15th April 2016 1:00
By Blue Tutors
The leader of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers has recently raised concerns that girls are being put off engaging at school because of sexist bullying. The general secretary of ATL Mary Bousted said that girls are being made to feel afraid of appearing “swotty”, and are put under pressure to keep quiet while the boys engage academically. Bousted drew attention to something that many teachers and private tutors are observing with increasing alarm, namely that girls are being put under a huge amount of pressure to being attractive rather than to achieve academically. She noted that many girls are afraid of being called ugly geeks if they choose to engage.
As private tutors we get to know students often better than their teachers do, and many of us have seen the private pressure that girls feel to conform. With the advent of social media, girls are feeling under more pressure than ever to look attractive in photographs online, and not to show up boys in class. The prevailing attitude in many schools, is that the way that girls can impress boys is by keeping quiet and looking pretty. Even for private tutors it can be very hard to encourage girls when their priority is not to be bullied for showing academic interest.
Sometimes it can also be difficult for private tutors to discern if a female student is experiencing this kind of difficulty. In many cases girls won’t feel the same kind of pressure in a one-to-one teaching environment where their peers can’t hear them. For this reason, it may not be immediately apparent that girls are struggling to speak up at school. If girls are having issues at school, private tuition can do a lot to raise their confidence, which may mean they are better able to stand up for themselves at school. However, the onus shouldn’t be on girls or private tutors to resolve this issue alone; schools, the media and the government should do more to ensure that we do not raise a generation of girls who believe that how attractive they are is the most important factor.