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www.amazon.2db.com.pl - The Trouble with Boys: A Surprising Report Card on Our Sons, Their Problems at School, and What Parents and Educators Must Do
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List Price: $24.95
Our Price: $16.47
Your Save: $ 8.48 ( 34% )
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Manufacturer: Crown
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 371.8210973
EAN: 9780307381286
ISBN: 0307381285
Label: Crown
Manufacturer: Crown
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 320
Publication Date: 2008-09-09
Publisher: Crown
Release Date: 2008-09-09
Studio: Crown
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Editorial Reviews:
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From the moment they step into the classroom, boys begin to struggle. They get expelled from preschool nearly five times more often than girls; in elementary school, they’re diagnosed with learning disorders four times as often. By eighth grade huge numbers are reading below basic level. And by high school, they’re heavily outnumbered in AP classes and, save for the realm of athletics, show indifference to most extracurricular activities. Perhaps most alarmingly, boys now account for less than 43 percent of those enrolled in college, and the gap widens every semester!
The imbalance in higher education isn’t just a “boy problem,” though. Boys’ decreasing college attendance is bad news for girls, too, because admissions officers seeking balanced student bodies pass over girls in favor of boys. The growing gender imbalance in education portends massive shifts for the next generation: how much they make and whom they marry.
Interviewing hundreds of parents, kids, teachers, and experts, award-winning journalist Peg Tyre drills below the eye-catching statistics to examine how the educational system is failing our sons. She explores the convergence of culprits, from the emphasis on high-stress academics in preschool and kindergarten, when most boys just can’t tolerate sitting still, to the outright banning of recess, from the demands of No Child Left Behind, with its rigid emphasis on test-taking, to the boy-unfriendly modern curriculum with its focus on writing about “feelings” and its purging of “high-action” reading material, from the rise of video gaming and schools’ unease with technology to the lack of male teachers as role models.
But this passionate, clearheaded book isn’t an exercise in finger-pointing. Tyre, the mother of two sons, offers notes from the front lines—the testimony of teachers and other school officials who are trying new techniques to motivate boys to learn again, one classroom at a time. The Trouble with Boys gives parents, educators, and anyone concerned about the state of education a manifesto for change—one we must undertake right away lest school be-come, for millions of boys, unalterably a “girl thing.”
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: "Boys are simply treated as defective girls."
Comment: Peg Tyre has written a remarkable book about a problem that many of us have sensed (but failed to articulate and complain about) for years: our young boys are being shortchanged from the first day that they enter a school building. Not too many years ago the concern in public education was how to prepare girls to grow into women able to compete with their male counterparts in the work world. That was a legitimate concern and, much to the credit of this country, a tremendous, and very successful, effort was made to correct the problem. But as always seems to happen, the pendulum continued to swing their way long after females had achieved educational equality. The momentum created to correct the initial problem was so strong that it eventually placed male students at a disadvantage, a new problem just as serious as the one it corrected.
I have personally observed much of what Peg Tyre describes in "The Trouble with Boys." For what it is worth, I can offer anecdotal evidence of my own that the problem Tyre describes is a serious one. I am the father of two daughters, both elementary school teachers now, and the grandfather of one granddaughter and two grandsons, all of whom are elementary school students. Because I am convinced that learning to read well, and as soon as possible, is the key to anyone's future, I encouraged my daughters to become readers and have done the same for their children. It is in observation of their children that I first became aware of just how different so many little boys are from little girls when it comes to their early schooling.
According to Tyre, the problem for little boys begins as early as preschool because they are physically and mentally less mature than little girls their age. Boys at this age are less verbal than girls, a deficit that makes it more difficult for them to learn to read, and they have less well developed fine motor skills, making it more difficult for them to control a pencil or a paintbrush. But their biggest problem is the great difficulty they have in sitting still for long periods of time, a tendency that almost guarantees that they will be disciplined at a much higher rate than girls and that they will learn at a slower pace.
The physical disadvantage faced by young boys has become more and more exaggerated in recent years because of the emphasis on starting our children into preschool programs at younger and younger ages. Little boys find themselves labeled early on as troublemakers and poor students by teachers that simply do not recognize or understand the handicaps the boys are facing in the classroom. As a result, boys are almost five times as likely to be expelled from preschool and are twice as likely to be placed under medication for some type of attention deficit disorder.
And, of course, this makes them much more likely to hate school and learning. Too many of them tune out, barely skating by academically and staying in school mainly because of sports programs and the girls they meet there. These boys have subconsciously assimilated the message they received from preschool through elementary school that they are problem students whose behavior and study habits are not appreciated.
And the result is predictable. Boys and girls enter preschool at about the same level but around the fourth grade girls are noticeably pulling ahead of boys academically, a lead they never relinquish. By middle and high school girls make up a substantial majority of top-ranked students and today they outnumber male university students to such a degree that many schools have created a kind of affirmative action plan for boys in order to create some balance in their student enrollments.
In effect, the American education system has been over-feminized by its tendency to reward the behavior more common to girls and to punish that more likely to be shared by young male students. "The Trouble with Boys" offers solutions and possible corrective measures that need to be adopted before another generation of men is doomed to second class status.
