0:00:21.236,0:00:22.545
Good afternoon.

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I'm the only real live girl[br]who is going to be presenting today

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on stage for you.

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And I'm happy to be talking about boys,[br]for some reason.

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Not really sure how that happened.

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So I'm here to tell you[br]that we have a problem with boys,

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and it's a serious problem with boys.

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Peg Tyrel will tell us[br]that we have a problem with boys.

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Their culture isn't working in schools,

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and I'm going to share with you ways

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that we can think[br]about overcoming that problem.

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First, I want to start[br]by saying, this is a boy,

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and this is a girl,

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and this is probably stereotypically[br]what you think of as a boy and a girl.

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If I essentialize gender for you today,[br]then you can dismiss what I have to say.

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So I'm not going to do that,[br]I'm not interested in doing that.

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This is a different kind of boy[br]and a different kind of girl.

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So the point here is that not all boys[br]exist within these rigid boundaries

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of what we think of as boys and girls,

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and not all girls exist[br]within those rigid boundaries

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of what we think of as girls.

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But, in fact, most boys[br]tend to be a certain way,

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and most girls tend to be a certain way.

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And the point is that, for boys,

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the way that they exist[br]and the culture that they embrace

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isn't working well in schools now.

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How do we know that?

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The 100 girls project[br]tells us some really nice statistics.

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For example, for every 100 girls[br]that are suspended from school,

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there are 250 boys[br]that are suspended from school.

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For every 100 girls[br]who are expelled from school,

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there are 335 boys[br]who are expelled from school.

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For every 100 girls in special education,

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there are 217 boys.

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For every 100 girls[br]with a learning disability,

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there are 276 boys.

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For every 100 girls[br]with an emotional disturbance diagnosed,

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we have 324 boys.

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And by the way, all of these numbers[br]are significantly higher

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if you happen to be black,

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if you happen to be poor,

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if you happen to exist[br]in an overcrowded school.

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And if you are a boy,

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you're four times as likely[br]to be diagnosed with ADHD...

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Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.

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Now there is another side to this.

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And it is important that we recognize[br]that women still need help in school,

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that salaries are still[br]significantly lower,

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even when controlled for job types,

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and that girls have continued to struggle[br]in math and science for years.

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That's all true.

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Nothing about that prevents us

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from paying attention[br]to the literacy needs

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of our boys between ages three and 13.

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And so we should.

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In fact, what we ought to do[br]is take a page from their playbook,

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because the initiatives and programs[br]that have been set in place

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for women in science and engineering[br]and mathematics are fantastic.

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They've done a lot of good[br]for girls in these situations,

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and we ought to be thinking about[br]how we can make that happen for boys too

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in their younger years.

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Even in their older years,

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what we find is that[br]there's still a problem.

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When we look at the universities,

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60 percent of baccalaureate degrees[br]are going to women now,

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which is a significant shift.

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And in fact, university administrators[br]are a little uncomfortable about the idea

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that we may be getting close to 70 percent[br]female population in universities.

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This makes university[br]administrators very nervous,

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because girls don't want to go[br]to schools that don't have boys.

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And so we're starting to see

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the establishment of men centers[br]and men studies

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to think about how do we engage men[br]in their experiences in the university.

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If you talk to faculty,[br]they may say, "Ugh. Yeah, well,

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they're playing video games,

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and they're gambling[br]online all night long,

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and they're playing World of Warcraft,

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and that's affecting[br]their academic achievement."

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Guess what?

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Video games are not the cause.

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Video games are a symptom.

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They were turned off a long time[br]before they got here.

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So let's talk about[br]why they got turned off

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when they were between the ages[br]of three and 13.

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There are three reasons that I believe

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that boys are out of sync[br]with the culture of schools today.

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The first is zero tolerance.

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A kindergarten teacher I know,[br]her son donated all of his toys to her,

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and when he did, she had to go through[br]and pull out all the little plastic guns.

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You can't have plastic knives[br]and swords and axes

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and all that kind of thing[br]in a kindergarten classroom.

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What is it that we're afraid that this[br]young man is going to do with this gun?

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I mean, really.

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But here he stands as testament

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to the fact that you can't go like this

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in school today.

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You can't roughhouse[br]on the playground today.

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Now I'm not advocating for bullies.

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I'm not suggesting that we need to be[br]allowing guns and knives in the school.

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But when we say that an Eagle Scout[br]in a high school classroom

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who has a locked parked car[br]in the parking lot and a penknife in it,

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has to be suspended from school,

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I think we may have gone[br]a little too far with zero tolerance.

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Another way that zero tolerance[br]lives itself out

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is in the writing of boys,

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and Ralph Fletcher has done[br]a fabulous job of showing us

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problems with reclaiming[br]boys' voices in writing.

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In a lot of classrooms today,

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you're not allowed to write[br]about anything that's violent.

