The Need for Boy-Friendly Classrooms
Dan Gartrell
When 80 out of 100 preschoolers who are expelled are boys, and the national rate of
preschool expulsions is higher than the public school rate, issues of how to teach and
intervene with young boys deserves focused attention (Gartrell, 2012).
Culture Clash
In the early 1990s, studies showed that an education gap existed that disfavored girls. Boys
received more attention in classes, had higher scores on college exams, and attended
universities in higher numbers. Now, with the exception of teacher attention, the gender gap
has not just been closed, but reversed.
Perhaps because of the emphasis on test scores, teachers even in prekindergarten have
tended to bring more structure to their classrooms. To an extent, the traditional classroom
culture, one of decorum with controlled transactions between teacher and students, has
become the rule. Students able to succeed in this culture have been those who could hold
focus on sit-down, paper-and-pencil, teacher-directed lessons for hours each day. For
devel-opmental and behavioral reasons, more girls and fewer boys fit this profile of learners.
Over the last ten years, it has become evident that boys, more than girls, face serious
challenges in their schooling. In addition to preschool expulsions, boys in their k-12 years
experience much higher rates of: punitive discipline, low test scores, remedial summer
school, grade retentions, special ed. placements, and dropping out. More female than male
students now complete high school, college, and many graduate programs.
Mounting research is showing that a lag in educational achievement for boys begins in
preschool and continues into adulthood. The reluctance of educators to modify the
traditional classroom culture to fit many boys, and the inability of many boys to adapt to
traditional classrooms, are key reasons for both high preschool expulsion rates and the new
education gender gap. Long-term consequences of the gap for society could be grave.
Gender Gap in Teachers
This culture clash apparently is resulting in a gender gap for teachers as well. Nelson’s
study of the membership of the National Association for the Education of Young Children
(NAEYC) showed that the vast majority teachers of young children were female; few were
male. Increasingly, this imbalance is found across the entire range of Prek-grade 12
education. A large-scale socialization trend long has been at work that influences boys away
from nurturing roles in adulthood. Additionally, females more than males succeed in the
traditional classroom culture. For a combination of reasons, more women than men are
comfortable becoming teachers. The trend is not new, but the pattern is pronounced. As
students, boys experience few positive male role models in relation to becoming teachers.
Men early childhood teachers can and do greatly benefit both young boys and girls, of
course. Male teachers can help counter the trend that fewer children today, girls and boys,
experience positive male authority figures in their daily lives. Male teachers typically have
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developed survival skills relative to traditional schooling styles. Many are likely to accept the
high activity of most young boys and flexible enough to accommodate active learning styles.
Since they have “been there and done that,” men teachers also may be intuitively
responsive to the needs of young boys when they experience conflicts—whatever the
classroom culture. This is not to say that many women teachers do not relish having a
goodly number of active young boys in their classes; they do, and adjust their classrooms
accordingly (King, 2012). That is the point: To help more children succeed in school
(particularly many boys), educators need to tweak classroom cultures “into the 21st century.”
Boy-Friendly Classrooms
Fundamental to boy-friendly classrooms is developmentally appropriate practice
(DAP) for all children. One challenge to DAP is the misconception that if a program is
developmentally appropriate for most it is sufficient. This misconception is evident when a
teacher shrugs off limited engagement by boys with such notions as: “They are not ready”;
“they have short attention spans”; they “just want to do rough-and-tumble play.” An unhelpful
term used to explain away the perception of non-engagement is boy behavior. Teachers
sometimes use the excuse of boy behavior to stay in their comfort zones and not revitalize
programs to become more developmentally appropriate for all (including active boys).
King provides a case study to show how teachers can move beyond the “boy behavior
syndrome.” In “Guidance with Boys in Early Childhood Classrooms,” King (2003) illustrates
how a teacher changes the curriculum, the schedule, and the environment in ways that
increase the engagement of all children, most especially boys. The benefits of making
programs developmentally appropriate for all should be clear: “Boy behavior” lessens,
productive learning behavior increases, and conflicts involving boys (and teachers) decline.
Programs fundamentally become more active, which stimulates physical as well as brain
development and contributes to active, healthy lifestyles for all children, girls and boys.
Gartrell, D. (2012). A Guidance Approach for the Encouraging Classroom. Belmont CA:
Wadsworth/Cengage
King, M. & Gartrell, D. "Building an Encouraging Classroom with Boys in Mind." (2003)
Young Children, July 2013, pp 33-36.