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Michele Ranard, M.Ed.
micheleranard@aol.com

After three days of first grade, my son returned from school and voiced through tears MY TEACHER HATES MY READING BECAUSE I'M DUMB. Preschool and kindergarten were a nightmare. He had no learning disability, focus problem, or defiance issues. His development simply could not keep pace with his school's curriculum which spoke loud and clear he was not all right.

Frequently I had a nagging feeling in the pit of my stomach during parent-teacher conferences and visitation days. A sense that my son’s classroom did not feel boy-friendly, that he was being hurried through an advanced curriculum, or that some of his teachers just did not seem to “get” young boys.

In addition to being the mother of sons, I am an educator myself. My perspective working as an academic tutor for almost a decade has also given me reason for pause. Listening to students carefully, it is disturbing to hear how many more male students than female feel misunderstood, disengaged, and defeated in their struggle in the classroom.

Consider this. Boys are nearly five times more likely to be expelled from preschool, and when they reach elementary school, they are diagnosed with learning disorders four times as often. By eighth grade a significant number of boys reads below a basic level, and in high school they are far outnumbered by the girls taking AP courses.

So who needs fixing – the school or the boy? And how do we make sure this gender gap does not widen? Education writer Peg Tyre wrote a cover story for Newsweek in 2006 sparking an alarming discussion in the media. In her new book The Trouble With Boys, she takes us deep into the current research and explores how the educational system may be failing our sons.

The Preschool Problem
Are boys really learning less in school? The U.S. Department of Education says yes. Boys are underachieving academically all over the nation. The problem seems to start in preschool where the classroom environment may not engage our boys in the learning process.

Free play – and lots of it – is important for all preschoolers. But boys especially need time for physical movement. Somewhere in the early ‘90s when cognitive development and brain research took off, we lost sight of this and began restructuring the preschooler’s day with more academics. Many educators were misled into thinking the optimal window of learning slammed shut after age three. But in fact, learning is continuous, extending beyond late middle age.

Further, preschool boys are often not developmentally ready for academics in preschool. Their fine motor and vocabulary skills lag behind their female counterparts, and they have a tougher time sitting still for periods of time.

Boys require developmentally appropriate physical activities to stay engaged in learning. They need time and room to move. They need basketball hoops and balls. They must have places to build things. When our schools fail to recognize basic boy needs, our boys may be set up for failure.

Hurry Up!
It is common knowledge that first graders are expected to handle a curriculum that back in the 1980’s was standard for a second or third grader. This shift affects both sexes but is especially detrimental for boys. Tyre believes this accelerated curriculum for boys has had “an immediate and dramatic” effect.

For example, boys are twice as likely as girls to be diagnosed with a learning disability and make up two-thirds of the students receiving special education services. In states like Texas, the number of boys failing kindergarten is double that of girls.

Part of the answer to why we are hurrying our students is No Child Left Behind and our system of standards and assessments. We have created an elementary school environment where it is difficult for teachers to remain sensitive to qualities in our children more difficult to measure on a standardized test.

What about perseverant, creative, big-hearted, and compassionate kids? Those traits will not be evaluated for credit or win funding for any of our school districts. Instead, we keep raising the bar, and unfortunately, the majority of the kids who can’t keep up are male.

Disappearing Recess
Recess is disappearing from grade schools, and even administrators who recognize its value feel helpless. In a contest between test scores and recess, play time loses by a landslide. And physical movement is especially critical for young boys who have difficulty sitting still for hours on end in the classroom. Sadly, recess is no longer viewed as a productive part of the school day with the pressures of academic success and test scores weighing on teachers.

But recess IS productive. Tyre points to recent research suggesting that one of the payoffs of recess is academic. Anthony Pellegrini, an educational psychology professor at the University of Minnesota, discovered that successful peer interaction at recess was an excellent predictor of success on standardized tests. When boys established competence on the playground they also did better in the classroom. Further, he found that recess significantly helped boys pay attention better.

These findings are compelling given that the number of boys taking medicine for attention problems increased by almost 50% during 2000 and 2005, and twice as many boys are prescribed these medicines than girls. Pellegrini believes we must protect recess for our boys because boys require physical movement to survive.

Middle School Rat Race
If you have not darkened the halls of middle school lately, you may be surprised to learn what we expect of our tweens. Fresh from grade school, eleven-year olds today are piled high with overwhelming expectations from six or more different teachers. Each of these teachers has varying expectations and paper work, and these children must juggle it all.

Organization skills become crucial to success in these grades, and girls fare much better than boys. The latest neurological research suggests that the connections in the brain responsible for making the millions of tiny judgments during the school day, (i.e. bring a sharpened pencil to school, finish homework on time, save the handout) are still developing for middle-schoolers and may develop slower for boys.

Our male students suffer when they are evaluated heavily on their organizational skills and not their actual learning. Unfortunately, poor organization which may be rooted in neurological immaturity may translate as underachievement for many students. Boys labeled as such may begin to see themselves as not smart or “losers” when in fact they are simply late bloomers in the organization department.

How Can We Help the Underdogs?
It is indeed a tricky time to be a boy. As a mother and an educator, I am truly concerned about the future for our underachieving sons. I worry with good reason about the futures of those boys who internalize their grief when they are repeatedly set up for failure. I worry about them losing hope. For children aged 5 to 14, boys are three times as likely as girls to commit suicide. That probability jumps to four times as likely for boys aged 15 to 19.

Tyre offers the following suggestions for parents to help boys succeed in education:

*Stay alert for warning signs such as complaints from your son that he is either bored or fearful of attending school.

*Beware of teachers who may complain that boys are too active, who are critical of fantasy play, who allow boys to fall behind in language arts, or who chastise boys for poor organization and handwriting.

*Watch for signs that your son is in a school that may not respect him. Insist that your school provide your son with a healthy learning environment. Most teachers and schools are willing to make changes in the classroom to help your child succeed.

*Express the same level of enthusiasm for a well-done homework assignment as for scoring a goal on the soccer field.

*Talk to other parents about their sons. They may very well have similar concerns.

*Dads should be involved in encouraging their sons to engage in school. We need more males to be present at school to drive home the message to boys that learning is not “a girl thing.”

Michele Ranard is a professional counselor, academic tutor, and a freelancer with a cheeky blog at hellolovelychild.blogspot.com.

Michele Ranard is a professional counselor, academic tutor, and freelancer with a cheeky blog at hellolovelychild.blogspot.com.