Selected as one of the Top 5 Educational Books by literacy news. The signs and statistics are undeniable: boys are falling behind in school. Contrary to conventional wisdom, the biggest culprits are not video games, pop culture, or female-dominated schools biased toward girls. The real problem is that boys have been thrust into a bewildering new school environment that demands high-level reading and writing skills long before they are capable of handling them. Lacking the ability to compete, boys fall farther and farther behind. Eventually, the problem gets pushed into college, where close to 60 per cent of the graduates are women. In a time when even cops, construction foremen, and machine operators need post-high school degrees, that's a problem. "Why Boys Fail" takes a hard look at how this ominous reality came to be, how it has worsened in recent years, and why attempts to resolve it often devolve into finger-pointing and polarizing politics. But the book also shares some good news. Amidst the alarming proof of failure among boys-around the world - there are also inspiring case studies of schools where something is going right. Each has come up with realistic ways to make sure that every student-male and female - has the tools to succeed in school and later in life. Educators and parents alike will take heart in these promising developments, and heed the book's call to action-not only to demand solutions but also to help create them for their own students and children.
I'm a former editorial writer for USA Today with a long career covering three things: local issues at several newspapers in upstate New York, the Pentagon (after arriving in Washington) and then education. Defense issues, in contrast to education problems, were relatively clean and straight-forward.
Of all the education issues I've written about, the boys dilemma may be the most perplexing. I first came across gender learning issues long ago when writing about national reports which concluded that girls were discriminated against in school, as in teachers calling on aggressive boys and paying little attention to girls in math and science.
As the father of two girls, I was outraged and wrote those reports absent critical comment. I was wrong about that. Even at that time it was clear boys were in academic trouble. The search for the cause behind those boy troubles led to Why Boys Fail.
Former DC schools chancellor Michelle Rhee wrote the foreword for Why Boys Fail, and soon after the book came out I approached her about cooperating for a biography. After a lengthy deliberation -- for Rhee, national publicity has often backfired -- she agreed, giving a green light for me to talk to her family, friends and work associates. The result is The Bee Eater. The book's title comes from from an incident when Rhee was teaching in Baltimore (see the Introduction for full details).
