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The rite way
There is a way to help your students develop into health young men and women-
by creating meaningful rites of passage beyond merely getting a driver's license.
by Andrew Lines and Graham Gallasch (Australia)

ADHD kids' brains mature more slowly
Delayed development in regions that focus attention, study finds
Associated Press/MSNBC, November 12, 2007

Crucial parts of brains of children with attention deficit disorder develop more slowly than other youngsters’ brains, a phenomenon that earlier brain-imaging research missed, a new study says.

Developing more slowly in ADHD youngsters — the lag can be as much as three years — are brain regions that suppress inappropriate actions and thoughts, focus attention, remember things from moment to moment, work for reward and control movement. That was the finding of researchers, led by Dr. Philip Shaw of the National Institute of Mental Health, who reported the most detailed study yet on this problem in Monday’s online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

“Finding a normal pattern of cortex maturation, albeit delayed, in children with ADHD should be reassuring to families and could help to explain why many youth eventually seem to grow out of the disorder,” Shaw said in a statement.

Two teenage girls amble to the front of the room and unveil their creation: a miniature tower, built with wooden sticks and duct tape, bare hands and imagination.

They’ve spent the better part of an afternoon constructing an 18-inch-tall model of a high-rise. In a few seconds, the same camp director who challenged them to build it will switch on a fan to see if he can blow it down.

For Marcia Thomas and Alexandra Cooks, like the other young women here, it’s the sort of challenge they relish. They have gathered on a campus of the University of North Texas for a summer science camp set up specifically for girls, one of a growing number of such camps around the country.

"Women dominate at universities. The second installment of our five-day series on the gender gap at school and beyond looks at what's motivating the high achievers..."

Re: gender gap in higher ed in Jordan
E-mail from Sandra Stotsky to the Boy's Project listserv, January 27, 2007

That was it. Some boys go to private colleges in the Middle East or elsewhere if their parents can afford it. I asked her about the sociological problem this created in a country where women are still expected to marry and have children. She said Muslim parents were now accepting of the fact that their educated daughters would probably be "marrying down."

In a controversial new book, "The Female Brain," neuropsychiatrist Louann Brizendine argues that differences between men and women start with their brains.

"The New Gender Gap"
Series in the Portland Press Herald and Maine Sunday Telegram, March-April 2006

Here's a thought that's unlikely to occur to twelfth--grade girls as their college acceptances begin to trickle in: After they get to campus in the fall, one in four of them will be mathematically unable to find a male peer to go out with.

At colleges across the country, 58 women will enroll as freshmen for every 42 men. And as the class of 2010 proceeds toward graduation, the male numbers will dwindle. Because more men than women drop out, the ratio after four years will be 60--40, according to projections by the Department of Education.

In May, the Minnesota Office of Higher Education posted the inevitable culmination of a trend: Last year for the first time, women earned more than half the degrees granted statewide in every category, be it associate, bachelor, master, doctoral or professional.

"Boy Brains, Girl Brains:
Are separate classrooms the best way to teach kids?"
Peg Tyre, article in Newsweek, September, 19, 2005

Three years ago, Jeff Gray, the principal at Foust Elementary School in Owensboro, Ky., realized that his school needed help—and fast. Test scores at Foust were the worst in the county and the students, particularly the boys, were falling far behind. So Gray took a controversial course for educators on brain development, then revamped the first- and second-grade curriculum. The biggest change: he divided the classes by gender.

Because males have less serotonin in their brains, which Gray was taught may cause them to fidget more, desks were removed from the boys' classrooms and they got short exercise periods throughout the day. Because females have more oxytocin, a hormone linked to bonding, girls were given a carpeted area where they sit and discuss their feelings. Because boys have higher levels of testosterone and are theoretically more competitive, they were given timed, multiple-choice tests. The girls were given multiple-choice tests, too, but got more time to complete them.

Gray says the gender-based curriculum gave the school "the edge we needed." Tests scores are up. Discipline problems are down. This year the fifth and sixth grades at Foust are adopting the new curriculum, too.

It’s a compelling story that seizes public attention with its “man bites dog” characteristics. It touches on Americans’ deepest insecurities, ambivalences, and fears about changing gender roles and the “battle of the sexes.” It troubles not only parents of boys, who fear their sons are falling behind, but also parents of girls, who fear boys’ academic deficits will undermine their daughters’ chances of finding suitable mates.

But the truth is far different from what these accounts suggest. The real story is not bad news about boys doing worse; it’s good news about girls doing better.