Perspectives
Insights into Boys
Insights into boys are available here with new ones added periodically. You can view previous insights by using the archive to the right.
This next series of insights looks at the recommendations from Ian Lillico's research, carried out as part of his Churchill Fellowship in 2000.
Recommendation 3
by Ian Lillico
"There is a concern that both families and society may be prematurely separating boys from their mothers. Many boys and men suffer lifelong problems as they often long to return to the close nurturing relationship they had with their mother. No amount of mother nurturing is harmful for boys or makes them into weaklings or sissies."..
Read more...
School Reforms
2000 ASPA Conference Report
"The School Reforms Required to Engage Boys in Schooling"
The listing below contains the recommendations from Ian Lillico's research, carried out as part of his Churchill Fellowship in 2000...
Read more...
Improve Your Child
50 ways to improve your child's attention span and behaviour without drugs
Used with permission from Thomas Armstrong...
Read more...
Literacy
One of the major issues concerning boys is the levels of literacy.
Over the last few decades there has been a shift in boys' learning patterns and a major move from paper-based information retrieval towards electronic media such as computers, television and digital media. Men have never been as keen on reading books for pleasure as much as women, but the current lack of reading by boys is a major concern to society.
As boys move into Secondary school and higher education, where there is a reliance on text books, they seem to plateaux and the lack of reading from their Primary years has its' impact on their results as they have difficulty comprehending textual material and often haven't developed the reading habits which allow them to progress successfully...
Read more...
Transitions
Transition Program from Primary to Secondary school
Boys entering High School are at their most vulnerable. Puberty is in full swing and they have lost the security of their one classroom and one teacher from their final year in Primary School. The most critical need for males is territory and when High School begins, boys' territory changes at each sound of the siren, as they move from classroom to classroom.
They also have to adjust to a number of different subject specialist teachers who each have a different set of rules and expectations. Boys, their teachers and parents need help at organizing themselves to lessen the blow to their boys'self esteem. This occurs frequently and results in alienation, hopelessness and misbehaviour as they strive to establish their pecking order from among their peers in a myriad of different class settings...
Read more...
Videos
People often ask "What videos/DVDs would be good for my son to watch?"
Here's a few that Ian Lillico recommends...
Read more...