Equal and Unequal Treatment of Boys and Girls, Essay Example

In my___ years of education I have witnessed teachers in different ways and evidences show gaps exist between boys and girls in terms of equal and unequal treatment. These gaps vary. I noticed some teachers favor boys and some girls, beginning in elementary school and continuing throughout out high school and college.

In my elementary school experience, in one of my lecture a black male student from Jamaica spoke with a tone, dialect and body language that differed dramatically from that of the Canadian white male professor. When the student asked a question, he was ridiculed because of language. The teacher responded to this student by mimicking his mannerisms and speech.

In one of my classes, in which I was the only girl, I became disgusted with the intellectual subservience and lack of vigorous thinking on the part of the students that, feeling I had little to lose except grades and much to gain in terms of personal integrity. What I did not expect were the violent reactions of the boys. The professor did not have to answer my questions because the boys would respond before I had finished a sentence. The attacks were aimed at me personally rather than at the points I was raising. This pattern of attack became so vicious that even the teacher referred to have to “hold back the wolves” in order to get in a word to respond to my questions. By the end of the year I felt like I had just barely survived an experience of academic violence.

In my college experience, my experience has proven to be frustrating that I dread attending. The teacher seems to want to facilitate class participation and discussion. He encouraged questions throughout his lecture since the class is small, about twenty-five students. However, whenever boys raised hands to speak, he acknowledged boys, and then looked at his watch. This automatically undermines what boys have to say. However, girls were given ample time to speak and develop their points.

When teachers have biased beliefs, research has repeatedly and conclusively shown that they inadvertently express them to their students in the form of biased behaviors. While each individual incident may be trivial, the accumulation of biased incident is powerful. Only by identifying problem behaviors can they be eliminated.