From Today Tonight
BOYS-ONLY CLASSES TO BRING OUT THE BEST
Reporter: Nicholas Boot
Broadcast Date: February 19, 2007
There's no other class like it - an all boys kindergarten in a co-educational public school.
And the five- and six-year-olds are not being taught to be sensitive new age guys, but to be little blokes.
"At the beginning of the year I said to the boys that we were like a football team," explained teacher Steve Jackson.
"We were there to help each other, to support each other, to play by the rules, to follow the schools rules, and to show good sportsmanship."
Steve thinks that for the boys, being a bloke - in a girl-free classroom
- is helping their education.
"With girls you can have a lot of sort of tale telling and setting boys up, you know playing one against the other and bitching and all that sort of thing.
"You don't get that with boys - you know what boys are like."
And parents of boys at Bowen Park Public in Orange, regional New South Wales, say the transformation has been remarkable.
"Keegan has become a student that I thought he'd never be," said delighted mum Joanne Jones.
"He was diagnosed with mild Asberger's Syndrome and I was really worried. I used to cry some days thinking, 'Is this child ever going to learn?'
"Now he can read, he can just pick up a pen and put it to paper he sounds the word out it is just amazing - Mr Jackson is wonderful."
Nick Gardiner's son Jesse is no longer scared of setting foot in the school yard.
"He loves it now, really does, which is the best part of it.
"Before we used to have to convince him to go to school he didn't want to go to school you know, 'I don't want to go today, I'd rather stay home'.
"He now wants to go to school more than anything which makes it easier on us."
Statistically girls are 18 months ahead of boys when they start school.
Girls are more developed and adapt more easily to the traditional methods of teaching - and that gap will grow unless educators can turn the tide.
The school's Principal, Penny Small, argues that boys need a different approach to teaching.
"The boys were falling behind, and we had to do something and we knew we had a recipe for success," she said.
"Boys like to do rough and tumble, and they do like to touch things and they like to get out there and kick a ball around, then they might like to sit at the computer and play computer games.
"It's capitalising on that to get the most out of learning, it's looking at what you are good at."
Bowen Park Public has hit upon a strategy of getting the kids to work together, giving the thumbs up and a sense of bonding.
It is this mateship which is grabbing the kids' attention and finally involving them in learning.
And the classroom itself has been specially designed with boys in mind.
"Each part of that room is part of their territory - it's like a bloke's shed - you get in there and shut the door and those guys are getting on with their business," said Penny. "They're just a bit too young to have the stuff that goes in most sheds."
Headmaster of the King's School, Dr Tim Hawkes is one of Australia's leading experts on boys' education.
"Generally boys prefer a method of teaching which is very visual - good use of diagrams, pictures and so on," he said.
"They like action-based learning, they like to be able to move, to experiment, and they like teachers who use a lot of verbs - run, measure, pace, count."
Dr Hawkes believes teachers need to focus on what excites and enthralls their pupils, to grab their attention and make them enthusiastic about subjects.
"What we need to do is create the sense of wonder in our classes so our students are excited about a particular topic, and then you use that as the intro into learning.
"We need to look at ways of developing this sense of wonder."
Bowen Public certainly seems to have found a way of making the youngsters in its boys-only class want to learn - by the end of the year, they are eight months ahead of boys from a mixed class.
Rafa said:This is a rather strange post...
U saying all the novelists, playrights, in the past went to co-ed schools?
Also, are you saying that male schools, even tho they are beneficial for boys should be stopped because bad for girls...
Whats more, you don't want your own son to experience those benefits! Rather you want him to be more 'feminine'...!
2020hindsight said:The wife just found this joke
In the hospital the relatives gathered in the waiting room, where their family member lay gravely ill... Finally, the doctor came in looking tired and somber.
"I'm afraid I'm the bearer of bad news," he said as he surveyed the worried faces. "The only hope left for your loved one at this time is a brain transplant. It's an experimental procedure, very risky but it is the only hope. Insurance will cover the procedure, but you will have to pay for the brain yourselves.."
The family members sat silent as they absorbed the news. After a great length of time, someone asked, "Well, how much does a brain cost?"
The doctor quickly responded, "$5,000 for a male brain, and $200 for a female brain."
