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

There's a crisis in our society that's been developing for years. This crisis has captured the attention of everyone from the parent at the playground to the teacher in your neighborhood classroom to First Lady Laura Bush in the White House. Too many of our boys and young men are falling behind in school and life. Boys receive the majority of the Ds and Fs given all students, and they create 90 percent of classroom discipline problems. Eighty percent of all high school dropouts are boys, millions of American boys are on Ritalin and other drugs, three out of four learning-disabled students are boys, and colleges are struggling to retain male students. This startling trend is not only bad for boys but also for parents, communities, and for humanity's future in general.

"Wonderfully readable, The Minds of Boys fills a great void for parents and educators by offering practical ways to change the developmental course for boys at risk. Gurian and Stevens show us that we don't have to surrender our boys to depression or school failure: an essential piece of school reform!"
—Robin Karr-Morse, author, Ghosts from the Nursery

"Michael Gurian and Kathy Stevens pull the pieces together in The Minds of Boys, including the social, emotional, physical, and cognitive needs of boys. This is a must-read for educators from preschool through young adulthood and for any parent or grandparent who is raising a boy. This book is well researched, offering concrete ways to help our boys develop and flourish in and out of school."
—Dr. Paul D. Slocumb, author, Hear Our Cry: Boys in Crisis

"The Minds of Boys is an excellent read. I found it enlightening not only as a neuroscientist but also as the mother of a young boy. It has absolutely changed the way that I think about boys (and men) and the ways in which they express their enthusiasm for life."
—Tracey J. Shors, Ph.D., Department of Psychology, Center for Collaborative Neuroscience, Rutgers University

In this fascinating and practical book, Michael Gurian—the author of the best-selling The Wonder of Boys—and Kathy Stevens show parents and teachers how to help our boys overcome their current classroom obstacles and failures. They offer clear-cut step-by-step guidance to help boys fulfill themselves, use their intelligence, work with their unique natural gifts, expand every bit of their potential, and ultimately succeed in life.

The Minds of Boys also presents a scientifically researched, field-tested program for helping boys learn the academic basics: reading, writing, math, and science. Drawing from the latest gender-based brain science and tested by the Gurian Institute and school districts across the United States, Canada, and Australia, the program speaks to specific differences in the way boys and girls learn, the best learning environment for boys' brains, how to help undermotivated and underperforming boys, how to use the arts and athletics to teach boys, how to teach and care for sensitive, aggressive, restless, or bored boys, and how to utilize the option of single-gender education at crucial periods of a son's life.

The Minds of Boys emphasizes that our schools cannot fix the problems our boys face without families becoming a centerpiece for the solution. Detailing how parents, extended family, teachers, coaches, and mentors can work together, this proven classroom program can help confront the current crisis in boys' education so that all our sons achieve success in life.