Helping Boys Succeed in School

by Terry W. Neu, Rich Weinfeld

Many parents and educators today are worried about the education of smart girls, especially in areas like math and science, but what about their male counterparts? According to a U.S. Census Bureau report (2004), boys drop out of school at a 25% higher rate than girls. In addition, the current trend sees more girls enrolling in college than boys. Boys need to be given the tools they need to succeed in school, including strategies for channeling their interests, keeping them actively engaged, increasing their participation in humanities classes like language arts, and dealing with the unique social and emotional problems they face in school. The authors, leaders in the field of education, combine field-tested strategies and advice with case studies of boys across the nation to give smart young boys and their parents a strong guide for ensuring boys' success in school and the future.

Genres: Parenting, Teaching

288 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2006

Reviews

[Diana Pettis · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have enjoyed this book because it offers practical information for parents and teachers when dealing with boys in school. A good overview. I would recommend for every parent and teacher that works with boys.

[Anna Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good guide that helps gear the teacher's mind towards understanding the needs of their male students. I think that there was too heavy a focus on pandering to what boys are better at (e.g. speaking or drawing about a topic rather than writing if the boy has trouble with this) rather than on how to help boys hone these skills, but all in all, it was an informative read.

[HMS · Rating 3 out of 5]

I almost gave this 2 stars. Maybe it's because I'm an English teacher, or because I have higher expectations of education literature, but I should NOT see so many grammatical and typographical errors. About 10 errors occurred throughout the book. I actually laid it down for a while because I found them distracting. Some of them are basic spelling errors, others are who/whom confusion, all are easily remedied with a good editor.

Content-wise the book is spot-on. Having sons and teaching boys I think these two authors have a good peg on what educating boys is like. There are helpful ideas, a few interesting projects to work on, ways of analyzing a given school system and a great discussion of how to know what boys need and when.

Really my beef is with the errors. With a PhD, you better have clean copy, or I'm less likely to finish your book. My youngest son is the reason I've read this and is the reason I stuck with it. If not for him, I would have put it down and left it. Have enough respect for me as a reader to make the text the best it can be.

[Ashlee · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book has far more information for teachers than parents. However, I did appreciate the suggestions on how to encourage boys in writing and reading. A lot of the material in the book are things most of my friends intuitively know to do.

[Kristin Hundt · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was a lot more about why boys can have different learning styles and needs instead of strategies to use in the classroom to help boys. I was looking for tips, not theories and research.

[Angela]

Gave me some ideas of things I can implement in the classroom