Ali Carr-Chellman: Gaming to re-engage boys in learning

85,396 views ・ 2011-01-14

TED


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

00:16
So I'm here to tell you that we have a problem with boys,
0
16188
3171
00:19
and it's a serious problem with boys.
1
19383
1868
00:22
Their culture isn't working in schools,
2
22017
2628
00:24
and I'm going to share with you ways
3
24669
1778
00:26
that we can think about overcoming that problem.
4
26471
2765
00:29
First, I want to start by saying, this is a boy,
5
29565
2966
00:32
and this is a girl,
6
32555
2522
00:35
and this is probably stereotypically what you think of as a boy and a girl.
7
35101
3548
00:38
If I essentialize gender for you today, then you can dismiss what I have to say.
8
38673
3783
00:42
So I'm not going to do that, I'm not interested in doing that.
9
42480
2964
00:45
This is a different kind of boy and a different kind of girl.
10
45468
3217
00:48
So the point here is that not all boys exist within these rigid boundaries
11
48709
4433
00:53
of what we think of as boys and girls,
12
53166
2190
00:55
and not all girls exist within those rigid boundaries
13
55380
2555
00:57
of what we think of as girls.
14
57959
1392
00:59
But, in fact, most boys tend to be a certain way,
15
59375
3725
01:03
and most girls tend to be a certain way.
16
63124
1977
01:05
And the point is that, for boys,
17
65125
2239
01:07
the way that they exist and the culture that they embrace
18
67388
3186
01:10
isn't working well in schools now.
19
70598
2508
01:13
How do we know that?
20
73130
1224
01:14
The 100 girls project tells us some really nice statistics.
21
74378
4759
01:19
For example, for every 100 girls that are suspended from school,
22
79161
3513
01:22
there are 250 boys that are suspended from school.
23
82698
2920
01:25
For every 100 girls who are expelled from school,
24
85642
2323
01:27
there are 335 boys who are expelled from school.
25
87989
2800
01:31
For every 100 girls in special education,
26
91340
2347
01:33
there are 217 boys.
27
93711
1682
01:35
For every 100 girls with a learning disability,
28
95902
2201
01:38
there are 276 boys.
29
98127
1723
01:40
For every 100 girls with an emotional disturbance diagnosed,
30
100545
4462
01:45
we have 324 boys.
31
105031
1770
01:46
And by the way, all of these numbers are significantly higher
32
106825
3576
01:50
if you happen to be black,
33
110425
1420
01:51
if you happen to be poor,
34
111869
1843
01:53
if you happen to exist in an overcrowded school.
35
113736
2524
01:57
And if you are a boy,
36
117509
2121
01:59
you're four times as likely to be diagnosed with ADHD --
37
119654
3736
02:03
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.
38
123414
2461
02:06
Now there is another side to this.
39
126339
3061
02:09
And it is important that we recognize that women still need help in school,
40
129424
5610
02:15
that salaries are still significantly lower,
41
135058
2263
02:17
even when controlled for job types,
42
137345
2298
02:19
and that girls have continued to struggle in math and science for years.
43
139667
3735
02:23
That's all true.
44
143974
1156
02:25
Nothing about that prevents us
45
145154
2279
02:27
from paying attention to the literacy needs
46
147457
2034
02:29
of our boys between ages three and 13.
47
149515
2071
02:32
And so we should.
48
152109
1152
02:33
In fact, what we ought to do is take a page from their playbook,
49
153285
3023
02:36
because the initiatives and programs that have been set in place
50
156332
4247
02:40
for women in science and engineering and mathematics are fantastic.
51
160603
3841
02:44
They've done a lot of good for girls in these situations,
52
164468
3930
02:48
and we ought to be thinking about how we can make that happen for boys too
53
168422
3814
02:52
in their younger years.
54
172260
1277
02:54
Even in their older years,
55
174360
1876
02:56
what we find is that there's still a problem.
56
176260
2487
02:58
When we look at the universities,
57
178771
1585
03:00
60 percent of baccalaureate degrees are going to women now,
58
180380
2998
03:03
which is a significant shift.
59
183402
1834
03:05
And in fact, university administrators are a little uncomfortable about the idea
60
185260
3871
03:09
that we may be getting close to 70 percent female population in universities.
61
189155
4905
03:14
This makes university administrators very nervous,
62
194084
2350
03:16
because girls don't want to go to schools that don't have boys.
