|THE GENDER GAP The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, February 7, 2001 - AS _ — Historical | idvanta e _ “Thirty years ago, girls reigned supreme on Terrace’s o By JENNIFER LANG “MORE THAN 30 years ago, . the Terrace Herald wondered: . Did the eye-catching sight of -girls wearing miniskirts make boys dumb? The Herald posed that ques- tion back in January, 1969, when the girls were clobbering the boys on honour roll lists in Ter- race and Kitimat. Consider these stats: almost three times as many girls at Skee- na Secondary School earned over- all scholastic excellence. There were 54 girls on that fail’s honour .. roll, compared to 19 boys. Just one Grade 12 boy made Skeena’s honour roll that year. His name was Pat Lloyd. He ' was a member of the student -council who also played rugby and: soccer, After school he worked at a local supermarket. All this and a B-plus average. “More girls make the honour roll than boys because boys gen- erally excel in only one or two subjects, and to get on the honour toll you must have a high level in all subjects,” Lloyd told the Her- ald. “Girls generally excel over all.” Consider Lloyd's classmate, Sherri Thomas, a Grade 12 cheer- leader who managed to complete two hours of homework a day, and keep up an exhausting array of extra-curricular and school activi- ties: volleyball, student council, pep club, archeology club, and school: choir. And although she also worked part-time after school — in a shoe store ~ she offered the following insight into’ the” other’ young women in her school: “Girls prob- ably do better because they have fewer after schaol jobs and more high school honour rolls. Has anything changed? “GIRLS STILL rula Skeena's honour roll, Here, honour roll students Amanda Chan (from teft), Mi- chelle Van Herd, Ben Haigh, Anna Bauer and Eden Oliver, take a break between classes. time for homework.” According to the article, chee- kily entitled “Mini-skirts mar minds of students?” Kitimat boys fared a little better than the guys in Terrace when it came to the honour roll. At Mount Elizabeth Senior Secondary in Kitimat that year, 98 girls made the list, compared to 59 boys, a difference of 39. The gender gap was troubling. “General consensus seems to be that proximity to girls does af- fect the male scholastic achieve- ment,” the Herald harrumphed. In other words, put the boys and girls in separate classrooms, and the boys might find fewer dis- tractions from their natebooks., But, as Skeena’s principal of the day, John Bastin, pointed out, “It is very often the case that girls do better than boys. But girls are more likely to study harder.” He also stressed that girls go through their “dizzy” phase car- lier than the boys, and are at least two years ahead in terms of physi- “General consensus seems to be that prox- imity to girls does affect the male scholastic achievement.” cal and emotional maturity. Girls, he. observed, start to nO- tice boys in Grade 7, but the boys aren't interested in girls for an- other two years. That’s why there were more boys on the honour roll at the Grade 8 level. “The difference becomes less after the. Grade 12 level and in Grade 13 or university,” Bastion _ concluded. “Boys tend to catch up and even surge ahead of the girls academically.” Are boys being left behind? Although girls still lead at the | junior grades, boys. gain in high school BOYS HAVE managed to narrow the honour roll gap between the sexes at Terrace’s high schools over the past 30 years, especially at Caledonia Senior Secondary and at Thornhill Junior Secondary schools. But at Skeena Junior Secondary School, there were 32 per cent more girls than boys on this, fall’s honour roll, suggesting giris still enjoy some advantage over their male coun- terparts. “I don't think things have changed,” says principal Rob Greenwood. “Girls mature faster — emotionally, socially and physically.” Greenwood thinks the rising number of boys ‘earning academic honours can be explained by the fact that more boys are staying in school - period. “There are more programs in- schools to foster a range of abilities,” he says, pointing to special needs students as one example of “how dramatically the system is keeping kids in school.” Girls may lead the boys at Skeena, but at the senior secondary level, boys are ahead, a fact that doesn't surprise Greenwood. -“At the senior high level it turns around, it levels out.” - Caledonia’s principal Geoff Straker has an- other explanation for the rising numbers of boys on his school’s honour roll list since those dark days of 1969, when girls outnumbered the boys by three to one, "A lot of guys used to leave after Grade 10,” Straker says. “It’s a sign of where the commurdity was at 30 years ago.” Back. then, secure, high-paying jobs at the sawmill or in.the forest lured ambitious young men away from completing: thelr high school . studies, Girls, on the other hand, stayed. in school. Nowadays, he says, a high school certifi- cate Is a requirement for virtually any entry- fevel job. Although there are more boya than girls on Cal's honour roll, it's a slim margin of Victory: just five more boys than girl Plus, Cal’s girls comfortably outnumbered the boys in the “outstanding achievement” ca- tegory, where students must maintain a grade point average of 3.50 or higher. Like many educators, Straker has watched — the pendulum swing back and forth on whether boys or girls have an advantage in the educa- tion system. “Boys are going to become the Jost cause, shortly,” Straker warns. Enter G.. Joe Meets Barbie, software engin- “A lot of guys used to leave after Grade 10,” Cal principal ’ Geoff Straker says. “it's a sign of where the community was 30 years ago.” eer meets caregiver, a Tesearch project con- ducted by the B.C. Teachers’ Federation re- leased in October 2000, Researcher Anne Schaefer found girls do better than their male counterparts throughout the school system, a head start that seems ta carry them into college or university, but she refutes the notion that boys are lagging behind. By the time either sex hits the job market, she argues, males are definitely ahead in terms of earning power and status, Meanwhile, Thornhill Junior Secondary — School has edged closer to honour roll gender parity than Terrace’s other two high schools. This fall the boys and girls were almost evenly matched, with 40 girls on the list and 36 boys, As well, twice