Monday, December 31, 2007
The war on boys: Teachers ignoring science
The English government has produced a study with results that are not the least bit surprising to anybody who is a boy, was a boy, or who has raised a boy:
Playing with toy weapons helps the development of young boys, according to new Government advice to nurseries and playgroups.
Staff have been told they must resist their "natural instinct" to stop boys using pretend weapons such as guns or light sabres in games with other toddlers.
Fantasy play involving weapons and superheroes allows healthy and safe risk-taking and can also make learning more appealing, says the guidance.
It conflicts with years of "political correctness" in nurseries and playgroups which has led to the banning of toy guns, action hero games and children pretending to fire "guns" using their fingers or Lego bricks....
The report says: "Creating situations so that boys' interests in these forms of play can be fostered through healthy and safe risk-taking will enhance every aspect of their learning and development."
It cites a North London children's centre which helped boys create a "Spiderman House" and print pictures of the superhero from the internet.
This led to improvements in their communication, ability to develop storylines in their play and skills in drawing, reading and writing.
The guidance is aimed at boosting boys' achievement. They often fall behind girls even before starting school and the trend can continue throughout their academic careers.
Unfortunately, the teachers are choosing to ignore the Government's "advice" because it conflicts with their own ideology:
But teachers' leaders insisted last night that guns "symbolise aggression" and said many nurseries and playgroups would ignore the change...
Steve Sinnott, general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, said: "The real problem with weapons is that they symbolise aggression."
There is, of course, a huge difference between "symbolizing" aggression and actual aggression. Yes, teachers must prevent actual aggression between the students in their charge. The stifling of the symbolizing of aggression, however, is nothing more than the rank imposition of ideology. Now we know that, in addition to indoctrinating our children, the cult of "non-violence" may actually be harming them. Indeed, if on this blog we used the language of the political left we might say that depriving our boys of toy guns is itself "violence" against their spirit, the metaphorical neutering of their inchoate maniliness, and quite possibly figurative "gendercide." Since we do not, we'll simply repeat what we have always thought: Toy guns are good, harmless fun, and people who think they encourage actual violence are idiots.
CWCID: Glenn Reynolds.
10 Comments:
By 
, at
Mon Dec 31, 07:01:00 PM:
the ironic thing is, 99.9999% of the time, boys pretending to shoot someone are pretending to be good guys fighting bad guys. the leftists of the world really do have a death wish, as demonstrated by their anathema to any kind of self defense, wither on the individual or national level.
By 
Miss Ladybug, at
Mon Dec 31, 07:17:00 PM:
With "zero tolerance" in so many American school districts, some of this silliness is also seen here. When I sub, at recess, I kind of watch how the regular teachers deal with it. I have seen a few "light saber" battles, and it can actually be kind of cute... What needs to be monitored, I think, is the context of the "finger guns" and such. In the 3rd grade classroom I student taught it, "finger guns" weren't always just fun and games on the playground - sometimes it was seen in the context of some sort of argument between students (boys, in every case). In the neighborhoods they lived in, I'm sure gangs and guns are part of life outside of school. I mean, what else might you expect when some of the boys had fathers in prison...
By , at
Mon Dec 31, 09:26:00 PM:
"I mean, what else might you expect when some of the boys had fathers in prison..."
Problems that have absolutely nothing to do with whether they played cops and robbers, cowboys and indians, or soldiers and terrorists at school.
Kids argue just like adults. *shrug* As long as there isn't a knife, tire iron, or pair of steel toed boots involved, who cares?
By Miss Ladybug, at
Mon Dec 31, 10:51:00 PM:
My point is - at some schools, I don't worry about so-called "aggressive" play, because it's completely innocent. When I see such aggressiveness in the context of an argument, I wonder if, a few years down the road, it will be more than "finger guns" expressing that aggression. The kids where I did my student teaching, by and large, did not have stable home lives with good examples of how to be responsible adults. Like I said - the different contexts in which I saw this type of thing makes all the difference. Playing cops & robbers or Jedi Knights vs. the Sith is one thing, and I think completely healthy. Mimicing the use of weapons after an argument? Not so much...
By , at
Tue Jan 01, 02:36:00 AM:
Young, hyper-aggressive boys need to have their energy directed towards benign pastimes. They aren't going to sit down for band no matter how much you want them to. Deal with it.
By Miss Ladybug, at
Tue Jan 01, 04:27:00 AM:
Those "hyper-aggressive" boys I worked with are all in desperate need of positive male role models, which there just aren't enough of in the population of teachers, even more so at the elementary level, which is predominately female. Sadly, they aren't getting good role models at home or in their neighborhoods, either.
By Country Squire, at
Tue Jan 01, 08:09:00 AM:
I find these types of studies to be amazing. I was a boy once and I also had the pleasure of raising one. You don’t quash this type of play; you channel it.
By , at
Tue Jan 01, 09:01:00 AM:
My son was bullied at school and because he was a good student he could not fight back because he would be expelled along with the aggressor. That makes as much sense as blaming Poland for Germany's invasion, but allow me to continue. The bully had his buddies keep watch for the teachers so there were never any adult witnesses. After a few weeks of this my wife confronted the principal and told them there would be a massive lawsuit filed unless they could control the situation. Meanwhile, I taught my son how and where to hit someone. The principals response was telling, she told my son that in his case, if he fought back, he would not be expelled. The next time the bully appeared, my son stared him down, fists at the ready. The bully backed down and eventually, grew up like most boys. My son is now a police officer, in part because he figures some of the bullies didn't learn when they were younger.
By , at
Tue Jan 01, 12:28:00 PM:
there are worse things in life than being expelled. did all of this take place in the u.k. ?
By Georg Felis, at
Wed Jan 02, 10:13:00 AM:
All teaching theories swing back and forth every few years as a pendulum (of which I blame the textbook manufacturers, but I digress). In a few years the deep thinkers of teaching psychology will bemoan the lack of external release. “Our children are suppressing their violent emotions instead of releasing them thru play” they will cry. “Where are the educational materials to allow our children constructive release of these dangerous impulses?” To that day, I have stockpiled a great number of Dungeons and Dragons, Gurps, and Heroes books, together with a collection of Iron Man, Superman, Spiderman, and PS238 comics to assist my children and relatives with their emotional stability. Ain’t I thoughtful :)
(PS238 is comic about a public school for young superheroes, it is very good and I recommend it to everybody, both metahuman and not)
