Behind the Headline: Honor Code

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Honor Code
New York Times | 7/6/12

Behind the Headline
Gender Gap
Education Next | Spring 2010

“Schools praise diversity but have become culturally homogeneous,” writes David Brooks in today’s New York Times. “The education world has become a distinct subculture, with a distinct ethos and attracting a distinct sort of employee. Students who don’t fit the ethos get left out.”

What type of students get left out? Boys! (And some girls.)

The education system rewards and encourages “a certain sort of person: one who is nurturing, collaborative, disciplined, neat, studious, industrious and ambitious. People who don’t fit this cultural ideal respond by disengaging and rebelling,” Brooks writes.

In the Spring 2010 issue of Ed Next, Richard Whitmire, author of Why Boys Fail, and Susan McGee Bailey, author of How Schools Shortchange Girls, debated whether K-12 schools are now shortchanging boys.

You can listen to an audio excerpt of Richard Whitmire reading from the introduction of his book here.

And Richard Whitmire talks with Education Next about boys and school in this video.

-Education Next

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