Struggling School-Age Boys

This article/research is exactly right. I have two boys and one just started first grade. He was in a private school for two years and we switched because of the financial burden of tuition ($18K a year!). The private school did a great job meeting the needs of both genders. His new public school is one of the best in our area. Parents clamor to get their children into this school. With that said, his new schedule allows for PE one day a week and Science and Social Studies are squeezed in for 20 minutes at the end of the day. He is miserable, says he "hates" school and "sits" all day long. The biggest disappointment is the lack of hands on activities and any the ability to learn about the natural world. I know they need the basics but our children have to develop their five senses. Sitting doing worksheets all day I feel is cheating them during a time that is invaluable for their growth as a human being. I am not sure what we are going to do but I a know that I cannot take 11 more years of my boys hating school!

I wholeheartedly agree with this article. As a teacher, I have seen this in the schools as well as with my own children. I am frightened for the future of the children in this country. However, I see the problem in a little different way. Teachers in the public schools are required to teach in a certain way and are required to teach certain subjects. Teachers do not have the choice to have extra recess or PE time. They are also required to teach the children how to take tests which do not prepare them for the real world. "No Child Left Behind" has made this even more of an issue where the individual needs of students are not allowed to be met. All children are required to fit into a specific mold that the government has set. It has tied the hands of teachers in public schools to teach in ways that best meet the needs of their students. Teachers want to be able to teach using more hands-on methods and more movement. It used to be fun to teach children using creative methods, but we are no longer at liberty to do so. I am disheartened for the children who cannot fit into this mold.

Boys need more play time and it wouldn't hurt girls either. As a mother of a son and an aunt to a nephew struggling in school, I can tell you that it is very difficult to know what to do short of taking them out of school and home schooling them or sending them off to an all-male school. Both boys are smart, they just have a tough time sitting still all day long. When I was in school, we had a 15 minute recess in the morning and 45 minutes at lunch to run and play. On top of that, we had 55 minutes of PE every single day.

I have two boys and I could not agree more with the research/article. My 7 year old son was in private school for the past two years. We had to switch schools due to the financial costs. We have an excellent public school so we decided to give it a try. I have been so disheartened at what I have seen so far. His private school worked very hard to adjust the curriculum to the needs of boys. My son now complains that he "sits" all day long. He has PE one day a week and recess everyday. His old school had PE everyday plus recess in addition to subjects being taught using a hands on approach. His day now consists of Reading, Writing and some Math. Science and Social Studies are taught for 20 minutes at the end of the day. I am so sad that his new view of education is that school is rigid and boring. Children need to learn using the 5 senses not just how to fill out a worksheet and practice for achievement tests.

Wow! I can't believe that someone actually substantiates what I have know for years. I am the mother of three boys and have complained about these same issues all through their school years. In fact it was one of the reasons that I homeschooled them in their grade school years. We had plenty of time for outside play and exploration and could learn things hands on with limited "worksheet time". I think another point that needs to be addressed is that a lot of boys have trouble with memorization so that the way they teach to read just does not work!!!
Part of the issue too is the blurring of the genders, boys are expected to act like girls. Girls are more relational whereas boys are more activity based. What used to be considered normal boy behavior is now considered abnormal and in need of medication.
It is very few boys that thrive in the public school environment (my middle son was one) but I see a lot of boys that do not and become discouraged and give up. What a shame that we make our boys feel less than they are simply because they are males.
A thought...ever noticed how anti-male our society has become? We dont teach our boys to be men or embrace manly qualities beyond the usual drinking and womanizing.

Great point Lance

Girls on the other hand thrive on the accomplishments in the classroom and they get a sense of accomplishment from a good grade and reading and learning books. Boys need to physically do something to fill accomplishment. It's time for parents to stop all of the undue stress kids are extremely bright and need to develop on their on and not always be so book happy in forcing things down kids throat.

deeee, I think the issue is the changes in education were made to help girls...therefore, obviously, girls are better suited to deal with them. 20-30 years ago all you heard about was how girls are being left behind in school and that school as designed with boys in mind. Makes sense since up until a few decades ago the only people that needed a good education were men. Our society changed (which is a good thing by the way) and now women are in as high if not higher demand and therefore girls have needed the same education. The problem is, we became so successful at teaching girls, we forgot boys. And the feminists, for all of their talk about equality, are happy with this pro-female disparity and will do anything in their considerable power to stave off any meaningful pro-male reforms (even to the point of outright lying like the AAUW did just a few months ago). What feminists need to realize is that just because boys would finally be winning again, this doesn't mean girls would be loosing. Instead, both genders should win.

Girls are typically better in the classroom. Science has proven that over and over again. Boys thrive outside of the classroom, which is why most boys do what they have to to get through school because most see school as a hiderence to them accomplishing anything (but some see it as necessary to get to their accomplishment but are drudging through it to get to that accomplishment)

Boys are more prone to desire to be active outside instead of cooped up in a class all of the time. Instead of the countless drills how about a break. We as adults seem to forget that our kids are just that kids. We as adults have to take a break from our "drills and stress" it's called breaks and vacation from work. News flash the extra pressure that parents put on their kids (sons especially) is sometimes too much for them bear.

