Why Boys Fail

CHAPTER 2The Reason for the Boy Troubles: Faltering Literacy Skills

 

IF FORCED to conjure up a single sentence summarizing what I learned researching this book, it would be this: The world has gotten more verbal; boys haven’t. To prepare students for a more sophisticated economy, educators wisely pushed a tougher curriculum down through the grades. Preschoolers today are confronted with challenges first graders faced twenty years ago. On the surface, that makes sense, but educators overlooked the fact that young boys aren’t wired for early verbal challenges. Using the right reading techniques there’s no reason boys can’t catch up with girls by between fourth and sixth grade, say reading experts such as William Brozo. That, however, is not happening ...