Chapter 2: Today's Students

        In chapter two of The Joy of Teaching, we see many aspects influencing students and teachers to think that specific gender classifies how each student should behave. In the classroom teachers and students fall under the assumptions that females are better at reading, writing, and speaking because studies have shown that they are more apt to use their left hemisphere which controls language and other sequential skills, while boys are more apt to be good at science and math due to them using their right hemisphere more which is associated with spatial relations. This means that boys are more likely to be deductive thinkers who think about the general and then move into details, whereas girls commonly are inductive thinkers using details and then moving into the general. Due to these certain points brought up in the text we see boys generally get bored in the classroom more easily because they need movement to relieve impulsive behaviors they may have, as well as telling us that girls are more social and prefer to work in group project settings. The text discusses how this sets up certain expectations for boys and girls, such as boys having a tendency of being independent assertive leaders, and girls being quiet and more well behaved. This text encourages teachers to take this all into consideration in order to construct lesson plans that help all students learn all they can whether they fall into these categories perfectly or not.