There are many parents of boys who are wandering why they are doing so poorly at school. A point that is often lost is that the problem is not new, what is extremely worrying is that so little has been done over the past 12 years. The really frightening thing is that governments and educational bodies have had so long to do something but the have done so little. The problem remains as large as ever and very few solutions have been developed or tried.

Scientific research, suggests that teaching critical thinking skills can make kids smarter, more independent and more creative. The conclusion was that " kids given critical thinking lessons made substantial and statistically significant improvements in language comprehension, inventive thinking, and even IQ" (Herrnstein et al 1986). There are some puzzle toys and games that are able to teach these skills through play. I recommend the following toys Pirates Hide and Seek (problem solving for 5 yr olds), Winomino puzzle game (spatial reasoning skills for 3 yr olds) and Camelot Junior (problem solving for 4 yr olds).

At this time of the year many parents will have received 11+ results for their children. We have been working with some 11+ tutoring companies and have some advice for parents. Working with tutoring companies we have seen that some educational toys can improve non-verbal reasoning results particularly visual spatial reasoning skills. We found that Pentago Mechanic, Shape by Shape and Katamino are very good at doing this.

A large part of the problem of underachievement is that boys are forced into a female model of learning. Schools teach and value oral communication and ideas represented on paper. The language and fine motor centres and of girls' brains have been shown to develop much earlier than in boys. So despite their best efforts they feel undervalued and hard done by. This difference in language centres is not taken into account when primary schools , teach and evaluate performance.
Michael Gurian's article written in 2006 talks about differences in greater detail.  Michael is a researcher, author, and founder of The Gurian Institute, a respected organisation that has been trying to understand how boys learn. Helping boys to learn.

I believe that boys are falling behind at school because they are exposed to formalised education at too early an age. This is because early exposure to formalised education runs counter to the way that boys learn. Boys require more of play based approach to learning and teaching at primary school.
The power of play.

This video (28 mins) from Teachers TV on why boys underachieve, how their methods of learning differ from girls and, most importantly, what schools can do to close the gender gap for good. Teachers TV: The Trouble with Boys.

This article from the Telegraph si from 2007 and discusses the problems and evaluate some solutions.  Read more

Boys are falling behind at school and the situation is getting worse in almost all countries, ages and socio-economc groups. A major contribution to this is that schools are not boy friendly. This point is only starting to be conceded by most. A long time has and will be spent debating the issue BUT as parents we cannot wait for them to resolve this.