The girls cleaned up at my (Brad’s) daughter’s middle school graduation in Virginia this month. Three out of four of the school’s top awards went to girls. A majority of the “President’s Academic Excellence Awards,” an award given to students who maintained an “A” average each semester throughout their middle school career, went to girls.
Boy-girl gaps such as this have drawn considerable attention in recent years. But the typical explanations for this gender gap have tended to overlook one important factor. We’ve heard about biological differences in boys’ and girls’ development. The addictive hold electronic gaming has on teenage boys. And, according to the American Psychological Association, the ways in which boys are socialized “to project an image of dominance, indifference, and self-sufficiency” that harms their capacity to do well in
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