Girls step up to presidential plate

When walking into a club at Big Spring High School, what might be most notable is that clubs are primarily run by females and they are almost always the ones that have leadership positions. Females usually get the leadership positions in Big Spring while in the real world, a plethora of males dominate these positions. This does not only hold true for leadership positions, but also in honors and AP classes. It is not clear whether the reason for this is a maturity difference or a stigma that males are afraid to go against. There are many reasons for this stigma, but there isn’t one exact answer for this problem, and it has not gone unnoticed by administration. “This is actually an issue that many schools seem to face.  It is particularly true here at BSHS, as many of our honor societies are heavily slanted to female membership.  Additionally, those students who finish in the top percentage of their class in terms of GPA are also slanted towards females.   On some level, it is a reflection of our school culture.  We need to encourage male students to perform at the same level as our females, without taking opportunities and experiences away,” said principal, Bill August.

Big Spring senior, Faith Swarner, who is the President of Rho Khappa, Tempus, and Public Relations Chair of Student Council had some things to say about this topic. Swarner said she realizes that there is a stigma young me have at Big Spring and that girls are usually in a different environment. Swarner said, “We could change this, but there isn’t an easy solution. It takes guys to step up into leadership positions and guys going against status quo.” In Tempus she said that the ratio is split 50/50 with the girls and the boys, but she notices that the boys don’t pick up their end and let females do most of the work. She also said, “In high school females are offered a different opportunity; they are in a different environment where they are considered to be more responsible than the males, which won’t last when they go into the workplace.”

Jim Miller, an  AP teacher and Rho Khappa adviser, saw this situation from a teacher’s point of view after teaching for 25 years. Miller said, “I’m not exactly sure why it’s this way, but I think it has to do with boys being reluctant to be seen as a “nerd” and girls are often more plugged into what’s happening at school.”He spoke about how boys are easily persuaded by peer pressure. “The only way to fix this is to teach boys to be leaders; they don’t know how to properly do it, and you can’t force them to be leaders, but you should feel confidence.” Schools have always been like this according to Miller. He said, ”I’ve taught for 25 years and it’s always been this way even when I taught at West Perry for 8 years.”

Aidan Raucher, a 16 year old senior, is a part of Mock Trial, Student Council, National Honor Society, and Science National Honor Society. Raucher had a different view on this subject believing that male students are just focused on other things. Raucher said, ”It seems that many are just not interested in the offerings, and would rather spend the time doing something else.” He said that he doesn’t think there is a stigma against smart males in Big Spring. He just thought that the reason males aren’t involved is because they get themselves involved in other activities. He said, “The only way of changing it for the future is to widely advertise leadership positions in Big Spring.”