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I thought I was the only one sick of non-competitive sports days and playgrounds where it's practically impossible to hurt yourself. It turned out that the pendulum is swinging back at last. Boys are different from girls. Teaching them as though they are girls who don't wash as much leads to their failure in school, causing trouble all the way. Boys don't like group work. They do better on exams than they do in coursework, and they don't like class discussion. In history lessons, they prefer stories of Rome and of courage to projects on the suffragettes.
-- Conn Iggulden for The Washington Post
Mr. Iggulden is the author of "The Dangerous Book for Boys". It has been taken up in our culture wars with respect to education and gender. Boys have been lagging in school these years, and Iggulden represents the approach that part of the reason may be that school has become too sissified. You can perhaps appreciate the controversy. He opens this column with a boysy story:
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I thought I was the only one sick of non-competitive sports days and playgrounds where it's practically impossible to hurt yourself. It turned out that the pendulum is swinging back at last. Boys are different from girls. Teaching them as though they are girls who don't wash as much leads to their failure in school, causing trouble all the way. Boys don't like group work. They do better on exams than they do in coursework, and they don't like class discussion. In history lessons, they prefer stories of Rome and of courage to projects on the suffragettes.
-- Conn Iggulden for The Washington Post
Mr. Iggulden is the author of "The Dangerous Book for Boys". It has been taken up in our culture wars with respect to education and gender. Boys have been lagging in school these years, and Iggulden represents the approach that part of the reason may be that school has become too sissified. You can perhaps appreciate the controversy. He opens this column with a boysy story:
When I was 10, I founded an international organization known as the Black Cat Club. My friend Richard was the only other member. My younger brother, Hal, had "provisional status," which meant that he had to try out for full membership every other week. We told him we would consider his application if he jumped off the garage roof -- about eight feet from the ground. He had a moment of doubt as he looked over the edge, but we said it wouldn't hurt if he shouted the words "Fly like an eagle!" When he jumped, his knees came up so fast that he knocked himself out. I think the lesson he learned that day was not to trust his brother, which is a pretty valuable one for a growing lad.Boys will be boys...