63
196458
3190
03:21
And so we're starting to see
64
201790
2098
03:23
the establishment of men centers and men studies
65
203912
3157
03:27
to think about how do we engage men in their experiences in the university.
66
207093
4277
03:31
If you talk to faculty, they may say, "Ugh. Yeah, well,
67
211394
2777
03:34
they're playing video games,
68
214195
1548
03:35
and they're gambling online all night long,
69
215767
2969
03:38
and they're playing World of Warcraft,
70
218760
1815
03:40
and that's affecting their academic achievement."
71
220599
3832
03:45
Guess what?
72
225720
1181
03:46
Video games are not the cause.
73
226925
2471
03:49
Video games are a symptom.
74
229420
1815
03:51
They were turned off a long time before they got here.
75
231741
4400
03:56
So let's talk about why they got turned off
76
236387
2659
03:59
when they were between the ages of three and 13.
77
239070
2849
04:02
There are three reasons that I believe
78
242450
1879
04:04
that boys are out of sync with the culture of schools today.
79
244353
3262
04:08
The first is zero tolerance.
80
248014
2222
04:10
A kindergarten teacher I know, her son donated all of his toys to her,
81
250627
5017
04:15
and when he did, she had to go through and pull out all the little plastic guns.
82
255668
5846
04:22
You can't have plastic knives and swords and axes
83
262260
2494
04:24
and all that kind of thing in a kindergarten classroom.
84
264778
3143
04:27
What is it that we're afraid that this young man is going to do with this gun?
85
267945
3875
04:31
I mean, really.
86
271844
1392
04:33
But here he stands as testament
87
273918
2318
04:36
to the fact that you can't roughhouse on the playground today.
88
276260
3276
04:39
Now I'm not advocating for bullies.
89
279560
2009
04:41
I'm not suggesting that we need to be allowing guns and knives in the school.
90
281593
5203
04:46
But when we say that an Eagle Scout in a high school classroom
91
286820
4256
04:51
who has a locked parked car in the parking lot and a penknife in it,
92
291100
3325
04:54
has to be suspended from school,
93
294449
2023
04:56
I think we may have gone a little too far with zero tolerance.
94
296496
3300
04:59
Another way that zero tolerance lives itself out
95
299820
2328
05:02
is in the writing of boys.
96
302172
1291
05:03
In a lot of classrooms today,
97
303487
1385
05:04
you're not allowed to write about anything that's violent.
98
304896
2720
05:07
You're not allowed to write about anything that has to do with video games.
99
307640
3526
05:11
These topics are banned.
100
311190
1170
05:12
Boy comes home from school, and he says,
101
312384
1948
05:14
"I hate writing."
102
314356
1450
05:15
"Why do you hate writing, son? What's wrong with writing?"
103
315830
2727
05:18
"Now I have to write what she tells me to write."
104
318581
2313
05:20
"OK, what is she telling you to write?"
105
320918
2001
05:23
"Poems. I have to write poems.
106
323363
2361
05:25
And little moments in my life.
107
325748
1996
05:27
I don't want to write that stuff."
108
327768
1976
05:30
"Well, what do you want to write?
109
330140
1642
05:31
What do you want to write about?"
110
331806
1591
05:33
"I want to write about video games. I want to write about leveling-up.
111
333421
3289
05:36
I want to write about this really interesting world.
112
336734
2438
05:39
I want to write about a tornado that comes into our house
113
339196
2829
05:42
and blows all the windows out,
114
342049
1512
05:43
and ruins all the furniture and kills everybody."
115
343585
2306
05:45
"All right. OK."
116
345915
1471
05:47
You tell a teacher that, and they'll ask you, in all seriousness,
117
347410
3723
05:51
"Should we send this child to the psychologist?"
118
351157
2676
05:54
And the answer is no, he's just a boy.
119
354877
2359
05:57
He's just a little boy.
120
357772
1791
06:00
It's not OK to write these kinds of things in classrooms today.
121
360436
3799
06:05
So that's the first reason:
122
365094
1295
06:06
Zero tolerance policies and the way they're lived out.
123
366413
2549
06:08
The next reason that boys' cultures are out of sync with school cultures:
124
368986
3481
06:12
there are fewer male teachers.
125
372491
1437
06:13
Anybody who's over 15 doesn't know what this means,
126
373952
2759
06:16
because in the last 10 years,
127
376735
1756
06:18
the number of elementary school classroom teachers has been cut in half.
128
378515
3793
06:22
We went from 14 percent to seven percent.