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You're not allowed to write about anything[br]that has to do with video games.

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These topics are banned.

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Boy comes home from school, and he says,

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"I hate writing."

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"Why do you hate writing, son?[br]What's wrong with writing?"

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"Now I have to write[br]what she tells me to write."

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"OK, what is she telling you to write?"

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"Poems. I have to write poems.

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And little moments in my life.

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I don't want to write that stuff."

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"Well, what do you want to write?

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What do you want to write about?"

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"I want to write about video games.[br]I want to write about leveling-up.

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I want to write about[br]this really interesting world.

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I want to write about a tornado[br]that comes into our house

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and blows all the windows out,

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and ruins all the furniture[br]and kills everybody."

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"All right. OK."

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You tell a teacher that,[br]and they'll ask you, in all seriousness,

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"Should we send this child[br]to the psychologist?"

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And the answer is no, he's just a boy.

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He's just a little boy.

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It's not OK to write these kinds of things[br]in classrooms today.

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So that's the first reason:

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Zero tolerance policies[br]and the way they're lived out.

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The next reason that boys' cultures[br]are out of sync with school cultures:

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there are fewer male teachers.

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Anybody who's over 15[br]doesn't know what this means,

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because in the last 10 years,

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the number of elementary school[br]classroom teachers has been cut in half.

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We went from 14 percent to seven percent.

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That means that 93 percent of the teachers

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that our young men get in elementary[br]classrooms are women.

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Now what's the problem with this?

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Women are great, yep, absolutely.

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But male role models for boys[br]that say it's all right to be smart...

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They've got dads, they've got pastors,[br]they've got Cub Scout leaders,

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but ultimately, six hours a day,[br]five days a week

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they're spending in a classroom,

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and most of those classrooms[br]are not places where men exist.

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And so they say, I guess this really[br]isn't a place for boys.

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This is a place for girls.

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And I'm not very good at this,

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so I guess I'd better go play video games

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or get into sports,[br]or something like that,

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because I obviously don't belong here.

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Men don't belong here,[br]that's pretty obvious.

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So that may be a very direct way[br]that we see it happen.

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But less directly, the lack of male[br]presence in the culture...

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You've got a teachers' lounge,[br]and they're having a conversation

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about Joey and Johnny[br]who beat each other up on the playground.

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"What are we going to do with these boys?"

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The answer to that question changes

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depending on who's sitting[br]around that table.

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Are there men around that table?

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Are there moms who've raised boys[br]around that table?

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You'll see, the conversation changes

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depending upon who's sitting[br]around the table.

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Third reason that boys[br]are out of sync with school today:

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Kindergarten is the old[br]second grade, folks.

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We have a serious compression[br]of the curriculum happening out there.

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When you're three, you better be able[br]to write your name legibly,

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or else we'll consider it[br]a developmental delay.

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By the time you're in first grade,

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you should be able to read[br]paragraphs of text

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with maybe a picture, maybe not,[br]in a book of maybe 25 to 30 pages.

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If you don't,

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we're probably going to be putting you[br]into a Title I special reading program.

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And if you ask Title I teachers,[br]they'll tell you

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they've got about four or five boys[br]for every girl that's in their program,

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in the elementary grades.

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The reason that this is a problem

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is because the message[br]that boys are getting

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is, "You need to do what the teacher[br]asks you to do all the time."

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The teacher's salary depends[br]on "No Child Left Behind"

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and "Race to the Top"[br]and accountability and testing

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and all of this.

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So she has to figure out a way[br]to get all these boys

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through this curriculum... and girls.

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This compressed curriculum is bad[br]for all active kids.

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And what happens is,

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she says, "Please, sit down,[br]be quiet, do what you're told,

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follow the rules, manage your time,[br]focus, be a girl."

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That's what she tells them.

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Indirectly, that's what she tells them.

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And so this is a very serious problem.

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Where is it coming from?[br]It's coming from us.

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(Laughter)

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We want our babies to read[br]when they are six months old.

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Have you seen the ads?

0:10:03.000,0:10:07.680
We want to live in Lake Wobegon[br]where every child is above average...

0:10:08.398,0:10:11.842
but what this does to our children[br]is really not healthy.

0:10:11.866,0:10:13.676
It's not developmentally appropriate,

0:10:13.700,0:10:15.676
and it's particularly bad for boys.

0:10:16.144,0:10:17.419
So what do we do?

0:10:17.900,0:10:19.625
We need to meet them where they are.

0:10:19.649,0:10:21.913
We need to put ourselves into boy culture.

0:10:22.537,0:10:27.792
We need to change the mindset[br]of acceptance in boys

0:10:27.816,0:10:29.254
in elementary schools.

0:10:29.768,0:10:33.663
More specifically, we can do[br]some very specific things.

0:10:33.688,0:10:35.276
We can design better games.

