KBLOG 55: Read This If You Have a Son or Teach a Boy

February 15, 2024 Richard Kurtz

The Challenge:

As a group Boys are hurting! Many education metrics such as discipline incidences, learning disabilities, university enrollment, grades and graduation from high school and college, show that boys are struggling. This struggle is observed in males from kindergarten all the way to college. The results of this are long term, increasing incarceration rates and poor educational and economic prospects. Some of the problems and challenges that boys face based on various research articles I read when compared to girls are:

1. More likely to be diagnosed with learning disabilities and behavioral disorders.

2. Less likely to excel in language arts and reading.

3. Fewer opportunities for hand-on learning compared.

4. Curricula that do not cater to diverse learning styles.

5. Boys more likely to be suspended and discipline which impacts academic performance.

6. Fewer male role models especially at the elementary level.

7. Struggles with expressing emotion and seeking help with mental health issues.

8. Male stereotypes create conformity pressure which may restrict exploration of diverse talents and interests.

9. Challenges in developing effective communication and interpersonal skills to help in collaboration and group activities.

A Solution:

1. Increase unstructured outdoor playtime to breakup seat time in traditionally organized classrooms. Playtime is a casualty of expanding teaching mandates.

2. Turn boys into readers, offer them books they like to read and give them support through a male reading model (100+ books for Boys. . .).

3. Teachers and parents should consider writing exercises from a boy’s point of view. Let them write about video games, skateboard competitions, monster trucks. In other words, find out about what they would like and take into consideration a boy’s imagination to write about. Education specialists suggest teachers permit fantasy, horror, spoofs, humor, war and conflict as writing topics for boys.

4. Incorporating effort and process in grading students.

5. Parents and teachers need to work together to discover and know what interest their students have.

6. Incorporate real-life skills into the curriculum including oral communication, long-term projects, group work.

Resources:

100+ Books for Boys Recommended by Boys (k-9) - https://brookeromney.com/40-books-for-boys-recommended-by-boys-sorted-by-reading-abilitygrades-k-9/

What School Can Do to Help Boys Succeed - https://ideas.time.com/2013/10/28/what-schools-can-do-to-help-boys-succeed/

How to Solve the Education Crises for Boys and Men (TED Talk) -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXsOlAYvgh0

Boys are Facing Key Challenges in School (APA) –

https://www.apa.org/monitor/2023/04/boys-school-challenges-recommendations

APA Taskforce on Boys in School - https://www.division51.net/taskforce-on-boys-in-school

Boys are Falling Behind (Edutopia) - https://www.edutopia.org/article/boys-are-falling-behind-what-can-we-do-about-it