Questions from parents
I was in England last week working with some schools there – a real mixed group, coed, girls’ and boys’ schools. While I was there a news item caught my attention. Someone in the UK has suggested that school start when children are 2 years old. I was flabbergasted. If you have been paying attention … Read more
Prompted by a story I heard on NPR recently, I thought it was a good time to talk about toys, boys, and holidays. The holiday season brings with it the question of what kind of toys do you get for your boy? If that seems like an odd question, look at your son’s toys and … Read more
There is a new book that parents of boys might be interested in: Back to Normal: Why Ordinary Childhood Behavior is Mistaken for ADHD, Bipolar Disorder, and Autism Spectrum Disorder by Enrico Gnaulati. I learned about this book from a NPR interview in which Dr. Gnaulati said that many of the problems that he saw … Read more
An article by Christina Hoff Sommers in TIME may be of interest to parents of boys – click here to read it. Even if you are not in favor of single gender education, you probably are concerned that coed schools seem to find that normal boy behavior creates problems. I myself might be concerned if … Read more
For those of you in the US, school is about to start again. If you are in the UK, there’s a bit of time before school starts, but it’s still coming up soon. This post is for you all. For those of you in the Southern Hemisphere, you’re in the middle of the school year … Read more
For those of us who are parenting boys, the outcome in the Trayvon Martin/George Zimmerman case in Florida is very concerning. Just being a boy seems to put a young man at risk in this world. Boys are more likely to be identified as autistic or having learning disabilities, more likely to commit suicide or … Read more
At the end of June, the International Boys’ Schools Coalition had their annual meeting. It’s always a pleasure to be with a large group of people whose focus is on educating boys, especially since those schools are both state and independent schools, and they are from all over the world. Attendees came from the USA, … Read more
What will your son do during his school break? Here in the northern hemisphere, children are already on summer break or will be on break shortly. In the southern hemisphere, your children will have winter break shortly. So what are you going to do when you hear, “I’m so bored!” All of the suggestions depend … Read more
For any kid, moving up from elementary to middle school presents a challenge. For boys, who are almost always still children – i.e. have not hit puberty yet – when they enter middle school, that change might not seem too much of a change at first. The learning shift that happens in middle school – … Read more
Friendships Boys are much more emotional creatures than society, and cultural norms, would have you believe. Friendships and buddies are very important to boys. My research, and research by others, says that boys get more social support from their buddies than from their parents, or from girl friends. The group that your son belongs to … Read more