Boys are more prone to desire to be active outside instead of cooped up in a class all of the time. Instead of the countless drills how about a break. We as adults seem to forget that our kids are just that kids. We as adults have to take a break from our "drills and stress" it's called breaks and vacation from work. News flash the extra pressure that parents put on their kids (sons especially) is sometimes too much for them to bear.

this article doesn't explain anything. it merely restate the problem: that boys are not doing well. why are girls able to cope better with these changes in education than boys? what is it about the "natural development" of boys that makes them less able to succeed with these changes? it presumes that there is fundamental/ biological difference between boys and girls but never states what precisely that is. it never answers its own question, and therefore doesn't provide any new insight into this very serious issue.

Excellent article Peg Tyre! I agree that much of the problem is feminisization of the educational system. I do agree with DDPK that it isn't about moms working outside of the home. What is true though is that in our rush to make school more "female friendly" we have forgotten a biological fact: males and females learn differently and therefore they must be taught differently. It is time for us to revisit single-sex schools/class, or it is time for us to reevaluate whether making schools more female-friendly is the answer. Not too long ago, it was girls that were looked upon as "stupid" or "broken." I find it interesting that now, 30 years or so later, the genders are reversed. So just as we made changes to the system to accommodate girls and prove without a doubt that they are not stupid nor broken, we need to do the same thing for boys. I know when I have a son, I will be looking for a school that is pro-boy and perhaps even single-sex just to make sure that he never feels that he is being treated like a broken-girl.

Excellent article Peg Tyre! I agree that much of the problem is feminisization of the educational system. I do agree with DDPK that it isn't about moms working outside of the home. What is true though is that in our rush to make school more "female friendly" we have forgotten a biological fact: males and females learn differently and therefore they must be taught differently. It is time for us to revisit single-sex schools/class, or it is time for us to reevaluate whether making schools more female-friendly is the answer. Not too long ago, it was girls that were looked upon as "stupid" or "broken." I find it interesting that now, 30 years or so later, the genders are reversed. So just as we made changes to the system to accommodate girls and prove without a doubt that they are not stupid nor broken, we need to do the same thing for boys. I know when I have a son, I will be looking for a school that is pro-boy and perhaps even single-sex just to make sure that he never feels that he is being treated like a broken-girl.

As a man, I am heartened to hear women saying what I felt was happening, feminization of th eAmerican male. Feminists won outright, now we just have to get Blackwidow and preying mantis genes injected into our young ones and the project of making man utterly useless will be complete. In divorce women defacto get 80% custody merely by objecting to a 50/50 with the dad. From thereon any boy in that scenario is at the mercy of one parent's sway, and that parent being female it is reasonable to think that often enough they will feminize the boy.

Regarding leaning social skills. My son was at a private school where kids bragged about what they had. I pulled my son out of that private school into a public school for two years, so he can be street smart and be less materialistic. Boy did I hear it from everybody. After a year and a half my wife wrestled him back into private school. I am glad that he had picked up most of what I thought he lacked. His rank socially had improved dramatically. He was more socially adept, assertive and alert. Watches his stuff more carefully and makes friends more easily.

As the earlier posts suggested, too much books early on may nto be all that. I grew up in Africa, never went to preschool and by an measure was at inferior schools. At 20 I came to the US and earned a Ph D in Chemistry and Biology. I was at a prestigious university in California that had lots of international students who had similar background as me, and we were no less prepared for college than our US counterparts who had had all these other resources earlier on, but were really strange socially, sad to eb exact and took it out on beer, sex and drugs. So I think he over emphasis on core subjects at the expense of other developmental needs is a tragedy.

Sure Johhny will get A's up to junior high then they burn out and get rebelious.

Let the children play.

I am the mother of five children ages 22 to 15. Three of them are boys and they are quite well adjusted and not one on Ritalin. We allowed our boys to be boys. Boys are far more physical than girls and that is quite apparant at a very young age, beginning long before their first birthday. All of our children ran, climbed, threw balls, etc., but the boys ran faster, climbed higher, threw further just because they physically could do it. This was not a "cut down" to our daughters. This wasn't a competition between the sexes. They just did what naturally came to them. We are not allowing our children to be children, especially we are not allowing our boys to be boys. When they get home from school, give them a snack and let them play outside for a little while. They just came home from 8 hours plus of structure, and then we expect them to immediately sit down and begin three hours of homeworK?? Where is the common sense these days? If they pick up a stick, point it and say bang bang, that doesn't mean they are going to become violent. That is something boys just do. The feminization of our culture is harming our boys because they just do not know how to react. Yes, we should pay attention to our daughters and encourage them to be the best they can be, but not at the expense of our boys. Common sense people.