Why Gender Matters

I found this presentation to be extremely fascinating, not only with the research behind it, but how I was able to connect my own experiences, to what was being discussed in the presentation. Some of the things that were discussed, hit almost completely on the nose with things I had seen and experienced, while other things, were almost the complete opposite. There were a lot of really great points and ideas brought up in this presentation that could be brought into the classroom, such as girls having better hearing than boys, so boys should be closer to the front of the class, or with the different strategies that should be used when working with male and female students. These kinds of things, along with the management, and even the bullying aspects of this presentation, are all important things to remember when being a teacher, because there is a difference in the way that you should work with female and male students, because the brains are different and they process things different ways. Even though, of course, each student's brain is different, it is important to take gender into account when addressing a student.

One of my favorite parts of this presentation, was how easy I was able to relate it to my own experiences. One of the sections that particularly stuck out to me, was the section about friendships. I've always been someone, who had a lot of people that I was friendly with, only ever had 3-4 close friends, while my brother, has always had a large group of friends, never really having any "close" friends. My brother, recently, spent over 2 hours with my mom's friend's son, and never even learned his name, but they were able to communicate and get along in the hours that they were together, something I know I would never personally be able to do. But on the flip side, in own high school experience with bullies, I knew more male bullies that were popular and did well in school, and more female bullies were loners, who weren't really doing well in school.

The idea and concept behind gender differences is something that really fascinates me and makes me really want to read this book so I can get the full experience. While I am afraid that stereotyping and using extreme examples would be an easy thing to fall into, but I do still think that this is an important thing for everyone to read, not just future teachers, but anyone who might have to work with people. I feel like some of the gender differences might be more surprising or more discreet than others, so learning about them would be extremely beneficial.

Overall, I really enjoyed this presentation and I learned a lot about male and female brains that will be useful when I become a teacher. I also really enjoyed the survey that we got to take, and the drawing activity that we got to do. I really want to learn more about gender differences, so this presentation definitely sparked an interest.