for sitting in the staffroom in the first place. From personal experience of many such conversations over the years I have observed that the names of pupils that crop up most often in these discussions, who are frequently perceived to be making little effort, and who are usually regarded as those who could do a lot better, belong to boys.

Sometimes I wonder why we bother. Is it really worth getting worked up about 'Gareth's' poor behaviour in science this morning, or over 'Thomas' who, for the third week on the run, has not done his geography homework? What will the umpteenth detention, reprimand or letter home actually achieve with these kinds of boys? It is unlikely they will ever change, so why should we place our mental health in jeopardy if it's not going to make a difference? They are what they are - your typical male underachievers. They're not interested in school. They want to be outside with their mates kicking a ball around the streets, not cooped up in a stuffy classroom learning the perfect tense of a language they will probably never use from a country they will probably only ever visit on a day return to a European Cup match.

The thing is, whether we like it or not, we do concern ourselves with these boys, albeit sometimes for reasons of self-preservation. Underachievement is a very important issue to teachers not simply because we want to get the best out of our pupils but also because of its association with behavioural problems. Pupils who don't remain on task are potentially disruptive influences in the classroom who can impede the learning of others and so contribute to the underachievement of their peers as well as to their own. Furthermore, dealing with disruptive pupils can be a significant factor in the incidence of stress within the profession and as such, is to be avoided whenever possible.

I have no doubt that many would agree that underachievement among boys is not a particularly new phenomenon and yet in the last couple of years it has become an increasingly topical issue about which the media has devoted air time as well as a substantial number of column inches in both the popular press and the more academic educational journals. So why this burst of interest? Why are boys suddenly receiving all this attention now? Has the gender seesaw tipped too far in favour of boys and so someone with a degree in political correctness has decided it is time to redress the balance? Perhaps ...