Canadian boys spend almost two hours a week less doing homework than do girls, and the consequences are dire, says Michael Reist, an education consultant and author of the book “Raising Boys in a New Kind of World.”
Boys do an average of 4.6 hours of homework a week compared to girls’ average of 6.4, according to data from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.
‘No surprise’
“Boys are very practical, very concrete minded,” says Reist. “They feel they’ve put in their seven hours during the day and they feel resentful for being asked to add on a few more hours at night.”
The study was done on 15-year-olds and he notes that is a peak time for boys’ video game and other electronic screen use. “So it should come as no surprise to us that the boys are gravitating away from homework. And it’s a symptom of what’s happening in our culture generally.”
ListenWhile girls may rack up as much screen time, they are more likely to use social media. These require verbal skills which girls are more likely to have, so the leap to homework which requires verbal skills too is not such a stretch for them as it is for boys, reasons Reist.
‘Clicking away fast’
The challenge is for parents and educators to try to find ways to help boys get their homework done and to be more engaged at school. Reist says boys are used to clicking away fast if something online does not seem relevant to them. Educators in Canada and around the world are struggling to make school more relevant to keep them engaged.
“One of the important questions is how do we bring technology into the classroom, how do we make school a less text-based, print-based world. How do we make school more experiential? How do we make it more visual? This is the kind of thing we’re struggling with right now,” says Reist.
He says education ministries are working on this and are slow to act because they don’t want to lose content or curriculum. “They don’t want to lose learning in the bells and whistles of technology.”
Screens are ‘seductive’
The struggle for parents to limit screen time is a difficult one too since they cannot ask their own parents for advice. “We are the first generation of parents to face this problem of the screen…We feel as though we are making it up as we go along. And we are.” He tells parents to decide what time to set aside for screen time, and what time to set aside for other activities. “Because ultimately the question is are we going to control the screens or are the screens going to control us.”
Boys have spatial brains and the screens are very seductive for them. “We see the detrimental effects in their underperformance in school,” says Reist.
‘A great loss of human potential’
“It is very concerning,” he adds noting that girls’enrollment in post-secondary education has surged ahead. In some countries they make up 60 -70 per cent of the total. “It is very concerning. It is a great loss of human potential and we are losing a lot of kids to the screen.”
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