A Review of “The Minds Of Boys”
A Michael Gurian, Kathy Stevens book, published by Jossey-Bass, reviewed by Reg Adkins.
Michael Gurian begins the book by describing the current crisis in the education of boys. He takes careful steps to note the indicators of this crisis in detail noting facts including
- boys get the majority of D’s and F’s
- boys make up 80% of the discipline problems
- boys make up 70% of the “learning disabled” students
- boys make up 80% of the “behavior disordered” students
- boys make up 80% of the children on Ritalin, et. al.
- boys are a year to a year and a half behind girls in reading and writing
- boys make up 80% of the high school drop outs
- boys make up less than 44% of the college population
One must admit those are pretty stark facts.
The authors stipulate that these weaknesses developed as the result of the paradigm shift designed to make education more receptive to girls several decades ago.
The authors continue on to point out this is not a phenomena specific to the United States. Similar data is noted in England, Canada, Australia, Germany, France and Japan. Further, the authors state boys are outperformed by girls in thirty-five of the developed countries.
The next section of the book is dedicated to examining the functionality of the male brain and how it differs from the female in the processing of information.
At this point the book undertakes the examination a series of instructional techniques designed to compensate for the deficiencies in the current educational practices which highly favor girls. The theme of which is movement inclusive instructional methods.
Further, the book breaks the techniques into practices that may be applied by parents to stimulate brain function in boys. The follow-up is an examination of how teachers may implement these changes in the classrooms.
All in all, it is a pretty good read that has some excellent insight into (you guessed it) the minds of boys. However, I was struck by the frequent references to instructional techniques for girls. They seemed out of place. I don’t believe if I had read a book entitled “The Minds of Girls” it would have contained nearly as many references to techniques for boys.
The Minds of Boys: Saving Our Sons From Falling Behind in School and Life
Reg Adkins writes on behavior and the human experience at (elementaltruths.blogspot.com).
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jonathan peterson says on September 8th, 2006 at 11:07 am
Sounds something like “Raising Cain: Protecting the Emotional Life of Boys” by Dan Kindlon and Michael Thompson. It talks about the differences both inherent and pushed by society between boys and girls. Which, as the father of a 9 year old, I’ve gone back and re-read twice to help re-direct the way I’ve worked with my son.
Sounds like this would be another good tool in the parenting library.
Chris Peterson says on September 9th, 2006 at 1:07 am
Note that men probably make up 44% of the college population because men make up about 45% of the general population.
Reg says on September 10th, 2006 at 6:54 pm
Chris,
I did you checking with census data. Their numbers state persons 15-64 years make up 67.2% (male 100,022,845/female 100,413,484) of the US population. That makes almost exactly 50% male for the target age group.
Greg Zeigler says on October 12th, 2007 at 11:54 pm
The fact that males make up the majority of failing/discipline problem/learning disabled/behavior disorder/drop out/etc. students is, by itself, not very telling. Males do not fit the normal distribution in most cases. Rather, they tend to be exceptional, for good or bad, with relatively few falling in between. So while boys may outnumber girls in special ed classes, they should also outnumber them in the honors classes, while girls should rule the general ed classrooms. This should also be predictive of university male-to-female ratios: schools that accept more than 50% of applicants will have more girls (because there are more males who don’t make the cut), while those that accept less than 50% should have more males.
penny says on October 13th, 2007 at 8:40 am
Except that these stats were always true
–even before we “changed” the school system.
Boys were always the majority on the llow end of the spectrum.
BUT, Plenty of boys are on the high end too.
In the same way, much was made ten years ago of the fact that 1/10 as many girls as boys were on the high end of the spacial skills spectrum–which ignored the tens of thousands of girls with VERY high spacial skills.
“Figures may not lie, but Liars figure.”
–How to lie with Statistics
penny says on October 13th, 2007 at 8:44 am
Dear Greg,
Girls now outnumber boys in honors classes.
So what?
The are plenty of both in honors classes.
Boys have lots of high paying alternatives to jobs requiring honor
classes–and many make good use of it.
Girls now have more opportunities in the above, and many make good use of it.
penny says on October 13th, 2007 at 8:45 am
Dear Greg,
The idea that males are statistical tails has been shown to be false.
Though it still is commonly believed.
Like most psychometic “Facts”–it is crap.
penny says on October 13th, 2007 at 8:58 am
Statistical tails:
To start with:
The normal curve is only a reliable statistical model out to 2 sigma. It is
a worthless fit beyond that–as it is not statistically reliable.
It is not true that intelligence is normally distributed–and the central limit theorem is irrelevant–because it
applies only to the numerical average of
INDEPENDENT RANDOM VARIABLE–and the factors that produce high iq are NOT
Statistically Independent.
IQ is normally distributed because software ( in the old days–normal dist
graph paper) is used to FORCE a fit.
Moreover, intelligence is not a birth defect–so NOT the result of random errors.
There are plenty of genius women–and as they get REAL career opportunities
( we still have a long way to go), it starts to show.
In the same way, Jews once were called
( By Harvard Researchers etc.), genetically low IQ and incompetent at math: In the 1920’s.
Then they started winning Nobel prizes and Fields medals.
penny says on October 13th, 2007 at 9:04 am
The spacial skills section of the IQ
test is exquisitely sensitive to anxiety–and, indeed is used clinically to detect it.
Girls tend ( especially after all the media and published crap about low spacial skills in females) to be higher in anxiety than boys.
That alone explains the difference.
Interestingly, girls, at all levels of school–right up to PHD–get higher grades in MATH classes than boys.
Draw your own conclusions.
penny says on October 13th, 2007 at 9:06 am
But, again, there are plenty of boys–at all levels of math classes–who get A grades.
So, who cares, if girls generally do better?
“Figures dont lie, but liars figure”
penny says on October 13th, 2007 at 9:10 am
I meant:
Who cares, even if girls generally do better.
Must be an example of the superior
verbal skills of women ( Smile).
“Girls are verbally superior to boys,
but Shakespeare was a male.”–Penny
Reg Adkins says on October 13th, 2007 at 9:35 am
It is surprising that a book critique I wrote over year ago (9/8/06) would be sparking such renewed interest.
Let’s look at the objections.
First, I don’t believe Dr. Gurian did anything to mislead readers by his interpretation of the data. You may certainly visit the Gurian Institute on line and ask questions. It has been my experiences that responses are prompt and informative.
Second, the change is very real and the findings have been duplicated time and again. The misconception is that boys are not making growth. They are. However, the growth girls are making greatly outstrips that of the boys.
Third, Dr. Leonard Sax (author of Boys Adrift)has done work in the same field and has written extensively coming up with the same conclusion with five key themes: the devaluation of masculinity, the prevalent existence of chemical hormone mimickers in our environment, the impact of interactive violent media, and the change in the educational system. Dr. Sax has also always been prompt and courteous in replying to me when I had questions for him (boys adrift dot com).
Reg Adkins writes on behavior and the human condition at http://www.elementaltruths.com