Boys are immature and girls are mature—at least that is the argument. On this Wondering of Parenting Podcast, Michael Guiran, Tim Wright, and Sean Kullman discuss the maturity alibi and how it prevents us from helping boys and girls thrive in school and at home.
Parents and teachers need the tools to succeed. By understanding that girls and boys learn differently, we can use approaches that help our children learn and thrive in school and at home. Instead of hours of frustration, we can lean-in on the importance of male and female difference and why it matters.
About the Authors:
Tim Wright is the author of The Adventures of Toby Baxter, a middle-grade fantasy series. It follows 13-year-old Toby Baxter, a comic-book and Marvel fan from Minneapolis who is pulled through a portal in his closet into the magical land of RiverHome.
Boys, A Rescue Plan by Sean Kullman and Michael Gurian argues that many boys are struggling in mental health, education, and purpose because culture often treats masculinity as a political problem instead of attending to male development. Drawing on neuroscience, data, and decades of program work, the authors say sex differences in the brain and maturation matter and should shape parenting, schools, and policy. The book then lays out a practical rescue plan—family support, boy-friendly classrooms, community programs, and better use of data—aimed at helping boys grow into healthy adult men.
Two articles to read by Sean Kullman to help you on this journey
The Maturity Alibi: Why Girls’ Scores Break the Story
In states across the U.S., many boys are struggling in the K-12 education system, and much attention is being drawn to the subject. Many of the modern discussions and solutions are presented in Boys, A Rescue Plan.
The New Math
A group of people who have no shared language could sit around and collectively solve a math problem, but people with no shared language could not read the same book. When we think of math, it needs to be seen as a symbolic language, where characters and symbols represent concepts. For instance, there is no such thing as the number four. Four symbolic…