Georgia Schools Utilize Gurian Institute Techniques

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Boys Are From One Side of the Brain, Girls From Another Side

By Jennifer Swain - The Coastal Courier (Hinesville, GA) 8-1-04

Parents of students who will participate in Lewis Frasier Middle School's gender-based classrooms in the sixth and seventh grade learned how boys and girls learn during a parent information meeting Thursday evening.
   
LFMS assistant principal Dr. Yvette Keel arranged for Kathy Stevens, a training director for the Gurian Institute, to provide a session for parents on gender differences as well as the training she provided to staff and faculty this week at Lewis Frasier.
   
"I hope that we'll give you a chance to get some answers to some questions and learn a little more about how the genders learn differently," Stevens said.
   
Participants then drew fact cards and learned some of the differences between how boys' and girls' brains develop and function, as well as some general knowledge about how the human brain works.
   
A key reason for developing gender-based classrooms is the discovery boys and girls brains learn differently, based on studies that examine CAT scans of the brains of children as they attempt different tasks.
   
"We have to recognize that no matter how much we study socialization and have been taught for years that it is correct, we know that male brains look different when working and resting than female brains," Stevens said.
   
Stevens pointed out that at six weeks in the uterus, fetuses begin to be differentiated in how their brains develop - the male brain receives large amounts of testosterone to prepare it for a similar experience during puberty, while the female brain does not.
   
Stevens said that facts related to development are generalities," or statements that "on average this is the way things work," rather than being stereotypes.
   
"There are large studies proving that on average, this is how the human brain works and develops," said Stevens.
   
The fundamental difference in the chemicals the brain receives while it is developing, both in the zero to age three category and from the beginning of puberty to mid-adolescence, means that girls tend to have brains that must look in more than one location for stored information and skills, while the male brain generally only has to look in one location, she said.
   
This means that men can focus harder on tasks, while it is easier for women to multi-task, Stevens said. Additionally, men' brains are more efficient at resting. Women's brains as rest tend to be lit up in CAT scans like those of men working on a task.
   
At puberty, differences become even more important than as toddlers, Stevens said. Boys begin to receive 10-13 spikes of testosterone to the brain a day, while girls receive a myriad of hormones for development. Each gender group develops different instinctive, human behaviors.
   
Stevens said, ""Boys tend to want to mate; girls are looking for a mate and try to be attractive to get the best one."
   
She said that is why gender-based classrooms head off biological imperative in that age group.
   
"It takes a lot of pressure off both the girls and the boys," Stevens said.