... the latest official statistics showed that, in England, girls continue to out-perform boys in most subjects and at most ages. BBC News
This is the picture as it is usually perceived. However, in Nine Shift: Work, life and education in the 21st century — a new book by American educationalists Draves and Coates — a different picture emerges:
... boys are leading society into the internet age. According to them, it is not boys who are the problem but schools. For while boys are developing the skills they will need in the "knowledge jobs" of the future, schools are still preparing students for an industrial age which is passing. They believe schools in the US had to go through a similar adjustment between 1900 and 1920, as the education system adapted to produce the skills needed for industrial and office employers instead of the rural economy. Draves and Coates say boys dropped out of school in huge numbers in the first two decades of the 20th century. Yet it was young men, experimenting with technology, who led America's manufacturing boom, especially in the automobile industry. They say something similar is happening today: boys are into the internet and computers. They like to innovate and experiment. They "like taking risks, being entrepreneurial, being collaborative — all behaviours that lead to success in the workforce today". But while they are rewarded for their behaviour in the workplace, they are punished in school because they are non-conformist, poor at listening and following instructions, and restless. BBC News
