in a discussion the other day with one of my school age grandchildren,they intimated that it wasn't seen as being one of the boys to be academically inclined ; nothing new really , the footballers and the sportsmen got all the adoration from other students and i am afraid, staff ,even when I was at school , However combined with the report that boys are constantly doing less well than girls,(Atkinson A , Wilson D, (2003)The widening gap in English schools" www.bris.ac.uk/cmpo/mpoissue8.pdf ,) this achieves a greater significance.Bandura rightly in my opinion emphasises the importance of social learning in the development of an individual and their capability for learning . However if the prevailing social ethos (of the students perceived 'most important ' societal interactions) are against academic achievement then the student unless on the fringe of the society , or a significantly strong willed individual will avoid academia . The "geeks" are probably on the fringe of the society before they become geeks not the other way round. Developing an interest in academia may well be a way of coping with not being part of the" in " society . I actually hate the word geek being more than a bit geek myself . If this is true then it is the society of learning that we need to consider. A television report yesterday, intimated that the division between boys and girls started in the primary school ,. However one wonders how much of this separation is a self fulfilling prophecy ? Will society be able to value academic development , are there any cerebral heroes on television apart from Sherlock Holmes and the Mentalist , and the day an academic gets paid the same for a lecture as David Beckham does for a game society will probably collapse out of sheer sup rise . However learning is not completely lost the growth and uptake of web 2 sites and the leisure learning activities available, show that people still wish to develop themselves but perhaps not in a traditional academic matter , is that food for thought ?
