Boys learning

Interesting read. Some of the practical information wasn't really too enlightening. I was more interested in the facts about brain differences rather than the strategies for teaching boys. I suppose I should have chosen a different book for that information. I'm wondering how the science has changed since being written.

Be warned. This book will shock and scare you at how our society is letting down our boys.

I found this book to be very repetitive, and the authors did not go into detail about why boys and girls learn differently (on average). They also seem to entirely neglect learning style (auditory, visual, kinesthetic, etc). Some good points were made, but I did not learn a book's worth of information.

A really interesting look into how female and male brains are different. The use of science to support their research was excellent. I wish all teachers had to read this book as I think it would help them teach both boys and girls more effectively.

So helpful for those who have boys, care about the success of boys and want to grow in understanding boys. I read this about 5 years ago and it was a really great refresh.

For June Book Club, I read The Minds of Boys: Saving Our Sons From Falling Behind in School and Life, by Michael Gurian and Kathy Stevens. The crux of the book is that boys are underachieving in schools (as indicated by low graduation rates, high disciplinary rates, etc. compared to girls) and thus steps need to be taken to help boys perform better. Fortunately, this book spends the majority of its time describing those steps.

The book is divided into four sections: one which presents the problem, one which talks about promoting learning in the home, one which provides strategies for effectively teaching school curricula, and one for providing additional assistance to boys who need them (not only for reasons such as learning disabilities, but also gifted boys who are bored in school). A persistent theme throughout this is the need for parents to get involved with their sons' education (without becoming overinvolved) and for paying attention to the natural differences between boys and girls.

The main reason that I read this book was because the majority of the teens in my classes are boys and so it seemed wise to learn what I could do to better educate them during the brief time I am teaching them. Many of the suggestions, such as relating learning curricula to subjects that they are interested in (e.g. relating the technology components to real life), are ones that I can certainly implement.

However, the book is aimed at parents and school teachers, rather than periphery educators like me, and so many of the suggestions I unfortunately cannot implement in order to help the boys I serve. I would recommend this book to any CTEP members who deal with boys on a consistent basis and are closer in role to school teachers, but other CTEP members who deal with boys less frequently (e.g. at a library setting) can probably find more relevant books.

From a writing perspective, it was quite dry. From a knowledge perspective, for me, there was the one chapter which told me what to do and why. Basically, play word games, use a picture dictionary, write grocery lists. Practice using a variety of words. Write a different word for each letter in his first name, and do that every day using different words. Play games using words in a sentence. There are reasons boys are different from girls and it is just in the make up of people. Boys have a definite rest state in their heads where they definitely practice the immobile arts. Girls don't.

The most interesting part of this book to me was learning about how boys form attachments with parents and peers through "karate kicks". It was interesting to learn some strategies that might help me in teaching my boys better.

I'm constantly wanting to understand and teach my children better, especially my son. I've always been fascinated by the differences I've noticed in girls and boys. This book uses a lot of recent scientific evidence that gives validation and explanation of those differences. It's making a lot of sense so far....

An interesting look at everything I've done wrong and right in raising my boys. I think the things I've done right out weigh any mistakes I've made--like using the T.V. as a babysitter while I was working at home--bad mommy. I've been lucky though because I have three very intelligent boys with pretty good attention spans. They are well behaved at school and most of the time at home. But there is always room for improvement and this book definitely gave me some good insights into their minds and their father's. I kind of skimmed over the ADD and ADHD sections but I think that he had some really important ideas about how boys are being over medicated and what can be done in the classroom and at home for them. Boys need good nutrition, less TV, computer, and video games, and more time spent with them. That was the most important thing that I already knew--they need their parent's time and attention the most.

I'm reading this in support of my god daughter, who is raising a son, and because I'm going to teach comprehensive sex education again this fall to a class that includes middle-school-aged boys and girls.