Sunday, December 14, 2008

New Book on Boys & Education

The Trouble With Boys: A Surprising Report Card by Peg Tyre (Crown Publishers, 2008)

"From the moment they step into the classroom, boys begin to struggle. By eighth grade huge numbers are reading below basic level. Perhaps most alarmingly, boys now account for less than 43 percent of those enrolled in college, and the gap widens every semester! The growing gender imbalance in education portends massive shifts for the next generation: how much they make and whom they marry. Interviewing parents, kids, teachers, and experts, journalist Peg Tyre drills below the statistics to examine how the educational system is failing our sons. But this passionate, clearheaded book isn't an exercise in finger-pointing. Tyre, the mother of two sons, offers the testimony of teachers and school officials who are trying new techniques to motivate boys to learn again, one classroom at a time. This book is a manifesto for change--one we must undertake right away lest school become, for millions of boys, unalterably a "girl thing."--From publisher description.

This book follows the author, Peg Tyre's previous article in a 2006 cover story on "The Boy Crisis" in Newsweek. A September 8, 2008 article, "Struggling School-Age Boys" in Newsweek can be accessed here.

Are you an educator, child care provider or parent of boys? What do you think?

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