I don't think "we" have any lady elementary school teachers on this board

Have we no ladies who fit this definition?

elementary school n.
A school for the first four to eight years of a child's formal education, often including kindergarten.

I had assumed Wordwind is a "lady elementary school teacher". She certainly is a "lady" and she just posted the "African elephant" thread to generate examples for her classroom.

Doesn't sound to me like Wordwind is teaching the correct spelling of animal names to high school students.

Anyway, I asked a Grade 5 teacher [who also happens to be a lady] yesterday if she is aware that boys have poorer literacy skills than girls.

She said that is well known. I asked her "Why?".

She responded immediately saying she thinks it's because boys aren't interested in the stories their female teachers choose for them.

She said they are not interested in the typical fictional fare offered in classrooms. They like to read about real-life things like spiders and lions and skeletons and such. She has two boys herself and knows what they are really interested in at that age.

I was surprised at her response because she was saying exactly what some of the 'experts' quoted in the Toronto Star article were saying, only she was saying it a lot more clearly. [And she hadn't read the Toronto Star article.]

BTW the story appeared in yesterday's Toronto Star (Aug. 30th) at www.TorontoStar.com.

Here is the url. Sorry, I've forgotten how to make it active.

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1062195014474&call_pageid=968332188492&col=968793972154

You can also find it by entering "Why boys avoid school reading" in Google.

P.S. "We" was not intended as 'the royal we'. I was simply referring to visitors to this forum. I make no claim, nor do I harbor any aspiration, to that high station.