When learning about learning in pre-teens, keep gender in mind. Do boys and girls learn differently? Sometimes no but often yes. Keep in mind the following difference but not as absolute rules. Often, young girls see the learning moment as a chance to please adults and to learn all sorts of contextual information in a class not directly related to the fact or formula being taught. And the boys? Pleasing adults is not really a consideration, and they take a kind of focused, tunnel vision approach to learning a fact or formula, tuning other contexts out. Girls are often people- and context-focused. Boys are often self- and topic-focused. These differences have lead to debates about the efficacy of all-girl and all-boy schools, whether they’re a good idea or not. Either way, nothing stops you from assessing how gender does or does not play a role in your children’s learning.