What are little boys made of?

What are little boys made of?
Snips and snails, and puppy dogs tails
That's what little boys are made of !"
What are little girls made of?
"Sugar and spice and all things nice
That's what little girls are made of!"

This familiar nursery rhyme goes back to the 19th Century but how far have we come since then?

On Thursday, our whole family attended a lovely little ceremony at my third child's school, in which we celebrated the induction of six 7th graders into the National Junior Honor Society.  To quote the principal, there was only one thing wrong with the picture--every student on the stage (current members and inductees) is female except for one. 


Why is there only one boy in this group, in a gifted school where being smart is not at all a liability and where are there roughly the same boys and girls?  In fact, in our third child's grade, there is one more boy than girl.  Is it because few boys apply to join the honor society?  Or is it because the same number of boys apply as girls and fewer boys are accepted?   My suspicion is the former.

The gender achievement gap in education is well documented in the academic literature and is being discussed more and more in the popular press as well.  But in a school where students have already been selected because of higher academic achievements and standardized scores, and where parents are traditionally informed and engaged, the picture on the stage on Thursday was surprising and disappointing.

So what are our little boys today made of?  What are we telling them?  What are they telling themselves?  Are academic honor societies "uncool", and if so, why is that? Just as we need to encourage girls to continue to play sports beyond elementary school, we need to encourage boys to continue to be engaged in academic clubs beyond elementary schools.


Let's hope that we can change our conceptions about what boys and girls "ought" to be doing over the next 200 years.  Sooner perhaps.