Writing Feature Articles - Step 1 - Lesson 1 | Page 81

Writing Feature Articles - Lesson
Writing Feature Articles - Handout . a

Intermediate

Name: ________________________________________ Date: ___________________

. a: Feature Articles Packet

(page

of

)

Are Girls Meaner than Boys?
By Kathryn R. Hoffman, Time for Kids, May 3, 2002
Miranda Oropeza spotted the girls right away. One was an old friend. Miranda didn't know the other girl,
Lauren Hermes, as well. But they were laughing and talking, so Miranda decided to join them. She said
hello, and the girls stopped and stared. "Do you hear something?" said Lauren. "I think I hear a toilet
?ushing. Ooh, the toilet's stinky today!" The girls turned away.
That was in the sixth grade. In high
school, Miranda and Lauren were
assigned to sit next to each other in
biology
class. Lauren felt terrible. "By then,
I didn't want to be mean anymore,"
she says. "But I kept thinking, 'Oh,
no, she probably still hates me!'"
Today, Miranda and Lauren are best
friends. The high school seniors
work with GENaustin, a group
in Austin, Texas, that helps ?fththrough eighth-grade girls deal with
problems with friends and family.
Lauren and Miranda share their
story as an example of how cruel
girls can be.
The Truth About Girls
Until recently, psychologists who studied aggression among schoolchildren focused on physical bullying.
Most of the research indicated that girls were less aggressive than boys. In the early 1990s, a team
of researchers studying the behavior of 11- and 12-year-olds found that girls were just as aggressive,
although in a different way. Instead of ?ghting with their ?sts, girls lashed out with words and body
language.
"The fact is that both girls and boys can be very mean," Susan Wellman told TFK kid reporter Amanda
Lanzillo. Wellman is the head of the Ophelia Project, an organization based in Erie, Pennsylvania, that
teaches kids to treat one another with respect.
© 2010, Teaching Matters, Inc.

www.teachingmatters.org

Page 240