As the new school year is set to begin, we at GI hope you will look at utilizing brain-based training during the school year.  We live in a time of cultural upheaval in which superficial answers to profound questions often abound. Three sex- and gender-specific myths have emerged in the last few years in ways that are harmful to educator success and student growth.  

Myth 1: Male/female brain difference research is either not true or a form of “gender stereotypes,” and as such, is offensive, oppressive, and discriminatory

Myth 2:  Training in how boys and girls learn and grow differently in coed environments will harm children’s development.

Myth 3:  Single Sex education is also harmful because it is not based in good science but in “gender stereotypes.”

From a science- and research-based perspective, these myths are untenable and untrue, but as headline grabbers and ideological precepts, they find an audience.  If school systems buy into them, more and more girls and boys across the gender spectrum will be left falling through the cracks.

Our GI training combats these myths by utilizing neuroscience.  This blog post makes the case for this kind of training, which has been successful over the last two decades at helping schools and educators close achievement gaps, raise test scores, improve grades and student behavior, increase social emotional learning, and create a culture of dignity throughout the school.

The Case for Brain-Based Training

Jeremy fidgets and clicks his teeth in such a way that he drives his teacher crazy; Latrice is taking notes but not really understanding them; Angie is thinking about five other things; Donnell is angry about what’s happening at home; Alana is terrified she will fail the test, Jamal and Billy already have; Emma is a bully and has been bullied, Zeke, Amy, and six others are on medication for depression, ADD/ADHD, or anxiety, two others have thought about suicide; nearly every student in this classroom wants to get back to their Smart Phone and social media.

Am I exaggerating? The new classroom—the classroom every teacher works in today—is a joy for its diversity of talented minds; it is also a challenge because of that same diversity. Socio- economic diversity, racial and ethnic diversity, historical diversity, ideological diversity, religious diversity, and just the sheer weight of complex personal identity development all walk into the classroom with each child. We know this is a good thing. We also know it creates constant stress. How can one teacher or one parent possibly meet every child’s needs?

Layered into the diversity is the center, the heart of it all—these students are “brains” at work, and not only that, they have diversely sexualized and gendered brains. Whether fidgeting, failing, succeeding, bullying, being bullied, taking notes, studying, behaving, misbehaving, being empathic, or using Smart Phones and social media, each of these students acts and reacts as girls and boys. This is even true of transgender brains—a female-to-male and a male-to-female are trying to align the sex in their brains with their anatomy and physiology. They, too, experience male and female brains.

Our colleague, Daniel Amen, recently published a study based on nearly 50,000 brain scans (he summarizes it here: https://www.amenclinics.com/blog/women-more-active-brains-than-men/.)

Twenty years ago, my GI team and I realized a profound and practical way to help professionals and parents meet the success goals both groups had for the education of their children–by combining brain-based education with sex- and gender-differentiated training. As diversity in classrooms has evolved, so has our professional development.

Our Work Can Be Accessed On-Site, Online, and Through a Combination of the Two

Male and female brains, biochemistry, and cultures are so profoundly a part of the classroom, they must be understood if the classroom is to be successful. You as professionals and parents likely know this instinctively especially when you observe and disaggregate data in an unofficial or official capacity.

Right now:

*Boys in general are undermotivated-to-learn in comparison to girls (often lost in video games and screens); they are getting more than 2/3s of the Ds and Fs in our classrooms but less than 40% of the As.
*Boys are inordinately punished, many times for “offenses” that are not actually abnormal behavior for boys; boys of color are so profoundly abandoned in their search to become good men that many of them enter a school-to-prison pipeline very early.
*Boys get lower standardized test scores than girls in general, and in literacy, language arts, and similar fields, the male to female gap is three times higher than the girl-to-boy math gap.
*Depression, anxiety, suicide, substance and opioid abuse, and brain disorder diagnoses among males are increasing; many of these diagnoses are moving rapidly into pre-pubescent age groups.
*Girls’ STEM learning is improving in our classrooms and yet retaining young women in higher level of Tech and Engineering jobs is barely improving.
*Girls are engaged in bullying behavior towards one another and brutal behavior towards themselves at unprecedented rates.
*Pressure on girls to hyper-multi-task their success is partially the cause of increased depression, anxiety, substance abuse, and suicide attempts among girls.
*Social media, screens, smart phones, and other artificial methods of creating the “connective tissue” that girls want also alters their brains, in many cases, toward negative growth.

GI training works to improve each of these areas in a community and school.  Our Minds of Boys and Girls® Online Courses, which include six hours of training in neuroscience, sex/gender, practical tools, and classroom strategies align with addressing the gaps and needs of students and learners. You can take the course as it fits your schedule.  Whole teams at schools can take it, as well, by special arrangement with our GI staff. It can comprise a PD day via online assets or be broken up into Units.

Please check out this link to look at an online course. https://gurianinstitute.com/boys-and-girls-learn-differently-online-course/. You will see testimonials and data points. The online courses specifically target these outcomes in your school and community:

*Crucial Success Gains in Student Achievement and School Turnaround
*Positive Gains in Student Behavior, including Lowered Discipline Referrals
*Dynamic, Useful, and Highly Practical Tools You Can Use Right Now
*Applied Brain-Based Science Proven Successful in Thousands of Classrooms
*Deeper Understanding of Boys, Girls, and the Whole Gender Spectrum
*Systemic Change Models That Can Transform School Culture.

Our on-site PD and training at your school is also set up to meet the same outcomes and utilizes the same and further assets with more facilitator-participant interaction, because I and/or our Trainer is on site with you for this PD.  Some schools have recently innovated a hybrid format in collaboration with a GI contract–for example, the contract is set up with GI for the group to study the 4.5 hour Online Course on one day then a Gurian Certified Trainer comes the next day or on another PD day to provide on-site PD.

There are many ways to utilize the Gurian Institute.  Some other options appear here. https://gurianinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/gurian_institute_information.pdf.

The following pages should also be useful in helping you look at the next school year’s PD, growth, funding and focus.

https://gurianinstitute.com/training-for-brain-based-teaching-%e2%80%8bwith-a-gender-focus/

https://gurianinstitute.com/packages-and-pricing/

https://gurianinstitute.com/success/

https://gurianinstitute.com/institute-testimonials/

No two children are exactly alike. No two teachers or parents are either. We are diverse! That is why both understanding male/female brains and applying innovations to target those brains has become one of the keys to success in classrooms.

A million years of human history walk into our classrooms with every child. All that history is laden with X and Y chromosomes, sex and gender on the brain, and female and male learning. Nature, nurture, and culture all matter, and all of them work best when we innovate diversely towards the minds of boys and girls.

Thank you for being a Gurian Institute supporter. We hope to see you online and onsite very soon!