Assignment #1-Group B, Reflection #1: A Student's Perspective on Teachers

Having been a girl all my life, I clearly saw the differences and similarities between boys and girls while growing up. I noticed the obvious things, such as appearance, dress, style, like and dislikes. I never really gave much thought to how these differences appear in a classroom and how a teacher may respond to them. In order to get a student’s perspective of gender differences in the classroom I interviewed a female 5th grader from Lincoln Elementary School, my alma mater. The student I interviewed has the same teacher that I had in 5th grade, so I was very interested in what her perspective was on gender differences. In addition I wanted to see how my former teacher, the students current teacher, responds to gender differences.


The first question I asked the female student was, “What are some of the differences you see between boys and girls?” I thought that the female student would have to stop and think about this question but she was very quick in her response. She talked about how she felt that the boys tended to be “louder and goofier” and like sports and other “boy stuff”. She discussed how girls were “better listeners but liked to sing more” and how girls were “much better at doing homework on time”. Having been in school I do remember these stereotypes that this girl discussed. She did not give me many details about the stereotypes; however, she touched on the major ones that I remembered from my own education. In essence, boys were louder and rowdy while girls did better at time management and discipline in getting the homework completed.


I then asked the female student whether or not the teacher treated boys and girls differently. She said no, but she then told a story in which she turned in a paper and the teacher told her that she had “boy” writing and that girls were supposed to have “pretty writing”. Other than this, the female student did not say that the teacher treated boys and girls differently in anyway. I feel that it is important to treat all students the equitably. I felt that this comment was rather rude and stuck out to the student because it made her fell different and as if she was doing something wrong. Gender differences are very apparent in a classroom; however, I do not believe that a teacher should draw attention to the differences or treat their students differently.