The Minds of Boys: Saving Our Sons From Falling Behind in School and Life

The original cloth edition of this book caused a firestorm of controversy and acclaim, with two major features in Newsweek, and other major broadcast and print media. Parents and educators who are painfully familiar with the crisis in boy's education bought and discussed this book passionately, producing the greatest hardcover sales any Gurian titles has achieved to date. Gurian's greatest sales in the past have always been in paperback, so we're very happy to have this out now at a lower and more competitive price. Regarding the continuing crisis, here are the facts: Boys receive 70% of the Ds and Fs given all students, they create 90% of classroom discipline problems, 80% of all high school dropouts are boys, millions of American boys are on Ritalin and other mind-bending control drugs, only 40% of college students are boys, and three out of four learning disabled students are boys! So what can we do? Gurian has the answer in this enormously fascinating and practical book which shows parents and teachers how to help our boys overcome their current classroom obstacles and failures and to fulfill themselves, use their intelligence, work with their unique natural gifts, nurture and expand every bit of their potential, and succeed in life the way they ought to. Gurian presents a whole new way of solving the problem based on the success of his program in schools across the country, the latest research and application of neuro-biological research on how boys brains actually work, how they are different from girls, and how they can learn very well if they're properly taught. Boys tend to be better kinesthetic learners, needing physical and spatial stimulation to learn. Boys tend to store less detail in memory centers, have lower serotonin and oxytocin than girls, and tend to be more impulsive, and not as focused or self-disciplined as girls until later stages in their normal development. This program has been tested for over five years under the auspices of The Gurian Institute, and several separate school districts. The program includes a way for every parent to understand and influence how their own boy is doing in terms of the correct learning environment, how boys are motivated, how to use the arts and athletics to teach boys, whether or not they are sensitive boys, aggressive boys, restless or bored boys, the potential options for separate sex education at crucial periods of a boy's life, and how to best utilize the essential role of the parent, teacher, and community. This cutting- edge method has begun to change educational culture throughout the US, Canada, England and Australia, with educators in Alabama, British Columbia, Colorado, California, Missouri, Oregon, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Florida, Washington, New York, and Texas, all reporting excellent results.