Teacher takes sober look at what high school offers boys and gives recommendations on how to better engage them
I hope my sons drop out of high school if they find it to be a total waste of their time. I have long considered schools unfriendly environments for boys and a recent article in the New York Times only confirmed my hunch. The article sights a study finding, “that boys across all racial groups and in all major subject areas received lower grades than their test scores would have predicted.”
The researchers attributed the discrepancy to, “noncognitive skills: attentiveness, persistence, eagerness to learn, the ability to sit still and work independently.” As a father of 3 energetic boys I know that “noncognitive skills” can be very challenging for young boys to master.
I was reminded of two recent interactions that fueled my frustration as I considered the educational challenges many boys face in the coming years.
First was an enrollment meeting for a student that was returning to our school after having missed most of a semester due to truancy, spending some time in the Department of Corrections, and being “home schooled”. He sat silently and solemnly as we spoke about his need to take responsibility, complete his work, attend regularly, and have a positive attitude. He barely acknowledged us but agreed to the expectations with a shrug. I was struck by how horrible it must feel to be stuck for days and years in a place that seemed purposeless. Had this young man just traded a prison of bars and guards for one comprised of textbooks and teachers?
Second, was a fourth grader who has not done good work at school for years and has done minimal work for the previous few days. His acting out had grown worse and his unpredictable behavior required one-on-one supervision. He is a wonderfully likable boy; his hands are stained black from his hobby of fixing and selling broken bicycles. He knows more about an engine than I ever will. Every time I enter the room he pretends to pull the thumb off my hand. We joke around, I act surprised and he puts it back as we say hello. Today’s interaction was like many others but I was again struck by his being imprisoned. He has eight more years of school before he will be able to make a living doing what he enjoys. He will likely work with his hands fixing cars, building houses, or driving machinery. My guess is that he will be very good at it, but until then he is stuck inside pushing pencils and causing “problems”.
These boys do not want to be in school, they discovered a long time ago that it does not work for them. They do not see how math, english, and science are going to help them in the real world. They do not care about following rules, sitting still, or reading aloud; these skills will not help them survive their environment.
My mind immediately moved to solutions. How can these boys be re-engaged in the learning environment? What can be done to provide an increased sense of success? Here are my thoughts.
1. Provide a sensory rich educational environment.
Fewer recesses, cuts in P.E., pressure to perform on standardized tests, and limited budgets all contribute to sensory deprivation in schools. A lot of classroom instruction is limited to the senses of vision and hearing. Many boys learn best by touching, smelling, tasting, and especially doing. A varied and dynamic learning environment could engage all the senses and cells of a child’s body. Reasonable breaks for large muscle movement, snacks and social interaction could also reinvigorate a student.
2. Increased parental support
Many people would like to blame the parents for not providing enough support. It is true that many parents do not have the emotional, psychological, or financial resources to provide the support their children need to find success in school. Many of these parents are struggling to provide for basic needs, they may be preoccupied with personal difficulties, or have had bad experiences in school themselves. For whatever reason many parents struggle to emphasize education as a family priority making it extremely difficult for their child to succeed. Parents need to step up! Too much responsibility has been placed on schools and teachers. Parents teach values, self-control, and work ethic. Abdicating these jobs to schools creates an impossible task and an adversarial environment. Parents must trust schools and work to reinforce the shared goals of hard work, responsibility, learning, and growth.
3.Create clear connections between future work and current curriculum
I have found very few boys that were not willing to work hard as long as they could see the purpose in their effort. It may be difficult for boys to see how toiling for years in math, english, and science books will prepare them for careers as a welder, carpenter, business man, or engineer. Some boys desire skills, hands-on training, and practical experience. What happened to vocational schools? Can a 15-year-old apprentice with a plumber for his last two years to earn his high school diploma? Learning outside the classroom, in real work situations, could provide purpose and engagement that cannot be found in a book.
4. A realistic valuation of college vs. career paths
Is it true that everyone should go to college? I think not! Not all students are interested in or capable of continued studies. Students are warned that they won’t be able to get a good job without a college education. This is just not true. Many times college-educated students struggle to find work while those with practical skills are in high demand. The skills of hard work, perseverance, and intuition can be just as valuable as a college education. I hope that we will begin to see careers in the trades as equally honorable as compared to a professional career.
