I was looking forward to reading this book hot on the tail of hearing Andrew Pudewa's enlightening audio presentation about the differences in (educating) boys and girls based on Dr Sax's research (our May Parent Discussion Evening).
Educating Boys starts with punch, facts, and gusto.
The author, Michael Irwin had interviewed "hundreds of boys and teachers and listened to their opinions and ideas on what they think needs to be done to enhance boys' educational achievement."
"The way our education system works is that government determines what is to be learned, schools determine how the learning is to be delivered and Boards of Trustees or Governors determine who will do the teaching, leaving students voiceless and powerless."
"Boys can succeed at school and many do extremely well, but there are two critical environmental factors that need to be there to set a boy up for success - parents and teachers."
It cites four official government agency reports on boys' education in New Zealand. What surprised me was that a couple of these reports were done 10 years ago and nothing appears to have changed in the State education system since.
The author then proceeds to present other statistics, interview snippets, insights into the male mindset and character etc. One of his tips was to not constrain boys to sit at a desk but give them the opportunity to stand, lean or whatever. Another was to give boys daily physical activity interspersed throughout the day and use competition to challenge them to learn.
Mr Irwin's writing style is neither highfaluting nor condescending. He explains everything clearly. This book is written for the average person, although I seriously doubt an 'average' person would be concerned with the issues therein.
Sadly I found that it droned in the middle and conveyed a sense of there not being much hope to affect a young boys/mans' life as 'thats just the way it is', which was disappointing after the good start. At points it even appeared to contradict itself.
The pace didn't pick up again until the last few chapters, even if only to pay a cursory glance to factors like Mentors, Boundaries, and a paragraph on food additives etc.
I think Mr Irwin is brave in bringing this topic to the fore, and perhaps a few teachers may read it and institute their own change in pedagogy but in the main he is just stating what we as homeschoolers or parents of boys probably already know.
My recommendation, if you were to read this book, would be to read the bullet-pointed lists in the chapter itself and the chapter summary at the end of each.
I got far more out of Andrew Pudewa's audio presentation "Teaching Boys & Other Children Who Would Rather Make Forts All Day" though - a better time/cost ratio in my mind. (Note the Teaching Boys Resource List on this same page - a keeper.)
