Tim Wright, a retired pastor and author of many books including the Toby Baxter series of Young Adult novels, is also the host of the Gurian Institute’s Wonder of Parenting: A Brain Science Approach to Parenting Podcast. The podcast has recently made two of the top parenting podcasts lists.

In today’s guest blog post, Tim discusses an important issue then is joined by Michael Gurian and Daniel Parlato, a Master Teacher at Crespi Carmelite High School. The school is a Gurian Center for Educational Excellence. Daniel provides numerous strategies you can use with the children in your classroom or care.

The latest educational research project known as the PISA study (Programme for International Student Assessment) from the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) shows boys behind girls in most developmental, behavioral, academic, and social markers in all industrialized countries. (Cited in Saving Our Sons: A New Path for Raising Healthy and Resilient Boys, Dr. Michael Gurian, 2017, p. 8)

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In 1982 something unheralded and yet culturally significant happened in the US: Girls surpassed boys academically. After decades of hard work to get our girls caught up to boys, girls not only caught up, they soared past boys, and now outpace boys, by a lot, in every area of education from pre-school through graduate school.

From Gurian’s Saving our Sons book:

• For every 100 girls ages 9 to 11 enrolled below modal (typical) grade, there are 130 boys enrolled below modal grade
• For every 100 girls ages 12 to 14 years enrolled below modal grade, there are 120 boys enrolled below modal grade
• For every 100 girls age 13 scoring 250 or above on the reading test of the National Assessment of Educational Progress, there are 90 boys scoring 250 or above
• For every 100 girls ages 15 to 17 years enrolled below modal grade, there are 130 boys enrolled below modal grade
• For every 100 women enrolled in college in the US, there are 78 men enrolled
• For every 100 American women who earn an associate’s degree, 61 men earn the same degree
• For every 100 American women who earn a bachelor’s degree, 75 American men earn a bachelor’s degree
• For every 100 American women who earn a master’s degree, 66 American men earn that same degree
• For every 100 American women who earn a doctoral degree, 91 men earn the same degree
• For every 100 women ages 25 to 29 years who have at least a professional degree, 84 men have at least a professional degree
• For every 100 women ages 25 to 29 years who have a doctoral degree, 80 men have that same degree
• The well-known female gap in math/science is a 3-point gap while the male gap in literacy is a 10-point gap, leaving males 1 and 1/2 years behind females in literacy skills, and skewing all aggregate test scores toward much higher female and lower male performance
• Boys receive over 70% of D’s and F’s and only 40% of A’s

What strains might generations of under-educated men put on all of the systems of government and human relationships?

In this week’s The Wonder of Parenting Podcast: A Brain-Science Approach to Parenting, Dr. Gurian and I chat with educator Daniel Parlato, a teacher at the all-boys Crespi School in CA. He offers insights for educators and parents on how to better teach to the uniquenesses of boys.

Interestingly, all of the Gurian research shows that when educators add in boy-friendly teaching methods, the scores for girls also go up!

These boys will be our future. How might we roll up our sleeves and help them succeed in school the way we did for our daughters in the 1960’s and 1970’s?

Once more from Gurian: … nearly every social problem we face in our civilization today—unemployment, income inequality, incarceration rates, religious extremism, domestic abuse, mental illness, health care inequities, and painful violence against women—intersects in some way with the state of boyhood in America.

You might want to read that again.

And maybe once more.

Let’s change that storyline!

Listen in to the our latest episode on Helping Boys Thrive in School.

To go deeper, you might want to check out this New York Times Op ed.