"I Knew That, but Why?"

Suzanne C.
Blog #2
Literary Luminator
Introduction and Chapter 1- pages 13-42

    The title of the book Boys and Girls Learn Differently by Micheal Guarian gives the reader an obvious clue as to what the book will be about. Most people would already say that they knew boys and girls were different.   The following passages are the ones that helped me best answer the question as to why?
     The first passage of the book that struck me was the following in Chapter 1 on Page 31.
           "Both females and males must be equally understood and protected emotionally.  So any brain research    pointing out ways in which boys are more emotionally fragile than girls is not offered to take attention away from girls'  emotional needs.  It is offered to inspire us to a new vision of males.  Males are simply not as tough as we think; often females are emotionally tougher (though it doesn't appear so when they overtly show distress in tears and in talk more than do boys)." 

     Up to this point in the book the author had done a wonderful job at outlining the physical and biological differences of male and female brains.  However, as differences were described I began to focus on what each gender was lacking.  In saying that females tend to speak in sentences earlier than males because the Arcuate fasciculus or curving bundle of nerve fibers in the central nervous system develops earlier, I felt that males had a deficit that needed to be corrected.  However, the above quote reflects the idea that the differences should not be seen as things that are problems but simply things that should be considered when addressing a child's learning needs. 

     So why are male and female brains different.  The following passage in Chapter 1 on pages 38 and 39 expresses an evolutionary reason.   
           "In order for the human species to survive, this divergence of sex roles was necessary,  Until about ten thousand years ago, when the agricultural age arose in many parts of the world, humans were hunter-gatherers.  Males were responsible for hunting (a very spatial occupation) and periphery protection and war (very aggressive occupations); females were responsible for gathering roots and other vegetation and most child care (sensory and verbal occupations)...
   Over millions of years, the brain both created and accommodated these circumstances.  Females had to be better at verbal skills than males; males had to be better at spatials and more physically aggressive.  Females had to care more about small-group consensus; males had to rely more on pecking-order hierarchies with dominant leadership. Females had to hear, see, and use all the senses and remember variety among things in order to provide the subtle brain development and care a child needs; males had to focus on the single task of providing for and protecting communities of children."  

      The theory that male and female brains had to develop differently over time so that each gender might survive makes sense. However, I question why this does not continue.  The author says that as the brain changed the changes were passed on by heredity.  This explains the widespread gender differences in brains, but as we no longer live in a hunter-gatherer society why wouldn't the brain change to accommodate the current values and roles of society.  As the book goes on, I hope to find the answer to this question.

     After understanding the basic concept of the book that male and female brains are physically different and that we should teach them differently, I was slightly overwhelmed.  However, this quote on page 4 of the Introduction , from a 20 year veteran teacher, who despite her training and knowledge had two sons who struggled in school, gave me some comfort. 
 .   "This work isn't giving schools and families yet another thing to do, but giving them a new way to make the important things they are already doing most effective."

      I felt this passage was important because it emphasized the point that we should not interpret the knowledge that male and female brains are different and therefore say that one sex is inferior to the other.  The differences are not to be seen negatively as abnormalities that need to be fixed, but instead as information that will help us to consider our students individual needs and help them to better succeed.