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Monday, October 17, 2005
Where the Boys Aren’t
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A Sunday editorial lamented the 24,000 Georgia boys who started high school in 2002 but did not graduate in 2005. Women are also outnumbering men on college campuses.
Maureen Downey writes, “For reasons not entirely clear, schools are disconnecting with boys, who are slipping in academic achievement and abandoning school in record numbers.”
Downey suggests schools figure out how to get boys excited about learning. “Boys need to run around during the day. They need to touch to learn. They need to build simple machines rather than read about them in sixth-grade science.”
Reading lists need to offer more to appeal to boys, Downey says. And educators need to recognize that boys approach the classroom differently than girls.(She speaks from personal experience)
Why do you think boys tune out, and what can be done to get them to tune back in?
