1672 Laura Bush's new education push

A story in USAToday covered Laura Bush's new focus on programs to rescue young boys. At one point in the interview where the descreasing enrollment of young men in college is brought up, she says:

"I think we need to examine the way we're teaching children from elementary school. Are we asking boys to sit still when they really want to jump around? Is it because boys have fewer and fewer role models because such a large percentage of elementary teachers are women? I suspect those are the reasons."

About 25 years ago I attended one of the gazillion workshops of my career and remember a speaker who believed that young boys do better in spatial and abstract reasoning than girls because they DO NOT have male teachers and thus from an early age have to try to figure out by guessing and making mistakes, just exactly what those lady teachers want. This fine tunes the brain, apparently. Little girls, just have to imitate and follow the rules. That's the only place I've ever heard that idea, and it may be crazy, but there are many more male teachers in the lower grades than there used to be, and boys aren't doing as well.

The theory probably doesn't apply to private, single gender schools where other factors like wealth and education level of parents come in to play.