I am hopeful that my sons will graduate from high school. However, without a sensory rich educational environment, increased engagement from yours truly, clear connections between future career and current curriculum, and increased valuation of the trades they may not make it. If they choose the path of GED and trade training, I am confident they will find success. I will be proud of their hard work, honesty, and integrity. I will be honored to be their father.
Editor’s note: more articles on why boys are falling behind in school and what we can do about it
We Owe Our Sons What We Gave Our Daughters
It’s Time to Worry: Boys Are Rapidly Falling Behind Girls in School
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This is infuriating. The problem of boys falling aside as absolutely nothing to do with women running classrooms and everything to do with the pedagogy and refusal to allow adolescents to get physical recreation and breaks during the day.
Liberal Arts style learning and female written/driven curricula is not working for many many students today, but we will never be able to break out of it as long as we continue with the “everyone should go to college” fantasy schools promote.
Great article. I’ve worked in schools for 25 years–first as a school psychologist, then as a teacher, administrator, and eventually head of a private school. I’m now a consultant. My favorite job I ever had was the 7 years I spent as an administrator at a boys’ school. I always felt bad that everything I saw there that worked so well for boys academically, socially, physically, and in so many other ways was only available to parents rich enough to afford tuition, or poor (and lucky) enough to get financial aid. The methods used could easily be replicated in public… Read more »
Beautifully put. I’ve seen this as well in the schools here in Austin. The female teachers my sons have had have done nothing but advocate for them and for their success.
Except that the boys are doing just fine on those tests (better, in fact, than the girls). The teachers are choosing to give them lower grades anyway, based on entirely subjective behavior.
And if that’s a conspiracy theory, then so is ‘the patriarchy’. Because it just isn’t logical to argue that one gender (men) will go around rigging the system in their favor when given power, while at the same time arguing that the other gender (women) would never go around doing that. An argument.
That’s exactly the point of this article–the fact that boys’ test scores are outpacing how they’re actually performing is an indicator that something is wrong.
There’s also such a wide divide between test scores, future quality of life, and access to opportunity. How boys are performing on standardized tests is suuuuch a tiny piece of the puzzle.
for real? how do you know this? Soullite if true thats shocking…..do you have anything to back that up? links maybe?
Yes links would be quite helpful. I have not found this to be true with my male children, my brother in law (12 years younger), my students in their 20’s or my husband.
“The teachers are choosing to give them lower grades anyway, based on entirely subjective behavior.”
I’d also love to see links for this. I have not observed this to be true in a 25-year career working in schools with 1000’s of boys and hundreds of teachers. Frankly, I find it offensive. Teachers work so hard for so little money, and they are bashed right and left for one thing or another, very often unfairly. Please post those links.
Thank you so much for this article! As the mother of a 12 year-old boy with ADD, I’m constantly fighting to get more gym and recess for him and kids in general. My son is a bright, creative child into animation and filmmaking, but the tons of homework and lack of physicality in his daily schedule at work have him referring to middle school as prison. This breaks my heart.
I work in Special Ed, where we have many more boys than girls receiving services. I’ve noticed for a long time that with the majority of teachers being women, the majority of learning disabilities or behavior problems are identified in boys. When I try to engage the boys in their own learning styles–like talking a walk around the parking lot before a test, for example, or encouraging them to turn their imaginative ideas into stories–I’m told that I’m wasting time and that I’m allowing the students to manipulate me to get out of work. I’m not; I just know something… Read more »
This is right on target. Shout it from the housetops.
With a half centery of youth work behind me, I am sad we weren’t saying this 50 yrs ago, especially the part about the schools n eeding to make parent feel comfortable supporting the schools
I agree with this premise of this article, whether for male or female students. There is such a system in Germany in which those who choose vocational school work at a job part-time during the week and attend school part-time. The split is usually 3/2–3 days on the job, 2 days at school. They get paid for their apprenticeships and often have good jobs waiting for them once they graduate. While the system isn’t perfect, it does acknowledge that not everyone wants or even need to go to college. Although I’ve enjoyed my college years, I also see people everyday… Read more »
It is disappointing to me how gendered this article is. Boys aren’t the only ones who struggle in school and aren’t the only ones who would benefit from such an environment. Each student has different needs. The problem is that our school systems, largely chained by state regulations, aren’t capable of providing different environments to meet students’ needs. As a girl who did poorly in school up until my sophomore year of high school “compared to my test scores” (which, btw, aren’t a telling indicator of success either), it’s disappointing to me to see these calls only when boys are… Read more »
I struggled with the genderedness of it at first too, but, bottom line, boys are disproportionately adversely affected than girls. Boys are REALLY struggling in schools, and it’s something that we need to talk about.
