Posted on 11/18/2006 4:20:51 AM PST by NewHampshireDuo
LEWISTON - School-age boys, whose classroom struggles have recently been the cause of much concern in education circles, are being hurt by an unwritten set of social rules that discourage them from showing their emotions, a Harvard psychologist told a group of teachers Friday.
William Pollack, the author of "Real Boys: Rescuing Our Sons from the Myths of Boyhood," used a mix of anecdotes and statistics to argue that stereotypical images of manhood are detrimental to boys.
"If a boy puts on a football helmet and cleats, then he's a real boy," said Pollack, co-director of the Center for Men at Harvard Medical School. "If he puts on a ballet outfit and tutu, then we say we hope he'll grow out of it."
Pollack's remarks came during a daylong conference at Bates College on how to support the academic success of boys. About 100 people attended, most of them teachers from schools around Maine.
Nationally, a conversation is under way about the academic struggles of boys, their causes and what can be done about them. In Maine, statistics show that boys consistently lag behind their female peers, scoring lower on standardized tests, graduating from high school at lower rates and earning just 38 percent of all bachelor's degrees conferred by the state's public universities.
But even among researchers convinced that those statistics underscore a serious problem, there are differing views about what is to blame. Some researchers are focusing on the biological differences between girls and boys. Some call for more competition in the classroom. Pollack, on the other hand, emphasizes the social messages that boys absorb from their parents, teachers and peers. Pollack calls these lessons the "boy code." He told teachers Friday that the code includes the following messages: Don't show weakness, be independent, and don't show any emotion unless it's anger. He also gave tips on how teachers can connect with male students. Pollack's speech struck a chord with Colleen Madden, an English teacher at Morse High School in Bath. "He's just giving some formal scientific words for what we've been observing for years," Madden said. "He's just giving it a vocabulary."
Jimmy Joe Danala, a science teacher at Mt. Abram High School in rural Franklin County, said he sees male students whose academic success is stifled by social concerns.
As a male teacher, Danala said that he may have an easier time relating to boys than some of his female colleagues, but there are still limits. "If I challenge them too far, they will shut down and they'll go back to the boy code," he said.
The conference was sponsored by Boys To Men, a Portland-based nonprofit organization that brings fathers and sons together with the aim of reinforcing positive images of masculinity.
Executive Director Layne Gregory told attendees that Boys To Men has held focus groups in which it has asked Maine boys what it means to be a man. She said the responses have consistently included the following nine adjectives: athletic, big, cool, daring, hard-drinking, strong, tough, unemotional and violent.
An organization that wants to get Men into Boys.
Same here. This has been going on for some time. My older brother (successful engineer) almost got slotted into permanent shop because of a "guidance Counselor" who was nothing more than a socialist apparatchik. Without my parents intervention with the same guy, there is no telling where/what I would be doing today. I am no scholar, or captain of industry, but this guy really had me headed for the basement.
I know I'm a baby boomer and went to school in the dark ages, but--Few boys had trouble "learning" when I was in school and the basics were being taught. Most boys had two parents and neither parents nor boys were on drugs for the latest psyco-social ill. There were few gangs, thugs or miscreants who would shoot up rooms full of students without a second thought. It's either bad parenting or something in the water that has changed to produce such a sad, sorry state in todays society and my vote goes to...hmmm.
What happened with the swim team?
Great coach, male comraderie. 2 state championships. The only downside to swim t4eam was mom on the bleachers many weekends.
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