Princeton Academy Head to Discuss Learning Differences Among Boys, Girls

Ever noticed how young boys can’t seem to sit still?

While girls develop language and fine motor skills earlier, boys instead focus on movement and hands-on learning, says Olen Kalkus, founding headmaster of Princeton Academy of the Sacred Heart, an all-boys school for students through eighth grade in Princeton.

That’s not to say one sex learns better than another, it’s that each learns differently, Kalkus said.

He will present a lecture, "Gender and Learning," on Thursday, Nov. 17 at 7 p.m. at the Lawrence branch of the Mercer County Library System. The event is free and open to the public.

Kalkus, a teacher and administrator for more than 30 years, believes that understanding gender differences is important in establishing the best methods for teaching boys and girls. He is also the former dean of students at Portsmouth Abbey, a private coed school Rhode Island.

For example, he says putting boys and girls into a coed kindergarten class can present challenges.

A boy who feels unable to compete with a female classmate’s mastery of cursive, for example, may begin to feel at a disadvantage and ultimately lose interest in learning.

“In an all-boys environment, they don’t have that competition, so they can enjoy a learning environment that’s appropriate for them,” Kalkus said.

Boys’ and girls’ reading and writing abilities even out around the third or fourth grade, but single-sex education may help students facing outside social pressures, Kalkus said. For example, adolescent girls may not want to appear too smart in front of boys.

“That’s the tip of the iceberg,” he said. “I think our culture over sexualizes adolescents and even preadolescents, but in a single-sex environment can be somewhat ameliorated.”

Ironically, boys ‘struggles in the classroom may the result of changes to educational programs in the 1990’s meant to enhance learning for girls, Kalkus says.

Changes in education, mostly favoring collaborative and cooperative learning over competitive environments, were implemented after studies showed that girls underperform in math and science.

But it’s boys who often thrive in competitive environments, Kalkus said.

“There was a little bit of the baby being thrown out with the bathwater,” he said.