as many Grade 10 boys as . girls reached outstanding achievement. - Principal Dave Bartley can find no hard and fast rules: ensuring boys and girls live up to their academic potential - despite the reams of often contradictory research on the subject. “Good educators tend to make decisions on relevant research and the needs of kids rather than public opinion,” Barticy says. » For him, the answer lies in improved re- sources at all levels of the educational system, "We just need more.” ~- told recovery would be very slow and his chances of | address Is 3210 Clinton St., Terrace, B.C. VaG t 5R2. You can fax us at 250-698-6432 or e-mail CORRESPONDENCE FOR THE TERRACE STANDARD The Mail Bag Keep those alleys open Dear Sir: I read the article about the city's plan to close back lanes with great interest. I might say immediate interest as I am one of the residents affected by the considered closure between Eby and Munroe that the city is using as a test case. I don't like about the idea or the way the city is going about it. I like back lanes. I think that being able to access my property from the back gives me more value and a lot more flexibility in how J use my land and in how J relate ta my neighbours. In. fact, lanes. create neighbourhoods. Back lanes or alleys are friendly, informal places. Children play in ours. It-is their ‘special playground where they are off the busy traffic of the street but still under their parent's eye, | The attitude of the city seems to be all negative. They see lanes as nothing but a probiem, For example, residents in the center of our block have already moved their property lanes to the middle of the lane allowance and effectively closed it. Property owners at either end continue to use their ‘part of the lane. What's the city to do? They would like to get clear of the confusion they created by having residents pay for the “solution” ~ clase the whole lane. This gets rid of their problem, passes the | cost on to the property owners and gives the city more ‘tax money to boot. What looks like cheap land, {that we already have access to), is really our. paying for ‘the cost of closure. Not only do we lose the value of , the access the lane gives us but we have to pay tax | on our loss for the rest of our lives. So what's the solution? The city should simply ‘approach landowners who have already encroached -onto the lane with their fences and offer them the i land for the cost of surveying. By moving their fences ‘in the first place, they have already signalled that ‘ they want the increased lot size, A deal with the city i Simply regularizes the status quo. But the city should not move to close lanes that are in use unless they are asked to do that by a majority of residents. Further, it's an issue that involves most of the Horseshoe. The city should encovrage public discussion at that level. It should not try to quietly close its lanes, block by block. Robert Hart, Terrace, B.C. Speak out on LRMP Dear Sir: Land use planning is an extremely difficult process, which has failed in several other areas of ‘B.C. so I extend my congratulations to the Kalum LRMP table who have worked so hard to produce land use plan recommendations here. Qnee ratified by cabinet, area residents should ‘benefit from the long term economic stability, improve environmental health and tourism opportunities that the recommendations can provide. Although the conclusions were reached by a table . _of local representatives, I would encourage every area - resident, as a steward of this region, to review, the, .| document (available from the. Kalum Forest District office) and provide comments regarding their - agreement (or not) with the intent of the ” recommendations. Locai input may also affect the ultimate land use , in three areas, where the table could not reach consensus. Options regarding land use in these areas .. aré provided within the document. Land use planning is one of the first steps in a long uphill struggle to © improve the current and future prospects for this area. - ‘ IT hope we all choose to be a part of it. Tania Millen, Terrace, B.C. Hope for your heart Dear Sir: , Taking my good health for granted received a couple of jolts just over a year ago. First a friend younger than I had a heart attack from which he was leading a norma! vigorous life were no. longer possible. A shor! time later my brother-in-law had his first heart attack which took his life in two days. With my comparable lifestyie, my presumption of good health was shaken. Doing a little research on my own, I learned that - hearst attacks often occur suddenly without much , warning, and many do not get a second chance, Further exploration revealed that my cholestero! level, the single most significant predictor of a heart attack, was in the high category that put me at risk of * a first heart attack near retirement. a ~ Just before Christmas a year ago, my wife learned | aboul a coronary health improvement project (CHIP) that offered heip. Starting off with blood testing and other physical indicators of health, we were given a reference point to show us what our present condition and risk factors for heart disease were. Four nights a week for the next month were © committed to learning about how our lifestyle and diet could be changed to actually reduce out biological age. At the same time we discovered that it lowered the risk of not only heart disease, but of an array of many other diseases that tend to afflict . _ members of our affluent western society. There were no pills and powders to swallow, not strange remedies to follow, and the motivation to change the lifestyle. The evidence that it actually works was overwhelming, The motivation was strong ~ Live. healthier and longer. My cholesterol level fell from the high to normal level and stayed there. My energy level is far more constant with very littie fluctuation throughout the day. My fitness has increased to a new level, achieving a new personal best time in the century bicycle ride between Prince Rupert and Terrace, An added benefit has been no sickness at all in the year 2000, not even a single cold, Rod Freeman, Terrace, B.C. About the Mail Bag The Terrace Standard welcomes letters. Our us at standard@kermode.net. No attachments, please, We need your name, address and phone number for verification. Our deadline Is noon Friday or noon Thursday if Its cc long weekend, = ae Te