Hang on, school is one of the few places where boys don’t do well

They can handle massive amounts of information and massage complex systems as they download files, swap music and hack and chat their way through the day. They are immensely digitally literate. They can deconstruct images almost instantly; they can read screens. What’s more, these are the very skills they need for future employment.

Their digital literacy is very different from the print literacy of earlier generations – and different from the print literacy on which most of them are still being tested in school.

The ’net kids don’t sit still, they aren’t quiet, and they aren’t ordered and disciplined. Their computer-behaviour is seen by many teachers as a discipline problem, and their noise and activity as a lack of concentration. These young people are not only "taking in" information; they are constantly "sending it out". The key difference between print and digital is that the computer is interactive.

And the ‘net generation have not, and are not being taught these skills by parents or teachers.

They are the hands-on generation. They have worked it out for themselves. They arrive at the school door with a range of sophisticated computer skills. There are plenty of teachers of five-year-olds who readily acknowledge that the kids know much more about computers than they do.

But what does the ‘net generation think of the culture of the school? The answer is generally: not much.

This is because most classrooms are not well equipped. For the first time in history, chances are that the home is better resourced than the school. But this isn’t the only limitation the wired kids confront; it’s that fact that the school often doesn’t value their digital literacy.

Adolescent boys are recognised as whizzes by IT experts, but are almost never given credit for their advanced performance. Instead, teachers who are familiar with books, but for whom computers remain something of a mystery, are more likely to regard the speed, dexterity, and flashing eye movements of the boys as the product of too many video games – something to be kept out of the classroom.

And here you have the real problem; the boys have not fallen behind; rather – they are ahead of the school.

So much of the school culture is based upon 19th century classroom conventions. "Homework for my son means having to move his computer off his desk, to handwrite stuff that’s absolutely irrelevant," stated a disillusioned parent.

So much of school work is still about studying to get the information into your head. But the students know already that there’s too much information, and it changes too quickly, for one’s head to be a safe place to store it in. That’s what the save key is for.

But can they use their sophisticated information-management and knowledge-making skills that the school has not taught them? Rarely. The reality of the contemporary classroom is that many boys can hardly wait to get away from the place so they can get back to the real thing – doing the digital.

Boys are not underperforming; it’s the school.