Essay - Although Most Educators in the United States Believe That They...

Although most educators in the United States believe that they are sensitive to gender issues, many still lead the classroom with sexist behavior and implications. While a great deal of progress has been made in the educational system to remove blatant discrimination from schools, true equality has yet to be reached.

According to ***** Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC), although boys and girls differ in their physical, emotional and *****tellectual development, there is no evidence that these are linked. Therefore, it ***** unlikely that education performance is explained by biological differences. If biology were the reason, girls would not have improved significantly in certa***** subjects, ***** which ***** used to outperform ***** traditionally, such as math ***** science, in ***** past two decades. (Lawton 87-88)

Instead, social and cultural factors are the major reasons leading to gender ***** in academic performance. These factors include students' familiarity with the subject, changes of c*****er aspiration, and *****ed perceptions ***** specific *****, presentational styles of boys and girls, and teachers' expectation. Unlike *****, the social and ***** factors are changeable by modifying ***** context of education. Th***** proves that *****, ***** is where young people learn, plays a direct and significant role in maintaining equality between genders.

***** in the School System

Inequality ***** genders in education still exists on all levels of education ***** ***** *****al environments are affected by the sexist attitudes brought *****to school by some students, many of ***** textbooks ***** in the curriculum, and the teachers ***** the classroom. (Schott)

Gender-bias in educational processes, including curricula, ***** materials and practices, teachers' *****, ***** ***** interaction, reinforce existing gender bias. It has been demonstrated that boys participate more readily in class, and are listened to ***** attentively ***** educators. The education sector plays a role ***** gender stereotypes, ***** can also be a powerful force in changing them.

***** government can control many aspects of education but is virtually powerless over the attitudes brought into ***** school by *****. Different households hold different opinions regarding the equality of genders, and these opinions strongly influence the classroom experience in positive ***** negative ways.

Many of the textbooks used in *****s also favor male influences, particularly in the areas of math, science and h*****tory. Males also write most of the books. A recent report showed that a popular history textbook ***** 631 pages contained only seven pages about women. (D'Souza 110-113)

***** important factor ***** the role of gender in education is ***** fact that ***** have different attitudes to *****ing than boys. In elementary school, ***** receive higher grades and are more advanced than boys. They ***** also more reserved and less aggressive than boys. Many teachers m*****take these qualities as meaning that girls need less attention than boys. Boy's assertive tendencies get them ***** ***** the constructive responses, such as praise, correction, help, ***** criticism. However, this promotes learned helplessness in ***** fe***** students. (Sadler 11-20)

On the other hand, the ***** male ***** receive more attention from educators, which