Glad To Be Here
Thanks very much for the kind introduction, Richard. I’ll do my best this week to keep the conversation going about boys and school. I’m keenly interested in the subject — having written a book about it (that’s the cover on the left.) It will be in stores in about three weeks but you can pre-order it right now, here on amazon.
This week, I’ll be serving up some of the best parts of the book for your readers and also be bringing in topics in the press that have caught my eye.
August 17th, 2008 at 4:19 pm
[...] Original post by Why Boys Fail [...]
August 17th, 2008 at 4:24 pm
[...] unknown wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptI’ll do my best this week to keep the conversation going about boys and school. I’m keenly interested in the subject — having written a book about it (that’s the cover on the left.) It will be in stores in about three weeks but you can … Read the rest of this great post here [...]
August 17th, 2008 at 6:31 pm
Peg, my co-workers and I are eager to read your book– love the provocative title, btw– not to mention your guest posts on WBF. Good luck!
August 18th, 2008 at 1:24 pm
The examples of these two governments in our time are the Turk and the King of France. The entire monarchy of the Turk is governed by one lord, the others are his servants; and, dividing his kingdom into sanjaks, he sends there different administrators, and shifts and changes them as he chooses. But the King of France is placed in the midst of an ancient body of lords, acknowledged by their own subjects, and beloved by them; they have their own prerogatives, nor can the king take these away except at his peril. Therefore, he who considers both of these states will recognize great difficulties in seizing the state of the Turk, but, once it is conquered, great ease in holding it. The causes of the difficulties in seizing the kingdom of the Turk are that the usurper cannot be called in by the princes of the kingdom, nor can he hope to be assisted in his designs by the revolt of those whom the lord has around him. This arises from the reasons given above; for his ministers, being all slaves and bondmen, can only be corrupted with great difficulty, and one can expect little advantage from them when they have been corrupted, as they cannot carry the people with them, for the reasons assigned. Hence, he who attacks the Turk must bear in mind that he will find him united, and he will have to rely more on his own strength than on the revolt of others; but, if once the Turk has been conquered, and routed in the field in such a way that he cannot replace his armies, there is nothing to fear but the family of this prince, and, this being exterminated, there remains no one to fear, the others having no credit with the people; and as the conqueror did not rely on them before his victory, so he ought not to fear them after it.
August 19th, 2008 at 8:06 pm
One possible reason that boys do not do as well may be due to the way that we teach beginning readers how to read. With our current reading techniques, boys struggle to learn to read English at significantly higher rates than girls.
Given how every school subject is completely dependant upon fluent reading skills, the tendency for boys to struggle with reading may contribute to the lack of school success. Additionally, there is a significant portion of academic language that is mostly picked up from reading fiction that doesn’t happen for those children (mostly boys) that struggle to decode well.
There are reading techniques that allow boys to fluently decode as well as girls, but these techniques are not popular in our schools. (e.g. Clackmannshire report on reading)
Thanks for bringing this issue to light.