The moment turned awkward. Men in the room tried not to smile, avoiding eye contact with the women, but some actually smirked. A man unable to control his curiosity, blurted out the question everyone wanted to ask, "Why is the male brain so much more?"
The doctor smiled at the childish innocence and explained to the entire group, "It's just standard pricing procedure. We have to mark down the price of the female brains, because they've actually been used."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxine_McKew Maxine McKew is a parliamentary candidate for the Australian Labor Party and a former journalist living in Sydney, Australia. As a broadcaster, McKew hosted a number of programmes on Australian Broadcasting Corporation television and radio, most recently Lateline and The 7.30 Report. In February 2007, McKew announced her candidacy for Bennelong, the federal parliamentary seat held by Prime Minister John Howard
McKew was born and grew up in Brisbane, the capital city of Queensland. Her father, Bryan McKew, was a boilermaker who at times struggled with alcoholism. When Maxine was five, her mother Elaine died, and she was sent to live with her grandparents for three years. When Bryan remarried, Maxine and her sister Margaret returned to live with their father in the suburb of Moorooka. McKew attended All Hallows' School in Brisbane.[1]
McKew currently lives in the Sydney suburb of Mosman with her husband, former ALP National Secretary Bob Hogg.
....After matriculating she briefly attended university before dropping out and living in London for two years. She supported herself with a variety of temporary jobs, including relief typing at a London BBC office. A letter of introduction””written by McKew on BBC letterhead paper””was rewarded with a cadetship at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) in Brisbane in 1974. In 1976 she moved on to host "This Day Tonight", a local current affairs program.[2]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Howard John Winston Howard (born 26 July 1939), Australian politician, is the Prime Minister of Australia. He is the second-longest serving Australian Prime Minister after Sir Robert Menzies. He previously served as Treasurer in Malcolm Fraser's government from 1977–1983 and was Leader of the Liberal Party from 1985–1989. Elected again as Leader in 1995, Howard became the 25th Prime Minister of Australia after defeating incumbent Paul Keating in the election of 2 March 1996. His government has been subsequently re-elected in 1998, 2001 and 2004. After his victory in 2004, Howard's government gained control of both houses of the Parliament from July 2005.
Howard grew up in the Sydney suburb of Earlwood. His father, Lyall Howard, and his paternal grandfather, Walter Howard, were both veterans of the First AIF in World War I. They later ran a petrol station and mechanical workshop in Dulwich Hill, where John Howard worked as a boy. Lyall Howard died when John was sixteen, leaving his mother to take care of John (or "Jack" as he was known in the family) and his three brothers.
Howard suffered from a hearing impairment in his youth, and this has left him with a slight speech impediment, something that he shares with namesake Winston Churchill.[2]
Howard attended the publicly funded state schools Earlwood Public School and Canterbury Boys' High School. In his final year at school he took part in a radio show hosted by Jack Davey, Give It a Go broadcast on the commercial radio station, 2GB, and a recording of the show survives.[3] After gaining his Leaving Certificate, he studied law at the University of Sydney. Howard joined the Liberal Party in 1957.
Other Interests:- McKew is a long-term participant in the Australian-American Leadership Dialogue, a bipartisan bilateral civil diplomatic initiative founded by Melbourne businessman Phil Scanlan. [1] Additional activities include membership of the Women’s Advisory Group to the National Breast Cancer Centre, and membership of the University of Sydney’s Research Institute for Asia Pacific. She is also the Patron of Osteoporosis Australia and is a member of the Sydney Symphony Council.
Honours:- The 1998 Walkley Award for Broadcast Interviewing for her work on Lateline.
1999 Logie Award for Most Outstanding News-Public Affairs Broadcaster
A 2003 Centenary Medal for contribution to Australian journalism
2003 Magazine Publishers Association named her Columnist of the Year
Quotations :-
1. "People have a nervous collapse when I've actually broken through and got someone to say something honest. It is either regarded as a gaffe, or people say they must have been drunk, or publicly musing aloud, or they didn't realise the tape was running, or I must have had oral sex with them under the table. I find it absurd."[8]
2. "Women do give up something. It's biology..... Let me tell you what I gave up. I wanted my career. And so I never had children." (Quoted in Jack Welch's 2005 book, Winning[9])
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