School. For a lot of kids, it’s stressful and a bit crazy.

However, over the years, schools have seen girls get a bit more ambitious when it comes to their education than guys, especially in one area: English class.

Way back in 1980, a test was placed and a study was performed on the student body of one high school, revealing males to have a substantially lower average than the females. The guys were able to outshine the girls in many ways, such as vocabulary and critical reading, but the girls outperformed the boys in one aspect: writing, a key part of English class.

This isn’t just some old issue of the past, however. A recent 60 Minutes story examined this issue and produced similar findings in a high school study, asserting, “The school’s advanced placement classes, which admit only the most qualified students, are often 70 percent to 80 percent girls.”

The question is: why? School psychologist Dr. Michael Thompson has an idea.

“Girls are being told, ‘Go for it, you can do it. Go for it, you can do it,’” Thompson said. “They are getting an immense amount of support. Boys hear that the way to shine is athletically. And boys get a lot of mixed messages about what it means to be masculine and what it means to be a student. Does being a good student make you a real man?”

While Thompson’s statement is simply talking about school in general, it can be also applied solely to English class. His question brings up the subject of stereotypes and social views. In that case study back in 1980, another test was administered, interviewing the boys and girls of the grade. In the interviews, where a higher score meant a student was less susceptible to stereotypes, males scored substantially less than girls did. This shows how, at the time and even perhaps now, boys are driven more by what is considered “socially acceptable,” than girls seem to be, such as being better with sports and hanging out with friends rather than studying and education.

“It’s less socially acceptable to be good at English and the social norm is for more interest in sports than school,” said Anna Blair, a sophomore in our very school.

However, they are affected by more than just social norms in society. It may be the concept of sharing your emotions as well.

“I think it’s that an English class is still very much a forum where students are asked to share their opinions and sometimes even their emotions and from what I’ve seen, unfortunately, sometimes male students are less willing to put themselves in a vulnerable place during writing and class discussions,” said Mr. Matt Morone, one of our English teachers here at PV.

Not all guys may want to express their emotions in English, and while it’s okay not to always be over emotional and expressive, part of truly understanding a literary piece is being able to understand the emotions and empathize with the characters’ dilemmas. Not only that, writing in any of its forms requires emotion and if one is unwilling to show it, it may affect their writing and comprehension of literature in class.

It may not just be the students, however. The teachers’ view of the students in the class and how well the student acts in the class may be a cause in boys’ lack of academic success in English.

“They may not do well because they either just don’t care or are not willing to put in an effort,” said sophomore David Moralishvli.

Moralishvli’s statement exemplified a fact discovered in the study in 1980: When they were interviewing the teachers, the biggest controversy was the question of the students’ potential and the way they act in class.

A strong correlation was noticed between the students’ grades and the teachers’ comments about the student. More positive comments emerged if the student acted according to the teachers’ personal code of conduct and showed academic aspirations, while negative comments appeared for those who, in the minds of the teachers, did not have a proper code of conduct or had few academic aspirations. This also showed in the students’ grades.

Though these are probably the main reasons for their lack of success, one of the biggest reasons may come down to the something more simple: interest. In the study, they were able to figure out that grades may be affected by individual interests.

“Boys don’t like reading and writing or they may find English class boring,” said sophomore Jacob Steinburg.

Many may agree with him: if a specific class does not touch upon your interests, you may tend to not want to put in the effort to do well in the course.