Female Supremacy Articles

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This week, Dr. Cappon's group released the latest results of its authoritative national writing test for 13- and 16-year-olds. To pass, a student had to attain a level of writing where "errors do not interfere with communication." Among 16-year-olds, 69 per cent of the girls made the grade, but only 53 per cent of the boys. Yet three-quarters of the students who wrote the test said they wanted to go to college or university.

"Boys are not going to get into university, or complete post secondary education, with that level of writing ability," says Dr. Cappon. The facts bear him out. Boys are 30 per cent more likely to drop out of high school.

No wonder the hottest topic in education is how to help the boys. The remedies suggested range from more boy-friendly books (Surprise! Boys are interested in cowboys and cars) to more recess (Surprise! Boys have a hard time sitting still) and more male role models (Guess what! Boys admire hockey stars).

To the average parent, this may seem like a stunning statement of the obvious. But in education, it's an earthquake. An entire generation of educational theory has been rooted in the notion that boys and girls are the same, and that gender is socially constructed. Worse, social critics such as Christine Hoff Summers (The War Against Boys) have argued persuasively that schools tend to pathologize normal boy behaviour -- in other words, to treat boys as defective girls.