The NSW Dept of Ed has been obstructive on this issue for years. The senior officials are dominated by gender equity warriors of the 1980's who won the girl fight and will not contenance doing any thing for boys. Chris
Tom Knoll <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: What happens when feminists control government: once females gain advantage they will not share in equality. Quote #1: The department said the book was never released because "it was felt that it no longer fitted the policy of promoting the interests of boys and girls equally". Quote #2: Last year stickers were even produced with a 2004 publication date to cover the 2002 date on 10,000 copies of Making a Difference for Boys, which urges a "boys can do anything" approach to learning. But still it gathers dust in the department's city office. After commissioning the book, the department decided that boys can't do anything if it means disadvantaging girls, who 20 years ago lagged behind boys academically. Now girls outperform boys in most subjects. Tom Sydney Morning Herald 3 May 2005 Censored: the boys' own manual By Linda Doherty Education Editor Thousands of copies of a boys' education book have been sealed in boxes for three years and their distribution to schools banned by the NSW Education Department, which spent $10,000 printing them. Last year stickers were even produced with a 2004 publication date to cover the 2002 date on 10,000 copies of Making a Difference for Boys, which urges a "boys can do anything" approach to learning. But still it gathers dust in the department's city office. After commissioning the book, the department decided that boys can't do anything if it means disadvantaging girls, who 20 years ago lagged behind boys academically. Now girls outperform boys in most subjects. Denis Fitzgerald, the department's director of Aboriginal Education and Equity programs until his resignation last October, said boys' education had been "perhaps the liveliest and often the most misguided public debate" in schools in recent years. Yet the department had "no policy" on an issue that affects about 380,000 public schoolboys. "For the largest education provider in the world to have no position or support mechanism on the question of boys' education is just negligent," he said. "It [the book] has been deliberately quashed. Submissions have gone forward [for its release] but they have all been quashed." Peter West, an adviser to the federally funded Boys Education Lighthouse Schools program, said the only thing coming out of the NSW education department on boys' education were "feeble words". By contrast, the Federal Government had held a parliamentary inquiry into why boys were trailing girls, why they were leaving school earlier and why they were more likely to be disciplined. "And private schools have got the jump on the [NSW] department, because they were having conferences about this as far back as '97," Dr West said. Making a Difference for Boys says the special educational focus on girls two decades ago had achieved "significant results for many girls". But now there were valid concerns about "those boys who leave school unable to read or write at the most basic level". "There is still much to do for girls, but there is no reason to believe that similar results cannot be achieved for boys from promoting a 'boys can do anything' approach." The department said the book was never released because "it was felt that it no longer fitted the policy of promoting the interests of boys and girls equally". Trevor Fletcher, the deputy director-general (schools), said he had "ramped up the attention on boys' education" when he started in the department five months ago, with a conference planned for October. But he added: "What we don't want to do is to swing the pendulum from one to another." Yahoo! Groups Links --------------------------------- Find local movie times and trailers on Yahoo! Movies. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> In low income neighborhoods, 84% do not own computers. At Network for Good, help bridge the Digital Divide! http://us.click.yahoo.com/S.QlOD/3MnJAA/Zx0JAA/pyIolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/boysed/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
