"For centuries, boys were top of the class," says the narrator in this video from The Economist about the gender gap in K-12 education. "But these days, that's no longer the case." The reasons are drawn from a new report by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) — "a club of mostly rich countries," The Economist explains — and they include both obvious causes (girls read more, boys play more video games) and some surprises.
For example, boys shoot themselves in the foot by acting rowdy in school. "In anonymous tests, boys perform better," The Economist says. "In fact, the gender gap in reading drops by a third when teachers don't know the gender of the pupil they are marking." Watch the entire video for a better sense of the challenges boys and girls face in school (as well as the jarring British pluralization of "math"), or watch the OECD's shorter (and drier) video for more information and some parenting guidance. —Peter Weber
The Week
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