Our trouble with boys

Since the 80s we have engaged with feminism privately and publicly. In schools this has translated into a sort of gender neutrality 8212; an emphasis on equality of opportunity rather than on the diversity of needs. Without question this is 8220;fair8221; and hence 8220;right8221;. But as girls tend to be more mature than boys the same age, in co-educational schools this results in the creation of norms that are more female than male.

What is understood to be deviant behaviour, for example, is almost without exception boys8217; behaviour. The way that girls can be destructive in more emotionally adroit ways, is not acknowledged by detentions. At a very early age, this can result in boys pathologising their own gender, withdrawing from girls 8212; and school 8212; and gathering in groups of their own kind8230;

It8217;s time for the gender debate to become a dialogue. When men are alienated from the discourse on male behaviour they are more likely to suppress its extremes than own them and the chance for transformation is gone.

Excerpted from a piece by Indra Adnan, in 8216;The Guardian8217;, December 28