0:10:36.000,0:10:38.815
Most of the educational games[br]that are out there today

0:10:38.839,0:10:40.364
are really flashcards.

0:10:40.388,0:10:42.330
They're glorified drill and practice.

0:10:42.354,0:10:45.167
They don't have the depth,[br]the rich narrative

0:10:45.191,0:10:47.943
that really engaging video games have,

0:10:47.967,0:10:49.970
that the boys are really interested in.

0:10:49.994,0:10:51.636
So we need to design better games.

0:10:51.660,0:10:55.486
We need to talk to teachers and parents[br]and school board members and politicians.

0:10:55.510,0:10:59.086
We need to make sure that people see[br]that we need more men in the classroom.

0:10:59.110,0:11:01.804
We need to look carefully[br]at our zero tolerance policies.

0:11:01.828,0:11:02.996
Do they make sense?

0:11:03.020,0:11:07.575
We need to think about how to uncompress[br]this curriculum if we can,

0:11:07.600,0:11:11.065
trying to bring boys back into a space[br]that is comfortable for them.

0:11:11.600,0:11:13.886
All of those conversations[br]need to be happening.

0:11:13.910,0:11:16.713
There are some great examples[br]out there of schools...

0:11:16.737,0:11:20.220
The New York Times[br]just talked about a school recently.

0:11:20.244,0:11:22.576
A game designer from the New School

0:11:22.600,0:11:25.576
put together a wonderful[br]video gaming school.

0:11:25.992,0:11:30.829
But it only treats a few kids,[br]and so this isn't very scalable.

0:11:30.853,0:11:33.009
We have to change the culture[br]and the feelings

0:11:33.033,0:11:36.859
that politicians and school board[br]members and parents have

0:11:36.879,0:11:39.946
about the way we accept[br]and what we accept in our schools today.

0:11:40.970,0:11:42.979
We need to find more money[br]for game design.

0:11:43.003,0:11:45.357
Because good games,[br]really good games, cost money,

0:11:45.381,0:11:47.368
and World of Warcraft has quite a budget.

0:11:47.392,0:11:49.484
Most of the educational games do not.

0:11:49.508,0:11:50.756
Where we started:

0:11:50.780,0:11:53.576
my colleagues Mike Petner,[br]Shawn Vashaw, myself,

0:11:53.600,0:11:56.191
we started by trying to look[br]at the teachers' attitudes

0:11:56.215,0:11:58.560
and find out how do they really[br]feel about gaming,

0:11:58.584,0:11:59.844
what do they say about it.

0:11:59.868,0:12:04.842
And we discovered that they talk[br]about the kids in their school,

0:12:04.866,0:12:07.575
who talk about gaming,[br]in pretty demeaning ways.

0:12:08.132,0:12:11.325
They say, "Oh, yeah. They're always[br]talking about that stuff.

0:12:11.349,0:12:13.673
They're talking[br]about their little action figures

0:12:13.697,0:12:16.085
and their little achievements[br]or merit badges,

0:12:16.109,0:12:18.167
or whatever it is that they get.

0:12:18.191,0:12:20.293
And they're always talking[br]about this stuff."

0:12:20.317,0:12:22.274
And they say these things as if it's OK.

0:12:22.298,0:12:25.576
But if it were your culture,[br]think of how that might feel.

0:12:25.600,0:12:27.981
It's very uncomfortable[br]to be on the receiving end

0:12:28.005,0:12:30.187
of that kind of language.

0:12:30.576,0:12:33.792
They're nervous about anything[br]that has anything to do with violence

0:12:33.816,0:12:35.701
because of the zero tolerance policies.

0:12:35.725,0:12:37.836
They are sure that parents[br]and administrators

0:12:37.860,0:12:39.158
will never accept anything.

0:12:39.182,0:12:42.066
So we really need to think[br]about looking at teacher attitudes

0:12:42.090,0:12:44.852
and finding ways to change the attitudes,

0:12:44.876,0:12:48.846
so that teachers are much more open[br]and accepting of boy cultures

0:12:48.870,0:12:50.060
in their classrooms.

0:12:50.084,0:12:52.152
Because, ultimately, if we don't,

0:12:52.176,0:12:55.448
then we're going to have boys[br]who leave elementary school saying,

0:12:55.472,0:12:58.500
"Well I guess that was just[br]a place for girls, it wasn't for me.

0:12:58.924,0:13:01.699
So I've got to do gaming,[br]or I've got to do sports."

0:13:01.856,0:13:04.869
If we change these things,[br]if we pay attention to these things,

0:13:04.893,0:13:06.812
and we reengage boys in their learning,

0:13:06.836,0:13:10.010
they will leave the elementary[br]schools saying, "I'm smart."

0:13:10.834,0:13:11.985
Thank you.

0:13:12.009,0:13:14.485
(Applause)