129
382332
3392
06:26
That means that 93 percent of the teachers
130
386200
2323
06:28
that our young men get in elementary classrooms are women.
131
388547
3119
06:32
Now what's the problem with this?
132
392743
1901
06:34
Women are great, yep, absolutely.
133
394997
1897
06:37
But male role models for boys that say it's all right to be smart --
134
397600
4442
06:42
they've got dads, they've got pastors, they've got Cub Scout leaders,
135
402066
3602
06:45
but ultimately, six hours a day, five days a week
136
405692
3084
06:48
they're spending in a classroom,
137
408800
2246
06:51
and most of those classrooms are not places where men exist.
138
411070
3364
06:54
And so they say, I guess this really isn't a place for boys.
139
414458
3548
06:58
This is a place for girls.
140
418383
1668
07:00
And I'm not very good at this,
141
420075
1590
07:01
so I guess I'd better go play video games
142
421689
3208
07:04
or get into sports, or something like that,
143
424921
2011
07:06
because I obviously don't belong here.
144
426956
1882
07:08
Men don't belong here, that's pretty obvious.
145
428862
2110
07:10
So that may be a very direct way that we see it happen.
146
430996
3888
07:15
But less directly, the lack of male presence in the culture --
147
435332
3903
07:19
you've got a teachers' lounge, and they're having a conversation
148
439757
3190
07:22
about Joey and Johnny who beat each other up on the playground.
149
442971
4127
07:27
"What are we going to do with these boys?"
150
447122
2004
07:29
The answer to that question changes
151
449150
1684
07:30
depending on who's sitting around that table.
152
450858
2101
07:32
Are there men around that table?
153
452983
1560
07:34
Are there moms who've raised boys around that table?
154
454567
2450
07:37
You'll see, the conversation changes
155
457041
1742
07:38
depending upon who's sitting around the table.
156
458807
2148
07:40
Third reason that boys are out of sync with school today:
157
460979
2852
07:43
Kindergarten is the old second grade, folks.
158
463855
2444
07:46
We have a serious compression of the curriculum happening out there.
159
466323
3912
07:50
When you're three, you better be able to write your name legibly,
160
470592
3093
07:53
or else we'll consider it a developmental delay.
161
473709
2577
07:56
By the time you're in first grade,
162
476754
1643
07:58
you should be able to read paragraphs of text
163
478421
2605
08:01
with maybe a picture, maybe not, in a book of maybe 25 to 30 pages.
164
481050
3480
08:04
If you don't,
165
484554
1180
08:05
we're probably going to be putting you into a Title I special reading program.
166
485758
3675
08:09
And if you ask Title I teachers, they'll tell you
167
489457
2298
08:11
they've got about four or five boys for every girl that's in their program,
168
491779
3619
08:15
in the elementary grades.
169
495422
1204
08:16
The reason that this is a problem
170
496650
1754
08:18
is because the message that boys are getting
171
498428
3053
08:21
is, "You need to do what the teacher asks you to do all the time."
172
501505
4342
08:26
The teacher's salary depends on "No Child Left Behind"
173
506352
4160
08:30
and "Race to the Top" and accountability and testing
174
510536
2700
08:33
and all of this.
175
513260
1976
08:35
So she has to figure out a way to get all these boys
176
515260
3974
08:39
through this curriculum -- and girls.
177
519258
2977
08:43
This compressed curriculum is bad for all active kids.
178
523142
3579
08:47
And what happens is,
179
527746
1820
08:49
she says, "Please, sit down, be quiet, do what you're told,
180
529590
4660
08:54
follow the rules, manage your time, focus, be a girl."
181
534274
4952
09:00
That's what she tells them.
182
540569
1558
09:02
Indirectly, that's what she tells them.
183
542151
2085
09:04
And so this is a very serious problem.
184
544260
2060
09:06
Where is it coming from? It's coming from us.
185
546344
2357
09:08
(Laughter)
186
548725
2511
09:11
We want our babies to read when they are six months old.
187
551992
2968
09:14
Have you seen the ads?
188
554984
1252
09:16
We want to live in Lake Wobegon where every child is above average ...
189
556260
4680
09:21
but what this does to our children is really not healthy.
190
561658
3444
09:25
It's not developmentally appropriate,
191
565126
1810
09:26
and it's particularly bad for boys.
192
566960
1976
09:29
So what do we do?
193
569404
1275
09:31
We need to meet them where they are.
194
571160
1725
09:32
We need to put ourselves into boy culture.
195
572909
2264
09:35
We need to change the mindset of acceptance in boys
196
575197
5255
09:40
in elementary schools.