Are there girls who need multi-sensory stimulation in school? Yup. Do girls need clear connections between work and school? Absolutely! But that doesn’t change that boys (ESPECIALLY brown boys from low-income communities) are REALLY struggling in school, and we need to talk about it.
Understand, Gina, that the author is speaking from the perspective of a father of three sons in response to an article in the NYTimes about boys falling behind in school. I agree that his recommendations could benefit girls, as well, and that every student has different needs that are streamlined by the constrictions of the school system. What recommendations would you make?
Gina, you’re write I think girls would benefit from these changes as well. In regards to your question “girls had to learn to play the game to be successful. Why do we bend the system for boys?” although not perfect for girls either I think the way we educate children in our country is more closely in line with how girls learn. Every student has to adapt to be successful and actually this ability to adapt will be very valuable for them in future endeavors. The problem seems to be that as the system has changed it has become less… Read more »
If you mean that the school system is designed to create submissive, obedient workers (it’s based off the Prussian model) and women are already conditioned to be submissive and obedient, then, yes, the system skews well for girls. But somehow I’m not seeing this as a bad thing for boys. Boys not doing well in school is NOT keeping them from being CEOs and overall outperforming women in the job market. The same qualities that make them bad at school make them great at life, and the converse is true for girls. On a different note, I am honestly pretty… Read more »
Gina, I like your point about the same qualities that make boys bad at school make them great at life. I Always attempt to view a boys energy, aggression, and physicality as things that if properly harnessed can make him wonderfully successful. My concern is that the types of boys I see struggling in school are not the ones who end up being CEO they are the ones who end up in prison. So, as you stated it is a much larger problem than the four suggestions I made however I see them as a start. it appears that you… Read more »
Gina: “Boys not doing well in school is NOT keeping them from being CEOs and overall outperforming women in the job market.” You’re making the same mistake everyone makes when looking at boys struggles: Assuming that it’s all peaches and roses when that’s not the case at all. It also sound similar to priveledge shaming: “They may be doing bad, but they’re still privledged”. How do you know every boy is set on becoming a CEO or outperforming women? Do you not see every boy is an individual, undeserving of being lumped together based on assumption and stereotypes? Gina: “On… Read more »
Gina, I’m sorry, but your missing the point. Just because some men become CEOs dose not mean the school system favours boys. Look at the stats. It has nothing to do with a Prussian system (whatever that is) and everything to do with the fact that modern schooling favours a method preferd by girls, quiet, reflective, abstract thought over interactive, practical learning which boys do better with. Looking at the job market young boys, educated under the current system are not outperforming girls, quite the opposite.
There’s a big disconnect in your comment that I’m not wrapping my head around.
The men who are CEOs or otherwise professionally successful NOW, went through primary/secondary school decades ago. It’s the boys who are in school NOW who are struggling, and who may indeed never reach the level of professional success we’d all hope for them when they’re adults. It makes no sense to point to an adult male CEO in his 40s/50s/60s as evidence that today’s boys aren’t struggling/their struggles don’t matter.
Enter stage left … “the girls” But what about “the girls?” Enter stage right …. “The politically correct” with banners saying, sorry, we didn’t mean to exclude “the girls”
I’m so torn on the idea of things like apprenticeships. On the one hand, the number of my friends who use their humanities degrees, and wish they had been trained in a trade is exceptionally high. On the other hand, I worry that it’s yet another way to close doors of opportunity to certain subsets of students.
It’s like in season 3 of Friday Night Lights, when Vice Principal Tasker told Tyra that she should be shooting for Dillon Tech. Thank God that Principal Taylor had high expectations.
