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The performance of boys in school has considerably declined over the years. Is the school system which seems to want them to act and learn like girls do, failing them?

Many have spent decades trying to address the barriers to women in education and in business. And in spite of the progress, there is more to be done.

At the same time, the gender gap cuts both ways.

Boys are less likely than girls to meet provincial standards in reading. Boys account for the majority of suspensions. And boys are more likely than girls to drop out of high school in Canada (12.2 per cent versus 7.2 per cent in 2004-05).

For a variety of reasons, boys are having a real struggle when it comes to education and learning, not the least of which may be the fact that instead of being treated as boys in our schools, they’re being looked at as ‘inadequate girls.’ Boys and girls for the most part, learn very differently. The ‘rules’ in today’s schools seem to work well for most female students, but it’s possible that they are not necessarily the right fit for many boys who seem to have a hard time conforming to the standard learning environment.

I see this every day as I have both a son and daughter — the differences between them and how to best communicate with them, are immense. Our daughter is very focused and listens well. Our son on the other hand, is easily distracted by many things and has a hard time sitting still for more than a few seconds at times.

Despite this lack of attention span, he is reading well beyond his current grade level, has an absolutely amazing memory for facts and details and has a strong hunger for information and to learn about many different topics like animals, science, space, the Earth and geography — and he has a strong comprehension of these concepts for his age.

Hence, I was happy to see that yesterday, the Toronto District School Board made an announcement that showed some real out-of-the-box thinking in regard to the issue of boys’ struggles in school.

From MetroNews.ca:

In a bold move announced this week, the Toronto District School Board’s new director Chris Spence announced a strategy that includes a “Male Leadership Academy” for boys as well as male-friendly demonstration classrooms aimed at boosting boys’ school performance.

Research by the Canadian Centre for Knowledge Mobilization in B.C. concluded that, overall, studies tend to show that single-sex schools serve girls better than boys. However, the majority of studies examine private schools dominated by students from wealthy well-educated families.

We also know there are too few male role models in the early grades.

“An excellent teacher can inspire any kid to love Shakespeare, but boys and girls do have different preferences. Same-sex classes in particular subjects allow gender specific content and teaching methods.”

Spence is drawing on his previous successes in the development of Boys 2 Men, Project G.O. (Girls Only) and the Read to Succeed Program, which motivates and teaches boys to read.

“While we should heed cautions against segregating and fragmenting our schools, and we need rigorous evaluation and accountability, we do need to try new approaches to adapt the curriculum, teaching methods and learning environment to the particular needs of boys and girls.”

I think this is a good start — again, we have to look at different ways in which we can help today’s boys succeed.

I first started thinking about this over a year ago, when Dr. Leonard Sax appeared on an episode of the overnight alternative radio program, Coast to Coast AM with host Ian Punnett, where he addressed this issue.

Dr. Sax’s unusual background — being both a family physician (M.D.), as well as a Ph.D. psychologist — has led him to recognize the importance of gender differences in how children learn, and to a belief that those gender differences are neglected or minimized in American public schools. Here’s one example cited on his bio page:

Consider the typical first or second-grade classroom. Imagine Justin, six years old, sitting at the back of the class. The teacher (a woman) is speaking in a tone of voice which seems normal to her. Justin, however, barely hears her. Instead, he’s staring out the window, or looking at a fly on the ceiling. The teacher recognizes that Justin isn’t paying attention. Justin is demonstrating a deficit of attention. The teacher may reasonably wonder whether Justin perhaps has attention deficit disorder.

That’s actually one avenue which led to my interest in this topic, about ten years ago. I saw this parade of 6 and 7 year-old boys being marched into my office, with Mom clutching a note from the school which read: “Please evaluate Justin for ADD. Would he benefit from medication?” After evaluating such a boy, I found in some cases that the problem was not so much with the boy, but with the school… specifically, with the school’s failure to recognize the differences in the auditory acuity of boys and girls, and the school’s failure to recognize the differences in the developmental timetables of boys and girls.

Dr. Sax was on the show to promote his book, Boys Adrift: A doctor’s plan to help our sons fulfill their potential. In the book, he talks about how a third of men ages 22–34 are still living at home with their parents — about a 100 percent increase in the past twenty years. Parents, teachers, and mental health professionals are worried about boys, but no one has come up with good reasons for their decline, or thought about any workable solutions to reverse this troubling trend.

In the book, Dr. Sax offers a wide range of possible remedies — including innovative ways parents can wean their sons away from video games, practical steps they can take to improve their sons’ schooling, and surprisingly simple life changes they can make to protect boys from the environmental estrogens that undermine boys’ motivation.

Environmental estrogrens you ask?

Dr. Sax also discussed fertility when he appeared on Coast to Coast AM in a three-hour interview, as well as the various factors contributing to the steady decline of performance, ambition and motivation in America’s boys and young men (Even though his research is U.S. based, I think it’s safe to draw parallels to boys here in Southern Ontario).

From Coast to Coast AM:

Sperm counts and testosterone levels of young men in the United States have declined substantially over the past 50 years, Sax reported. Environmental estrogens from clear plastic-bottled drinks may be partially to blame. According to Sax, consuming only two bottles of water provides about the same amount of estrogen as found in a birth control pill. The elevated estrogen intake may be lowering testosterone levels in men, causing them to lose motivation to do anything, Sax added.

To make matters worse, boys are no longer allowed to be boys at school, he said. ‘Violent’ masculine activities such as dodge ball and snowball fights are prohibited at many schools, Sax pointed out, noting that boys are encouraged to “be more like girls.” Typical male conduct at school is often altered with behavior medication, Sax said, which can also damage the motivational centers in boys’ brains.

Sax also thinks that accelerated early education programs/curriculum ignore important gender differences and end up creating academic environments that do not appeal to boys. Unmotivated to pursue academic excellence and other real-world goals, these boys find contentment in video games and online pornography. For them, what happens in the “virtual world is more important than the real world,” Sax said.

My interest in this stems from already noticing many of these learning challenges with our young son, just starting out on his journey through our education system here in Milton. I have not yet purchased or read Dr. Sax’s book, but he made some great points in his interview and we definitely want to arm ourselves with as many resources, ideas and strategies as possible to help our very intelligent (and very distracted) son succeed and excel in school.

I hope the sharing of this info is helpful to others with boys of all ages and I think this new strategy announced by the Toronto District School Board is worth watching closely.

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