The Trouble with Boys: A Surprising Report Card on Our Sons, Their Problems at School, and What Parents and Educators Must Do |  | Author: Peg Tyre
Publisher: Three Rivers Press
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Rating:  27 reviews
Sales Rank: 14404
Media: Paperback
Edition: Reprint
Pages: 320
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 8 x 5.3 x 0.8
ISBN: 0307381293
Dewey Decimal Number: 155
EAN: 9780307381293
ASIN: 0307381293
Publication Date: August 11, 2009
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Product Description
From the moment they step into the classroom, boys begin to struggle. They get expelled from preschool nearly five times more often than girls; in elementary school, they’re diagnosed with learning disorders four times as often. By eighth grade huge numbers are reading below basic level. And by high school, they’re heavily outnumbered in AP classes and, save for the realm of athletics, show indifference to most extracurricular activities. Perhaps most alarmingly, boys now account for less than 43 percent of those enrolled in college, and the gap widens every semester!
The imbalance in higher education isn’t just a “boy problem,” though. Boys’ decreasing college attendance is bad news for girls, too, because admissions officers seeking balanced student bodies pass over girls in favor of boys. The growing gender imbalance in education portends massive shifts for the next generation: how much they make and whom they marry.
Interviewing hundreds of parents, kids, teachers, and experts, award-winning journalist Peg Tyre drills below the eye-catching statistics to examine how the educational system is failing our sons. She explores the convergence of culprits, from the emphasis on high-stress academics in preschool and kindergarten, when most boys just can’t tolerate sitting still, to the outright banning of recess, from the demands of No Child Left Behind, with its rigid emphasis on test-taking, to the boy-unfriendly modern curriculum with its focus on writing about “feelings” and its purging of “high-action” reading material, from the rise of video gaming and schools’ unease with technology to the lack of male teachers as role models.
But this passionate, clearheaded book isn’t an exercise in finger-pointing. Tyre, the mother of two sons, offers notes from the front lines—the testimony of teachers and other school officials who are trying new techniques to motivate boys to learn again, one classroom at a time. The Trouble with Boys gives parents, educators, and anyone concerned about the state of education a manifesto for change—one we must undertake right away lest school be-come, for millions of boys, unalterably a “girl thing.”
From the Hardcover edition.
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 27
 Well researched, well written insights into boys becoming men November 11, 2009
Dee Hodson (Monroe, CT United States)
Bravo Peg Tyre. This book has given me quite a bit to ponder. Are we leaving a generation of boys behind and what can we as parents do to address this?
Peg Tyre has a beautifully researched and written book explaining the whys, hows, and whats of this very disturbing trend.
 You MUST read this book..... September 19, 2009
K. Kelley
As a mum who has just begun to enjoy seeing her young son (age 5) start Kindergarten, I wanted to be more informed about the challenges ahead regarding his school life/education. I was a high school teacher for 10 years in the UK/Hong Kong and had already noticed issues with the differences between how girls and boys learn/are treated in school. Having read many reviews about this and a few other books, I settled upon this one first.
So far, I'm about half way through this book and am fully engrossed in it. The author has done satisfying research in my opinion, and is making me very aware of the current situation re. schools and how boys are being taught. I'm looking forward to getting it finished and have already plugged the book to many friends of mine who have boys.
I recommend this book to parents (of boys AND girls), teachers and anyone who thinks that there isn't a problem within the educational system when it comes to the success of our young males.
Good Starting Point, Not the Last Word September 12, 2009
Amadeus (Pittsburgh, PA)
The Trouble with Boys is a book I would highly recommend to any parent of a young boy. As a father of a 16 month old, reading this book has prepared me to be much more selective in choosing a preschool for my son (when the time comes). But more importantly this book has shown me that I might have to fight for my little boy to assure he is not punished for being male. Too many bad grades are giving to little scholars in the making for messy handwriting, assertive behavior, and being loud, active and goofy! And after reading this book I know I'll have to keep a watchful eye on my son's teachers and the environment they create for him at school.
However, this book is really just the opening salvo in what must be a deeper research into all the ways the world has changed for little boys over the past 40 yrs. A larger look into all the ways the social upheavals of the 1960's and 1970's have effected the male middle class would be interested and I think would shed more light onto the learning gap between boys and girls AND between boys today and boys in the early 1960's.
Overall, highly recommended reading.
From a Teacher, To a Teacher August 23, 2009
Leanne83 (New York, NY USA)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I am a second grade public school teacher, and this book really changed my attitude about the "problem boys" in my class. I've gained an understanding that has made me feel more confident about teaching difficult boys, more responsive to their personalities, and less alone in my struggle. The book investigates the trouble with boys from sociological, cultural, psychological, and neuropsychological perspectives.
If you are a skeptic, read this book. I grew up with 2 sisters listening to "Free to Be You and Me" and graduated from Vassar College, a school very focused on women's issues. That boys are at some sort of educational disadvantage is the last thing I would have ever thought of (even though the ratio at Vassar was 60/40 women to men when I attended). I have no brothers, no sons, and I had no experience with young boys when I began teaching 5 years ago. Boys were a shock to my system. I wish I had read this book back then.
A warning: Peg Tyre tries hard to cater the book to teachers as well as parents, but it is clear that she sees a battle between parents and teachers of rowdy boys, and she sides with parents. There is one distasteful message to teachers at the end of the book (stating that teachers better love the irritating behaviors boys tend to exhibit, or else leave the profession)... but hopefully by then Tyre has gotten you to buy into the idea that there IS a problem and that we DO need to take responsibility for it and make a change...so hopefully you can take the statement as constructive criticism.
*It is also important to read this book if you have read the bogus book The Minds of Boys (by Michael Gurian). Once chapter in Tyre's book helps clear up ridiculous ideas that Gurian (who has NO background in science) has created about "teaching to boy brains."
Overall, a really important topic for teachers to be familiar with, and a good book to read.
Peg Tyre's "The Trouble with Boys". July 17, 2009
Mr. R. Linkiewicz (Dolans Bay, NSW, Australia)
The Trouble with Boys: A Surprising Report Card on Our Sons, Their Problems at School, and What Parents and Educators Must Do
As a teacher in a boys' school and researcher into boys' education I found Peg Tyre's book a good starting point for those who are new to the field. Once the grammatical, syntactical and spelling mistakes are laid aside, the central argument of Tyre's book is easily digested. How relevant her work is for readers outside the U.S. is a moot point, but given that most of the English-speaking world seems hell-bent on repeating America's mistakes, Tyre's book is probably a foretaste of the future.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 27
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