As Tyre points out, this country simply cannot afford to write off half of the population if it is to successfully compete in the global economy of the future. Advocates of equality for women may be concerned by any new emphasis on the same for men, fearing that the infamous pendulum will once again swing too far before stopping. But, as Tyre emphasizes, that is not what anyone is proposing or expecting; this is simply a matter of true equality for both sexes, a goal that will benefit all of us.
"The Trouble with Boys" makes a strong case that something must be done quickly in order to correct the biggest problem now facing this country's school system. It should be read by parents (regardless of whether they have boys or girls), school teachers and administrators, and everyone concerned about the future. It is a good place at which to begin the conversation - read it and pass it on to others before we waste another generation of young men. It is time that we quit treating boys as "defective girls."
Customer Rating:
Summary: Insightful.
Comment: 'The Trouble with Boys' is an up-to-date, pragmatic review of the happenings in middle-class American schools. I picked this book up after hearing an interview of Peg Tyre on the local DC talk station - she was very candid on her perspective of gender equality in teaching. I feel that if you have boys and are not directly involved in the education system, this is a must read - if nothing more than equipping yourself with terminology and the will to find out how and what your boys are learning. It is interesting to read the differences with how boys and girls learn, how video games can affect boys, and what environments best suit boys. Very quick and easy read but brought some points to light that I had not thought of - instances, stories and aspects I was able to semi-relate to being a 30 year old professional male working on his graduate degree. School has not been easy for me, it has been a struggle and 'The Trouble with Boys' shed some light on subjects that may help with my future sons and/or daughters.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Excellent information for parents and educators
Comment: Excellent information for parents and educators in understanding and working with boys and understanding the differences between boys and girls.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Worth the read
Comment: Many very good reviews have already been written, so I'll try to share something new. I was interested in this topic because I'm an elementary school teacher and am very interested in finding ways to help my struggling boy students. When I was working on my master's thesis with this very topic, I e-mailed Peg Tyre. At the time, she was working at Newsweek and had just written one of the articles about boys' underachievement that would later lead to this book. She was very helpful with my question and led me to additional resources. Because she is the mother of two boys and her articles were always interesting and well-written, this book intrigued me.
Tyre devotes a lot of time to describing why there is in fact a growing problem with the underachievement of boys, and she is effective in doing this. A large portion of the book describes how in some universities there is already a kind of affirmative action for boys because so many more girls are being accepted, and schools are changing their policies just to try to maintain some kind of balance.
A somewhat funny (and sobering) part of the book was when she mentioned the saying from the 80's that a woman is more likely to be killed by a terrorist than find a suitable man (I'm paraphrasing). Although this isn't true, it is true that increasingly more women are being admitted and graduating from college than men. Since these women tend to not want to "marry down" and look for equally successful partners with at least somewhat equal earning power,(men with a college degree)it's getting harder for these women to find men with college degrees, and it's even worse news for men who didn't go to college. (The percentage of unmarried men who didn't go to college has gone up considerably). I don't articulate this as well as she does, but I wanted to mention it because I never considered how a disparity between the numbers of men and women in college could have that kind of long-term consequence.
*She describes the importance of boys having mentors and gives many interesting anecdotes of this, including a high school that assigns men from the community to mentor its students, a "Dad's Club" that helps with projects around the school, and the importance of having boys see their Dads (or other men) involved with literacy.
*The impact of No Child Left Behind and its effect on school curriculum is described. It's scary to me that there are elementary schools being built without playgrounds. When I have to sit for most of the day in an inservice, it reminds me of how hard it is to be a student with a lot of energy. The importance of movement is discussed.
*While Tyre does describe some recent brain research, she is careful not to jump to conclusions with it. In fact, she mentions that neuroscientists don't believe we know enough about gender and learning to come up with brain-based gender-specific instruction.
*The impact of single-sex schooling is discussed. I disagree with an earlier review who said that Tyre seems to suggest that you should send your child to a private school if you can afford it. I thought Tyre mentioned several times that most single-sex schooling has been inconclusive in raising student achievement. She described an inner-city school in Baltimore that became a single-sex school (for males) but without careful planning and it was a disaster and became a hotbed for violence. However, she also mentions how for certain populations single-sex schooling could work well.
There is a lot more that I didn't even get to, but earlier reviews mention some of those points. This book is well worth your time.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Thought provoking
Comment: Here's a great companion to Michael Thompson's Raising Cain: Protecting the Emotional Life of Boys. While this "report card on our sons" was hardly "surprising" to this community college teacher, Peg Tyre provides lots of facts and figures to support the growing realization among educators that too many young men are not reaching their potential. In too many classrooms, girls are productively engaged, earning good grades and getting what they need from their education while boys are either absent or disengaged and failing. Tyre's examples are illuminating, her breadth of information is convincing and her conclusions are reasonable. The style of language is quite engaging and accessible, so that the facts and figures area easily understandable for parents as well as teachers. Well, done, Ms. Tyre! Here's hoping your elucidation of this problem will prompt more work toward its solution. Wouldn't it be great if those boys would read it and see it as a wake-up call?
Janet Gingold
author of Finch Goes Wild, a novel about a middle school boy who turns his life around
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