Struggling School-Age Boys

Finally its not just my kid! I didn't realize there was other boys having this problem. My boy is in 3rd grade and is learning Chinese this year!!! 20 years ago i wasn't learning another language but from my friends who were of a different ethnicity. Hopefully my boy can ahndle it cause it's only getting worse.

The problem is we don't let boys be boys. We have gotten so screwed up in our theologies. So what was so wrong with cowboys and indians, what was so wrong with the good guys vs the bad guy. Boys only outlet today is sports, but what about the ones that are not athletically inclinesd. We want boysto behave like girls and they are stuggling to get out of a box that was not made for them. It breaks my heart to see so many boys stuggling and if they excell they are labeled gay, geek, ect. I am concerned where our country will be when the young boys of today become men. We went from one extreme to another, we need to find a balance, but I do not blame our schools, our country's schools rate far below other country's school like Japan for instance, we expect far less than their country from our students. So let's not blame the school, although their is pressure put on students regarding state testing, and let's not blame the parents although in some situations it may be the parents, you can not just slap a label on this situation, it is many factors that are causing the problem with our boys. I just wish I had an answer.

at the age of 8, my son's school counselor said he might have asperger's syndrome, because he couldn't control his anger issue's, i had him tested at children's hospital and they said the fact that asperger's syndrome was even implied was disquisting,and that there was nothing wrong with him, and in 2nd grade his teacher sent home a piece of paper with a frown face on it, because according to her my son was laughing to much, how in the hell can a child laugh too much, i took this up with his teacher the next day, and she said she read a funny story to the class, and he wouldn't stop laughing, and i let her have it, teacher's now a days want zombie's in their class, i wouldn't be suprised if 80 % of students in one school weren't on medication, and i think they should bann homework all together, every year at the end of school year my son's teacher's hands the class a summer project to do on break, and every year i say the same thing to the teacher's , are you doing a school project over the summer, they say no, and i say neither is my son, that is his time to relax, and i hand it back to them.

We can't be mad at school systems pushing our children. There job is to educate and the US is clearly falling behind the rest of the world. I think there are a few things we can do for our children. Physical activity. I don't think we can stress enough how important it is to be physically active. To crash and bang. To climb trees and ride your bike. These are things we all did as a child that today's generation isn't doing. Blame it on video games, television, busy lifestyles, or an unsafe neighborhood, but at the end of the day physical activity feeds our brains development and it needs to be part of a daily routine. So if your two year old is climbing on something, let him climb. We naturally seek that out because our body needs it to develop appropriately. Our lack of physical activity is surely to blame for decreased attention span and increased sensory processing issues. If you have a child with ADHD you might want to consider talking with an Occupational therapist to see if they have any tips on trying to get your child the stimulus they crave in an acceptable manner that helps them become more functional throughout the day.

Diet is important as well. Balanced diets which include fruits, veggies, grains, dairy, and protein are key. They help our body created the chemicals it needs to regulate attention and mood.

Lastly, Parents, don't be afraid to be a parent. I meet parents every day that are absolutely wrapped around their child's finger. You should be in charge, not them. It's okay to say no to your child and mean it. When they grow up they are going to have a boss that tells them no...train them to respect others now. If you thought your 2 year old was bad...wait until he's a teenager.

Enough already with all this ADHD nonsense...Men...Throw away all those ridiculous pills you keep giving your sons and then check out the works of the American poet Robert Blye. Look at his video(s) on YouTube called "A Gathering of Men"... Women.....enough with this sad devotion of trying to badly imitate men in order to parent your male children. When you get surrounded on the playground by a large group of your own sex...and they kick your teeth in...then you will gain wisdom and understanding of what it means to be a boy who must also a man at any given moment in his life. No matter how hard you try and deny these irrefutable differences...this is how things will always be... We are not equal...We are just different. Period.

Maybe part of the problem is these boys having no real role models, half the world divorced and living in disfunctional at best homes. Educational systems that have pedophiles and criminals around every corner. Mothers working 2-3 jobs to make ends meet, fathers confused about their roles in their childrens lives. TV and movies and video games with violence and sex and music teaching deplorable acts to all our children. Parenting techniques that can't be more than a timeout, or it's determined to be child abuse.
Sports athletes, and celebrities that get away with breaking the law at every turn.....seriously, why would these children ...boys be confused? What can we possibly be teaching them that is wrong?

IF YOU ARE HAVING ISSUES WITH YOUR CHILDREN IN SCHOOL PLEASE CONTACT AN EDUCATION EXPERT THAT CAN HELP YOU WORK WITH THE SCHOOL AND THE ISSUES YOUR CHILD HAS.

www.edmgt.com

Yep, and this kind of thing is why I'm home schooling my son. A family gym class to start the day? Oh yeah! A glass of water while he works? No problem! A snack break? Of course! Math not progressing fast enough? Well, what the heck, let's do a few more pages! Freaking out about pressure to learn? Don't worry, sweetheart, you have plenty of time to learn all of this - we won't rush you, take as long as you need. Oh, and let's not forget the weekly field trip - time spent having *fun* learning about something hands-on.

Beats the heck out of my husband's parents putting him on Ritalin to cure BOREDOM and an ACTIVE IMAGINATION. (No, it didn't work.)

Ok I have to disagree with this!! I come from a society where you are supposed to know your multiplication table and read fluently by grade 2!!!! Music or art school after regular school are normal, and where first foreign language is acquired in the 4th grade and second foreign language is started in 6th grade, and third in high school. Physics and Chemistry are studied in 6th grade....when I came here I skiped high school and went to college at 16 because every class in my high school offered i already had before I finished 8th grade.
American way of living is too fast and puts no priority on children. As long as parents think they are doing their best they think that is good enough. I am a parent of twins and when I see how some people parent their kids I simply can't understand it. I do agree that daycares and preschools at early age probably have something to do with it, but not because of forcing academics but because children are not spending their critcal developing years with their parents but with teachers in daycare that get paid $10 per hour and don't care. And how many mothers breastfeed these days? There is no conicidence that children that were breastfed for six or more months have significantly greater IQs...

is this some thing new??? I'm 41 and my parents and many of my friends parents felt the same way in 1982,83,,84 etc only then ADHD was called HY-PER-ACT-IVE and ritalin was the anwser, I tured out OK and maybe the problem is that the parents need to be a part of their kids life . stop thinking a pill is the anwser for every thing......take the kid out in the C O U N T R Y ....hunt fish hike .....get him away from the frkkin vidio game and TV set

I have to say it is nice to know I'm not alone in thinking the school system/parenting in USA is jacked up. Dont get me wrong, my folks are great parents, but I see so many who aren't. I just graduated highschool a couple years ago and I always skipped class to just relax, or else I thought I would drown. I noticed that no matter how many kids (and by kids I mean people) said they didnt want to be forced into specific academies (academy is like a college major, but for a 15 year-old), the system just pushed it on us harder. I never felt i could do anything, because nobody cares what a dumb teenager thinks. We're not human beings anymore, we're just the next generation of things with occupations.

Shel is right. Inside the classroom, just about everything is about engaging the students. I never remember creating any posters, projects, ect. on a daily basis, yet that's what's taking place now. A written test...not as much as doing a webquest, or creating a calender, or a gameboard, ect. That's what's doing on in school's today...it's called differentiated instructions...teaching in front of the class and taking notes??? Nope, not anymore!

Mother's of girls push them harder to be more educated and support themselves because they themselves want their daugher's lives to be better and more enjoyable than their's were.