197
580476
1438
09:42
More specifically, we can do some very specific things.
198
582428
3196
09:45
We can design better games.
199
585648
1588
09:47
Most of the educational games that are out there today
200
587260
2815
09:50
are really flashcards.
201
590099
1525
09:51
They're glorified drill and practice.
202
591648
1942
09:53
They don't have the depth, the rich narrative
203
593614
2813
09:56
that really engaging video games have,
204
596451
2752
09:59
that the boys are really interested in.
205
599227
2003
10:01
So we need to design better games.
206
601254
1642
10:02
We need to talk to teachers and parents and school board members and politicians.
207
602920
3826
10:06
We need to make sure that people see that we need more men in the classroom.
208
606770
3576
10:10
We need to look carefully at our zero tolerance policies.
209
610370
2694
10:13
Do they make sense?
210
613088
1168
10:14
We need to think about how to uncompress this curriculum if we can,
211
614280
3956
10:18
trying to bring boys back into a space that is comfortable for them.
212
618260
3465
10:22
All of those conversations need to be happening.
213
622260
2286
10:24
There are some great examples out there of schools --
214
624570
2803
10:27
the New York Times just talked about a school recently.
215
627397
3483
10:30
A game designer from the New School
216
630904
2332
10:33
put together a wonderful video gaming school.
217
633260
2976
10:36
But it only treats a few kids, and so this isn't very scalable.
218
636652
4837
10:41
We have to change the culture and the feelings
219
641513
2156
10:43
that politicians and school board members and parents have
220
643693
4822
10:48
about the way we accept and what we accept in our schools today.
221
648539
3067
10:51
We need to find more money for game design.
222
651630
2009
10:53
Because good games, really good games, cost money,
223
653663
2354
10:56
and World of Warcraft has quite a budget.
224
656041
1987
10:58
Most of the educational games do not.
225
658052
2092
11:00
Where we started:
226
660168
1248
11:01
my colleagues Mike Petner, Shawn Vashaw, myself,
227
661440
2796
11:04
we started by trying to look at the teachers' attitudes
228
664260
2591
11:06
and find out how do they really feel about gaming,
229
666875
2345
11:09
what do they say about it.
230
669244
1260
11:10
And we discovered that they talk about the kids in their school,
231
670528
4974
11:15
who talk about gaming, in pretty demeaning ways.
232
675526
2709
11:18
They say, "Oh, yeah. They're always talking about that stuff.
233
678792
3193
11:22
They're talking about their little action figures
234
682009
2324
11:24
and their little achievements or merit badges,
235
684357
2388
11:26
or whatever it is that they get.
236
686769
2058
11:28
And they're always talking about this stuff."
237
688851
2102
11:30
And they say these things as if it's OK.
238
690977
1957
11:32
But if it were your culture, think of how that might feel.
239
692958
3278
11:36
It's very uncomfortable to be on the receiving end
240
696260
2381
11:38
of that kind of language.
241
698665
2182
11:41
They're nervous about anything that has anything to do with violence
242
701236
3216
11:44
because of the zero tolerance policies.
243
704476
1885
11:46
They are sure that parents and administrators
244
706385
2111
11:48
will never accept anything.
245
708520
1298
11:49
So we really need to think about looking at teacher attitudes
246
709842
2884
11:52
and finding ways to change the attitudes,
247
712750
2762
11:55
so that teachers are much more open and accepting of boy cultures
248
715536
3970
11:59
in their classrooms.
249
719530
1190
12:00
Because, ultimately, if we don't,
250
720744
2068
12:02
then we're going to have boys who leave elementary school saying,
251
722836
3272
12:06
"Well I guess that was just a place for girls, it wasn't for me.
252
726132
3028
12:09
So I've got to do gaming, or I've got to do sports."
253
729184
2775
12:12
If we change these things, if we pay attention to these things,
254
732416
3013
12:15
and we reengage boys in their learning,
255
735453
1919
12:17
they will leave the elementary schools saying, "I'm smart."
256
737396
3174
12:21
Thank you.
257
741394
1151
12:22
(Applause)
258
742569
2476
About this website

This site will introduce you to YouTube videos that are useful for learning English. You will see English lessons taught by top-notch teachers from around the world. Double-click on the English subtitles displayed on each video page to play the video from there. The subtitles scroll in sync with the video playback. If you have any comments or requests, please contact us using this contact form.

https://forms.gle/WvT1wiN1qDtmnspy7