I've been in a gifted math and science class at the same public school
since first grade, and I'll be in the fifth grade this next year.
There have always been at least 5 or 6 more boys than girls in my
class even though the total number of students has continued to grow.
What I have noticed is that almost all the boys go out of their way to
'act dumb' in class, but in actuality I think some are fairly smart.
One bad thing is that the boys, and now they have gotten most of the
girls to think that it isn't 'cool' to look smart. The boys are also
usually lazier than the girls when it comes to doing homework, reports
and projects. In fact out of the 23 students in my gifted class only 2
fourth grade students, both girls, had science fair projects that were
good enough to compete at the County level. Another thing is that a
lot of the boys are very mean to girls that excel in school, so if you
want to be liked by the boys they don't want you to be at the top of
the class. So, I don't have a lot of sympathy if they continue to act
so stupidly that they get tormented in high school from girls that
want to excel. (Not that they should treat anyone that way unless
provoked by inappropriate behavior from the other person. We can only
take just so much torment!)
I have to ask why are the boy's fathers or mothers not doing what is
necessary to make them to put out the effort to excel or to stop the
behavior so they aren't so unkind to the girls, when we want to learn
as much as we can?
At this point in my life except for a couple of nice boys that I like;
the saying 'Boys drool and girls rule' is true, because the boys wish
they were doing as well as I am, but would rather play games to excess
instead of working at learning something that will help them in the
future.
Lisa Gardner (age 9)
Ps. I spend a lot of time playing and goofing off, too, but I do put
limits on how much time is devoted to it. :>)