Battle of The Sexes.

Battle of the sexes.




Over your typical 12-year public school course, students have many forms of math education, including a multitude of math courses. Who is more assertive: male or female math teachers? Are male teachers stricter? Do female teachers let their student walk all over them? The results may surprise you.

What makes a teacher strict? There are many factors that make any teacher ‘strict’. A strict teacher may have stiff deadlines, may discipline their students, may have high standards for their students, and keeps their students on their toes. An easy-going or not so strict teacher, on the other hand, will have deadlines that are flexible, have students talking over them constantly, never or rarely discipline, and don’t get much done. If a teacher shows weakness from day one, students will pounce, and take over the classroom, making it impossible for the teachers to teach, and for the students to learn. This has been seen frequently at Nashua High School South.

A survey was created by a student at Nashua high School South, Spencer Lowry, asked students a few questions about what they thought about this subject. It asked if they had more female or male math teachers in the past, how strict male teachers were on a scale of one to ten, and how strict female math teachers were on a scale of one to ten. It turns out that there are more female than male math teachers. The average strictness rating for female math teachers was 5.20, while the average rating for a male math teacher was 4.86. This results that female math teachers are stricter than male math teacher. “In the past my hardest teachers were old women math teachers.” said Melissa Jean, a sophomore at Nashua High School South when asked about which teachers were stricter in her previous years.





Sidebar:

Teacher cuts.

The 2009 budget cuts of the Nashua School District may mean more teacher cuts throughout the year. The budget cuts effect everyone in the Nashua School District. Students cannot print in any area of the school, and teachers have to ‘sign out’ reams of paper that they use. Trying to break even is going to be hard for everyone, especially the teachers, trying to make ends meet and teach their students at the same time.