Trends in education may be contributing to boys' greater likelihood of poor school performance. For example, most children begin school at age 5, and reading is now typically taught in kindergarten. Many girls are emotionally mature enough and have the verbal and social skills to succeed in school at age 5, but many boys do not. Boys' relative lack of verbal skills makes them more likely to struggle to learn to read and learn language skills, a factor that places them at a disadvantage from the beginning of their educational careers.
Also, according to the 1997 Metropolitan Life Survey of the American Teacher, both boys and girls believe that teachers favor girls, giving them more positive attention and calling on them more often. Though boys do receive more attention than girls, this is more likely to be disciplinary attention.
Studies show that boys are generally more likely than girls to have interests and personalities that are not consistent with the standard school environment. For instance, boys are more likely than girls to play with computers, video games and the Internet. Teachers often fail to understand that this type of play can be a beneficial form of learning and instead view these hobbies as distractions, penalizing boys accordingly.
The lack of physical activities in school today tends to hurt boys more than girls. Boys are generally more active than girls and have a hard time sitting still in schools that have increasingly cut back on recess and recreation time.
Boys are more likely than girls to be diagnosed with learning disorders such as ADD and ADHD. According to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 13.2 percent of boys are diagnosed with ADD or ADHD, as opposed to only 5.6 percent of girls. Boys are also more likely than girls to be diagnosed with reading disorders such as dyslexia. Learning disorders may lead boys to have difficulty in traditional classroom settings.
Boys' school performance may suffer because of a lack of male teachers at school. Most primary school teachers are women, and the sex of a teacher has been proved to affect the teaching style. For instance, a female teacher is more likely to choose books and activities to teach that favor the interests of girls, skipping over activities and subjects that may be more interesting for boys. This can set boys up to be uninterested in the subjects they are learning in school, which can lead to poor performance throughout their school career.