Today in class we talked about we talked about two articles, “The Boy Crisis” and “The Truth About Boys and Girls”. These articles took very different stances on the topic of boys’ education in schools. One article, “The Boy Crisis”, stated that boys were falling drastically behind girls in education while the other article went against this argument by stating that boys are actually progressing in education, just at a slower rate than girls.
I read “The Boy Crisis” article first and was quick to agree with everything that was said. This is a popular topic and I agreed with everything the article discussed. I thought, “Yes. We really do need to change the school systems to benefit boys and stop this decline in their education.” Upon reading the other article “The Truth About Boys and Girls”, however, I realized that I had never stopped to question the facts that Newsweek provided. Where was any concrete evidence that this decline in boy’s education was actually happening? I was convinced after reading the second article that this new “crisis” is not actually a crisis at all. There are many underlying issues such as race and economic status that far outweigh gender difference in importance. Many people, boys included, would benefit far more from closing racial and economic gaps rather than gender gaps.
It was interesting to me to see these two different articles that were so directly opposed to each other. Each one was very convincing in its argument, but I was surprised to find out how much data the Newsweek article chose not to report. I guess from now on I will learn to question these articles instead of blindly believing.
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ReplyDeleteArin,
ReplyDeleteI wanted to say that I like what you said about being quickly persuaded by articles like these. They both brought up good arguments. After I read "The Truth About Boys and Girls" I felt a little bit manipulated by Newsweek. I was surprised that they would leave out important information, especially when so many people rely on them as a source of accurate news. I don't like this realization that pop press is reporting news to me that isn't completely true.
Erin,
ReplyDeleteI agree with Samantha in a sense that I was quick to react to what was said, however my response was a little different. When I first read "The Boys in Crisis" article I had to step back and look at things from a historical perspective. It states at one point in the article that millions of dollars are going towards research for how to better adapt and teach to the female learning style. This seems bias to me, it makes it sound like they have only ever done research for girls in the past. However, before girls were even aloud to come to school who do you think the research was going toward benefiting? Chimpanzes? You did a great job of seeing both sides of these articles, and the truth and bias that they each bring. I am sorry I became so heated! See you in class! :)
I believed everything that the Newsweek article, 'The Boy Crisis' stated about the declining academic development of boys in schools in comparison to girls. But when I read 'The Truth about Boys abd Girls', I realized how manipulative the former article was in creating a kind of reaction from its readers. The Newsweek article failed to provide concrete evidence to show that there is a boy crisis. However, the peer reviewed journal was accurate and precise in informing readers that boys are not falling behind academically; both genders are improving their performance the only differece is that girls are doing much better. This led me to question how trustworthy pop press articles are in providing accurate information to readers. I agree with Erin to be careful about what I believe when I read these articles.
ReplyDeleteMore so than "blindly" believing an article, I find it alarming that someone would write a piece on the "boy crisis" knowing that it is not true. To me, the biggest concern is that Newsweek, a magazine with a high reputation, lets journalists like these publicize articles that do not show the hard evidence. The scary part of it all is that after this, how can I believe someone or accept the correct answer as a correct answer if their will always be two sides on the coin?
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