Boys, Especially Minorities, Are Severely Hurt By Social, Economic, and “Reform Created”Educational Disadvantages
For many years I have been speaking and writing about the difficulties boys have had in schools. I devoted a chapter on the subject in my book, Doing The Right Thing: A Teacher Speaks. Much of this comes from what I wrote there. In addition, A NYT article dated October 22, 2015 adds a new factor, disadvantage.
A little boy came home from his first day at kindergarten and said to his mother, “What’s the use of going to school? I can’t read, I can’t write, and the teacher won’t let me talk.”The boy’s mother took him to a psychologist….The receptionist says: “Doctor, there is a boy here who thinks he is invisible.”The Psychologist responds: “Tell him I can’t see him right now.”
And there is the problem. Can we really see boys and their issues?
My son was born in 1990. By the time he was approaching kindergarten, we had to decide if he was to be one of those male kindergarten redshirts, held back a year to “mature.” We decided against it. We felt holding him back would, indeed, hold him back. What happened was eye opening. In preschool and kindergarten, teachers thought he was “hyperactive.” My wife is a clinical psychologist. She and I knew better. He was a boy. He acted differently than Boys, Especially Minorities, Are Severely Hurt By Social, Economic, and “Reform Created”Educational Disadvantages | DCGEducator: Doing The Right Thing: