Female Supremacy Articles - Page 5

Screen 3 of 14

The Grand Rapids Press

June 8, 2003

Girls have been walking up to graduation podiums in droves this spring, besting boys in the game of grades.

"I don't want to dis on the guys," said Lydia Wunsch, one of three co-valedictorians -- all girls -- at Saugatuck High School. "But maybe maturity is a factor. Girls realize you can't go out and do this or that before a test. You have to go home and study."

Co-valedictorian Liz Shaheen agreed: "They're more interested in video games."

Think their comments ruffle the guys' feathers?

"It's the laziness factor," agreed Trevor Carlyle, the "odd guy in" among East Grand Rapids High's top 10 seniors this year. "The top 10 doesn't really show the top 10 kids as much as the top 10 workers."

But some say it may take more than a kick in the backpack to jump-start guys' achievement.

Girls in recent years have dominated local valedictorian ranks -- this year, nearly two times the number of boys -- while guys continue to disproportionately fill classrooms for the academically and emotionally challenged.

Boys make up 67 percent of area special education ranks -- a figure that, in some local districts, can top 80 percent in behavioral and other subjective areas such as emotional impairments, learning disabilities and other categories that include attention deficit disorder. The same holds true throughout the state and nation.