Josh, I too worry about closing doors of opportunity, however I think that apprenticeship’s or vocational programs actually open doors for some students. First, working in a trade can provide very nicely for a family financially, it can also provide a wonderful sense of accomplishment and pride in work. I also wonder if some students would go on to other educational opportunities after working for a while using their trade to pay for school? I think sometimes we look down on careers in the trades, I hope we can increase our view of them as very valuable and crucial to… Read more »
A little personal anecdote on trades and vo-tech schools, I helped a middle-aged man re-vamp his resume/CV a while back. He had a strong background in machining and returned to school to upgrade his skills during a patch of unemployment and achieved a certificate. During this time, his wife was supporting the family on her Wal-Mart wages and they had spent much of their retirement savings. He was so ashamed that he didn’t go to 4-year college and ashamed of his career path when I first spoke with him–and his resume reflected it. I sent him his new and an… Read more »
How are apprenticeships and trade schools closing doors of opportunity? The point of schooling is to produce a person who can fend for themselves financially through a job or career. Technical and trade schools lead to often times very well paying careers for the students If you are looking at jobs that result from trade or technical schools as “less than” jobs you can get with a college degree that’s a bias that you should examine.
These sorts of programs are often what we use to put students into different “tracks”–you’re not smart enough to go to college, so we’re going to put you in this track. There are AMAZING jobs available without a degree, and if kids want those, it should be their choice, not the choice of someone else. I actually think that may skill/trade oriented jobs are superior to getting a degree (like the useless English degree I have), but, again, I want students making those choices, I don’t want those choices made for them. It’s not greater/less, it’s ensuring that there’s no… Read more »
but if those kids are interested and good at those academic pursuits they should be doing well in them anyway so why would they be pushed to another track?
I’d rather have 30 plumbers, 30 welders, 10 golf course management landscapers, 20 commercial musicians, and 10 four-year college grads than 25 four-year college grads and 75 dropouts/and or future criminals.
What’s stopping your “humanities friends” from getting a trade degree or certificate? Do they look down on it as less than their BA degrees? Would they consider themselves failures for going to get one after finishing college? It would certainly be money better spent than grad school.
Most probably, like me, the fact that no one wants to touch someone in there 30s for an aprentiship and you can’t just say “you know what, ill stop feeding the kids and paying the mortgage and go to college”. I wish I had become a mechanic rather than being forced to get a degree but now it’s too late.
It’d be foolish of me, John, to say its never too late without knowing your situation. I’m on the brink of going back to get my teaching cert, and I’ve thought about carpentry but was daunted by starting over. Could still be a hobby, being a mechanic, night school maybe, that leads to a career change later.
This makes so much sense that It will never be implemented. If the students that aren’t going to college were given a more hands on education and moved to an apprenticeship at 16 the more academic students wouldn’t be held back to try and bring there disinterested students along.
Thanks
Gary,
thanks for reading and commenting. it does seem that these suggestions would be a huge undertaking and very difficult to implement in our current school system. I like your suggestion of developing apprenticeship programs for kids over 16. These more hands on learners could get a sense for how wonderful it is to earn a paycheck as well as providing very valuable skills in a community.
Have you looked at Germany’s approach, which has always included a strong apprenticeship program? It is discussed from time-to-time in the financial press as underlying Germany’s economic performance over the past decade or so…
There is nothing to stop a student emerging from such a program to continuing their education through reading, through Open University offerings ( see MIT and others), and distance education. It does not need to be an irrevocable pathway.
Rezam,
I have not looked into Germany’s system however I studied in holland for a semester in college and I believe they had a similar system of choosing college or vocational path earlier in life. I am sure it was not perfect but a possible model.
I am afraid I don;t know much about it either. My wife went through an apprenticeship program for tool¨ at the time she was one of only four female apprentices in the field. Watching her operate an NC fabricator, or an EDI machine was a real treat. She got all the fun toys. She went on to become head of tooling design for her outfit (electrical component manuf) after working for Magna in auto parts manuf… She designed and built and programmed a SIngle Minute Exchange of Dies workstation that ran from a computer using light curtain sensors. Sadly, manuf… Read more »
Switzerland does apprenticeships too, or at least they did while my mom was growing up there. She apprenticed as a seamstress with an eye on interior design. Her father owned a bakery in Luzern and had apprentices work for him too. However, she also said that after a certain age, the girls and boys classes became segregated where she went to school – girls learned home-economics stuff like sewing and cooking, while the boys were learning more academic stuff. I’m sure it’s changed since then – this would have been in the ’60s, by my best guess. But I do… Read more »