One Classroom, Two Genders
By JENNIFER FINNEY BOYLAN
Published: September 9, 2013
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/10/opinion/one-classroom-two-genders.html?_r=0As the nation's classrooms welcome back teachers and students, it's worth taking a moment to consider the methods — and the gender — of your own favorite teacher. A 2006 study by Thomas Dee, now a professor at Stanford, suggested that boys do better in classes taught by men while girls are more likely to thrive in classes taught by women. The study found that girls were more likely to report that they did not think a class would be useful to their future if it was taught by a man, and boys were more likely to say they did not look forward to a particular subject if it was taught by a woman.
Many scholars suggest that other variables, like a teacher's experience and the number of students in his or her class, are much more important to students' success. And yet the way we relate to our students and our teachers surely has something to do with whether we are male or female.
This fall, I begin my 25th year as a professor at Colby College, where I spent the first 12 years of my teaching life as a man, and the last 13 as a woman. When I began teaching, I was a young man fresh out of graduate school. I know I felt more comfortable being funny in the classroom back then; as a woman I suspect I seem a little less goofy, a little more serious. But having gone from a world of male privilege to being a member of one of the most marginalized groups in the country, there's a reason I'm more serious now, a little less carefree.
