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The current issue of Newsweek is ruffling a few feathers. The Trouble With Boys looks at how the educational system in this country is failing our boys. As I read this article I couldn't help but suppress a cheer or two.
The stories of young men and how they were struggling sounded so familiar to me. My son went through exactly the same things in public school. He went from being on the A honor roll and winning the science award to being threatened with retention the following year. He didn't have failing grades, mind you. They had fallen from straight As to Cs and even a D, but not low enough to hold him back. The reason? The teacher said he wasn't mature enough for third grade. The boy was only 7 years old, for goodness sake! Who is mature at 7?
This echos a story found in the above article. I got chills as I read that portion. They could have been interviewing me.
The article calls for public school reform. While I agree that boys are being lost in the shuffle and completely ignored, I do not see public school changing to meet the needs of our children. Rather than leaving our son's future in the hands of our government, we pulled both him and his brother out of the system and are homeschooling them. Through our efforts, our sons are learning by leaps and bounds. I shudder to think where my son would be now, as he stands on the brink of the dreaded Middle School age. According to the article, that is the age when boys are most often left behind. (Ironically enough, this is in result to the awful No Child Left Behind act.)
I was saddened, but not surprised, that the article doesn't mention the option of homeschooling these "lost boys" and tailoring to their own learning style. They do mention restructuring classrooms and changing up the lesson plans to fit more boys, however. If only they had taken it a little further, this would have been a top notch article.
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