Girls May Get More 'Teaching Time' From Parents Than Boys Do : Shots - Health News : NPR: For some years now, teachers and parents have noted something about boys and girls. Starting in elementary school, young girls often score better on reading and math tests than young boys do.
The differences are uneven on different tests and do not describe the experience of every child, but empirical studies do document a difference.
Now, two economists are proposing a partial explanation for the disparity that might give some parents heartburn.
Michael Baker at the University of Toronto and Kevin Milligan at the University of British Columbia recently survey data of parents in three countries — the United States, Canada and Britain. They were especially interested to see how parents say they spend time with their children — and they turned up an intriguing gender difference in what they called "teaching activities."
