Behavioral Sex Differences
Originate In the Brain
by
Joe Manthey © 2004

Be it "men and the remote control" complaints about men from women or "women talking on-and-on" groans about women from men, the "Battle of the Sexes" continues unabated. If only people understood that these behavioral sex differences originate from the brain.

But there are actually far-reaching negative impacts that stem from society's blindness to how brain differences between the sexes influence gender-specific behavior, such as how this ignorance correlates with how we are not directing our boys toward a mission. The field of education is a case in point, as very few teachers are required by their training programs to learn how sex differences in the brain affects learning. A nature-based pedagogy just doesn't exist.

A boy, on average, is going to be more impulsive, more aggressive, more fidgety and less verbal. And let's not forget that he's also hard-wired and acculturated to not ask for help. But instead of giving him special care academically, we put him in a female-centered environment (86 percent of elementary teachers are female) where neatness, conformity, stillness, verbal skills and fine motor movements are what is valued. That's a classroom set up for the female brain.

Because the female brain has a larger corpus callosum -- the bundle of nerves that connects the brain's left and right hemispheres -- girls out-perform boys in reading, writing and speaking. The male brain, which is more focused on spatial relationships and activity, tends to be more complicated and academically fragile than the female brain.

And just how academically fragile are boys? He is more likely than his sister to be diagnosed with a thought disorder, a brain disorder and a conduct disorder. He is more likely to be enrolled in special education, more likely to receive a "D" or "F" grade, more likely to drop out, and less likely to go on to college.

Our schools have become feminized to a fault. Cooperative learning and other female-centered pedagogy and curricula prevail. And the biggest attention deficit disorder of all is that of educators not even acknowledging that boys, as a group, are being shortchanged academically.

Fortunately, there is light at the end of the tunnel, as society is tuning in more and more to what modern science is telling us -- though PET Scans and other brain imaging techniques -- that human males and females are neurologically different. Indeed, Brain Awareness Week 2004 (http://www.dana.org/brainweek/) is scheduled for March 15-21. This international effort to advance public awareness about the progress, promise, and benefits of brain research has a partnership that is worldwide.

There is much work to be done, though, as the U.S. institutionalizes and incarcerates young males at a higher rate than any other country in the world.

And 85 percent of the world's Ritalin is consumed in America as well, a lot of which is prescribed to boys because of their not fitting in the one-size-fits-all female-centered classroom.

Every boy wants a challenge. When a girl is told she "can be anybody you want to be" -- from a CEO to a stay-at-home mom -- we are sending her a clear message that she has inherent value. But a boy has a hidden psychology that tacitly tells him he needs to earn his worth. He has no blueprint to follow in order to see his inherent value. All the while we assume that he is meeting his own emotional needs.

We are failing our boys for not seeing their fragility, or, if we do acknowledge such, it's often minimized because of the myth that they are "inherently flawed." Just as girls were once told they would never be good in math and science, boys are often sent indirect and direct messages that tell them they're defective, if not just plain bad.

Interesting how we want to help the girl when we perceive her fragility but not the boy.

(Petaluma resident Joe Manthey is the director of Kid Culture in the Schools. For more information, visit www.joemanthey.com)

Copyright 2004 Joe Manthey, all rights reserved