Lighting a fire: motivating boys to learn

Kathy Stevens offers advice to parents and teachers of boys on how to motivate them to learn.  Her advice ranges from positive reinforcement, time trades, and organization of study space.  While I was in high school, much of these techniques were commonly used to motivate all learners to engage; however, it seemed to me that often the educator or parent would not be consistent with rewards and structure - expecting the student to maintain the routine without the external "motivation" or support.

As a student, I remember these strategies and their effectiveness; however, I also remember how short lived this success was because the parent or teacher would grow tired of maintaining the rewards, expecting me to maintain focus because of the success I felt not the rewards or structure provided.  Unfortunately, I lacked such intrinsic motivation and would quickly stop working once the rewards disappeared.  

As a grown man I don't desire or need such structure to meet my goals and achieve at a high level.  I look back at my teenage self with a bit of disgust, for I truly believe I short changed myself and my family by my immaturity, lack of focus, and laziness.  Yet, I also believe that I am unable to truly empathize with my past self as he is so foreign to me now.  I forget why I was so disengaged with school, but I do certainly remember the stress, fear, and anxiety I carried within myself from sixth through twelfth grade.  School was not a place that I felt "at home".  There were many times I can remember fading in and out of lessons, wanting to pay attention, but more often than not finding myself in some ridiculous day dream only to realize I missed the assignment, lecture, and substance of the class.  I was often too embarrassed to  ask my teacher or peers for help or the assignment that I missed.  I hid this fear in an I-don't-care attitude.

As a teacher at and all boys school I do what I can to help students who may fade in and out or the lesson have the ability to get back on track without asking too many questions.  I like to review and give all the handouts for a particular unit to students before I teach the first lesson.  I like to review and have posted the learning targets of each lesson.  I like to check in with students who seem checked out to make sure that they can have their questions answered without having to ask them ...

I'm not completely convinced that this lack of focus is reserved primarily for boys, but I do know that many students check out easily and may feel uncomfortable asking questions that reveal this.  Anything we can do to give students access to information outside of lesson time can help keep an entire class on track with less anxiety.

The State of American Manhood

The issue of why men are disengaging from the workplace is explored by Post Secondary Opportunity through analyzing labor statistics.  This article is interesting and points the reader's attention to the declining role of labor traditionally associated with men is playing in the workforce today.  The author claims that more men feel a sense of purposelessness and lack direction, increasing the risk of men disengaging from the labor force.

Most disturbing is the high rate of children who are raised (according to the author) "without fathers".  The statistics show that forty percent of children living without a father in the home have not seen their fathers in over a year, while twenty-six percent of them have never stepped foot in their father's home.  The distinct lack of male role models in this population leaves these children at a higher risk of child abuse, poor academic performance, and living under the poverty line.

This article lays out some clear trends in how men are engaging society at large and the changing understanding of what it means to be a man in America.
Source: The State of American Manhood

Students Attitudes Towards School

The Census Bureau did a study of students' attitudes towards school and found a significant trend that girls enjoy and are more engaged in school than their male peers.  It leads the reader to wonder why boys feel disengaged in today's classrooms. Click on image below for statistics.

Boys are falling behind girls

Since the 1970's the male enrollment in higher education is in decline.  This decline in enrollment in higher education is coupled with lower scores and success rates in high school and grade school.  There is a growing concern that males are finding it difficult to compete with their female peers in traditional education settings.  This growing gender gap deserves attention and action.

Boys in Education: The Statistics

One of the most startling findings in national assessments of student achievement is how far behind boys are in reading and writing. Though the problem is even more severe among traditionally underserved minorities, this is a trend that cuts through racial, ethnic, and class divisions, and can even be seen in other countries.

On national reading assessments, the average score for boys in fourth grade is five points behind girls. That gap increases to approximately 10 points by eighth grade, and widens even more in high school, leaving twelfth-grade boys about 12 points behind girls in reading skills tests.

On recent fourth grade reading tests, the average score for African-American students was 197 for boys and 205 for girls, an eight-point differential. By eighth grade, African-American girls score an average 11 points higher than boys on reading tests.

Hispanic boys score about seven points below Hispanic girls in fourth grade reading assessments, and are approximately ten points behind girls by eighth grade.

In national writing assessments, boys score (on average) 17 points lower than girls in fourth grade (with African-American boys about 16 points behind African-American girls, and Hispanic boys scoring about 15 points lower than Hispanic girls). The average gap increases to 21 points in eighth grade (approximately 20 points for African-American boys and 17 points for Hispanic boys), and by twelfth grade, boys average 24 points lower than girls on tests of writing skills (about 21 points for African-American boys, and about 22 points for Hispanic boys).

In 2002 reading assessments, among twelfth-grade students with a parent who graduated from college, 23% of white boys scored "below basic" (the minimal level of reading literacy) compared to 7% of white girls-a 16-point difference. For African-Americans with a college-graduate parent, the "below basic" number for boys was 43% compared to 33% for girls, while for Hispanics (with a college-graduate parent), the "below basic" score was 34% for boys versus 19% for girls.

In 2002 writing assessments, among twelfth-grade students with a parent who graduated from college, 25% of white boys scored "below basic" (the minimal level of basic writing proficiency) compared to 6% of white girls-a 19-point difference. For African-Americans with a college-graduate parent, the "below basic" writing percentage for boys was 45% compared to 24% for girls, and for Hispanics (with a college-graduate parent), the writing "below basic" score was 39% for boys versus 17% for girls.

The US is not the only country experiencing a widening gap between girls' and boys' literacy proficiency. A 2000 international assessment of reading ability in 15 year-olds found girls outscoring boys by an average 32 points in Canada, 29 points in France, 35 points in Germany, 30 points in Japan, 26 points in the UK, and 29 points in the US.

In response to the alarming downward trends in boys' academic performance, many countries-including Canada, Australia, and Great Britain-have initiated national, publicly-funded efforts to boost boys' achievement. The US, however, has not.

From www.theboysinitiative.org

Boys in Crisis