what about boys?

Those of you who read here regularly know that the current crisis for boys is one of my topics for concern, and it was also a topic widely discussed at the ISACS conference. One speaker, Peg Tyre, is a writer for Newsweek and she had turned one of her lengthy research articles from the magazine into a book, the Trouble with Boys about the crisis with boys. Another presenter, child psychologist, Michael Thompson, Ph.D co-wrote the best selling book, Raising Cain. NAIS director Pat Bassett, raised the question in his report on education in Finland, so as you can see, the topic was widely discussed. One of the things that teachers had noted was a diminishing level of attention among boys in schools. You might find it interesting that boys in woodshop seem to not be suffering such effects. But then it would have been no surprise to Commenius (1592-1670), father of modern pedagogy, that boys would have interest and attention for woodshop. He said:

Boys ever delight in being occupied in something for the youthful blood does not allow them to be at rest. Now as this is very useful, it ought not to be restrained, but provision made that they may always have something to do. Let them be like ants, continually occupied in doing something, carrying, drawing, construction and transporting, provided always that whatever they do be done prudently. They ought to be assisted by showing them the forms of all things, even of playthings; for they cannot yet be occupied in real work, and we should play with them.

It seems we have to learn some of the same lessons over and over. Despite our advances in technology, human nature has changed very little in the last 300+ years. And as they have always said, "boys will be boys"... unless we use their schooling to try to turn them into girls, which some at the conference suggested we seem to be trying to do. Is it any surprise that so many boys in such circumstances would drop out before graduation? Just in case you haven't been watching, the underengagement and underperformance of boys is of epidemic proportions from pre-school through college, where enrollment standards are often lower for boys than for girls as a means through which to balance the numbers of boys and girls on campus.

Can you see what we've done to our schools and to our boys, and why it is of vital importance to get children back to working with real tools? You may have seen my youtube videos of kids at work, and what you should know is that they've been edited in length for the convenience of the viewers, not because the children have ever grown weary or inattentive to their work. More from Comenius "...inactivity is more injurious to both mind and body than anything in which children can be occupied."