Based on an extensive worldwide study, this book reveals what gets boys excited about learning

"Reaching Boys, Teaching Boys" challenges the widely-held cultural impression that boys are stubbornly resistant to schooling while providing concrete examples of pedagogy and instructional style that have been proven effective in a variety of school settings. This book offers more than 100 detailed examples of lessons that succeed with male students, grouped thematically. Such themes include: Gaming, Motor Activities, Open Inquiry, Competition, Interactive Technology, and Performance/Role Play. Woven throughout the book is moving testimony from boys that both validates the success of the lessons and adds a human dimension to their impact.The author's presents more than 100+ specific activities for all content areas that have proven successful with male studentsDraws on an in-depth, worldwide study to reveal what lessons and strategies most engage boys in the classroomHas been described as the missing link that our schools need for the better education of boys

Award-winning education journalist Peg Tyre mines up-to-the-minute research to equip parents with the tools and knowledge necessary to get their children the best education possible

We all know that the quality of education served up to our children in U.S. schools ranges from outstanding to shockingly inadequate. How can parents tell the difference? And how do they make sure their kids get what's best? Even the most involved and informed parents can feel overwhelmed and confused when making important decisions about their child's education. And the scary truth is that evaluating a school based on test scores and college admissions data is like selecting a car based on the color of its paint. Synthesizing cutting-edge research and firsthand reporting, Peg Tyre offers parents far smarter and more sophisticated ways to assess a classroom and decide if the school and the teacher have the right stuff. Passionate and persuasive, "The Good School" empowers parents to make sense of headlines; constructively engage teachers, administrators, and school boards; and figure out the best option for their child--be that a local public school, a magnet program, a charter school, homeschooling, parochial, or private.

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 extra-curricular 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 ad-missions 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."