Boys and Girls Learn Differently!

Teachers and parents alike have long intuited that boys and girls learn differently. In this book, renowned educator and bestselling author Michael Gurian provides the brain-based research to prove it, and shows the reader how to improve a child's education by knowing the very nature of his or her mind.  

In Part 1, combining the fields of neurobiology, anthropology, educational psychology and sociology, Gurian shows the reader how the growing child's brain works, how girls' and boys' brains work differently, how hormones affect these differences, and how acculturation influences the biology. Because Gurian's research stretches to all continents, readers will be intrigued to discover how worldwide are the gender learning differences in the brain, and in homes and classrooms. Part I also looks at areas of learning difficulty boys and girls suffer as distinct groups.  

Part 2 provides solutions and applications. Gurian features innovations from around the world, but focuses especially on innovations developed by teachers in six school districts in Kansas City, Missouri, in which the Gurian Institute trained staff to help boys and girls learn differently.  

Learning improvement in these school districts was marked, and their innovations fascinating. By the end of this book, teachers, parents and others have a brain-based understanding of the child they are educating, and know how to apply what they know to distinct improvements in not only a child's general education, but also in areas of difficulty related to being a boy and being a girl.

A Fine Young Man

In A Fine Young Man, Michael Gurian focuses on male adolescence, a crucial stage of development that, he argues, is in crisis today, being both misunderstood and diminished in importance. Drawing on his own research and experience as a psychotherapist, he lays out a picture of male adolescence that is often bleak: adolescent males are four times as likely as females to commit suicide; only one out of six adolescents diagnosed with ADHD is female, and that 90% of adolescent discipline problems in schools are about males.

The thrust of his approach, however, is proactive and ultimately imbued with hope. Gurian emphasizes the importance of family in the three distinct stages (transformation, determination and consolidation) of male adolescent development, which can begin as early as nine and extends through the early 20s.

In the nurture/nature debate, Gurian falls somewhere in the middle, explaining and validating the importance of both male "hardwiring" (the genetic component) as well as emotional and cultural "soft wiring."

With persuasive eloquence, Michael outlines thoughtful and practical steps parents and other caregivers can take to create the kind of positive role-models and nurturing support systems that will help boys successfully negotiate the passage to manhood.

it's a baby boy!

From the acclaimed Gurian Institute comes a practical, science-based book for raising your little boy. The book shows how to understand the core nature of your boy and how to nourish him through problems of crying, fussing, eating, sleeping, attaching, and other key issues during the first twelve months of life.

Warm-hearted stories and tips from real moms and dads offer a preview of what’s to come for your boy as he becomes a toddler, preschool kid, prepubescent, and beyond.

"It’s a Baby Boy! is a comprehensive, easy-to-read book for parents that explains the basic structure, functioning, and uniqueness of the male brain. If you are raising a baby boy, you need to read this book!”

-Stephen J. Bavolek, Ph.D., author Nurturing Parenting Programs, Executive Director, Family Nurturing Centers, International

it's a baby girl!

The book shows how to understand the core nature of your girl and how to nourish her through problems of crying, fussing, eating, sleeping, attaching, and other key issues during the first twelve months of life.

Warm-hearted stories and tips from real moms and dads offer a preview of what’s to come for your boy as he becomes a toddler, preschool kid, prepubescent, and beyond.

“Reading It’s a Baby Girl! is akin to reading a good guidebook before and during a trip: your experience is richer as you deepen your understanding of what you are seeing, doing, and experiencing. If you are preparing for a new baby girl or have a friend or relative with a daughter, this book will be a delight."

-Lynne H. Williams, MD, coauthor, The Too Precious Child

The Minds of Boys

Michael Gurian and Gurian Institute Executive Director Kathy Stevens have written a revolutionary new book which confronts what many parents and teachers believe to be a "boy's crisis."  Boys receive up to 70% of the Ds and Fs given all students, they create 90% classroom discipline problems, 80% all high school dropouts are boys, millions of American boys are on Ritalin and other mind-bending control drugs, only 45% college students are boys, and three out of four learning disabled students are boys! 

Gurian and Stevens empower parents and teachers by presenting a whole new way of working with boys based on the success of Gurian Institute programs in schools across the country, and the latest research and application of neuro-biological research on how boys' brains actually work, how they are different from girls, and how they can learn very well if they're properly taught.  

The Minds of Boys includes ways for every parent to understand and influence how their own boy is doing in terms of the correct learning environment, how boys are motivated, how to use the arts and athletics to teach boys (whether or not they are sensitive boys, aggressive boys, restless or bored boys), the potential options for separate sex education at crucial periods of a boy's life, and how to best utilize the essential role of the parent, teacher, and community.

Nurture the Nature

Michael Gurian argues that children are not blank slates to be shaped as we wish.  Rather, each is born with a unique core nature--specific needs, strengths, vulnerabilities, and learning style--that cannot be adequately supported with a one-size-fits all approach.  “Social trends parenting does not focus on who our children are,” says Gurian, “and it works against the core nature of the individual child, causing children and families to suffer unnecessary anxiety and chronic stress.”

Drawing on twenty-five years of academic research and clinical field study, The Gurian Institute’s work with hundreds of school districts and thousands of parents nationwide, as well as the latest research in brain science in child and adolescent development, Gurian provides readers with the tools they need to uncover their child’s core nature – who their child really is – so each child can flourish and thrive.

For each stage of development, Gurian describes what parents should be aware of when relating to their children as they grow.  For example, he notes that four to six year-olds become naturally attracted to “things”, and explains how parents can protect their children from the dangers of materialism. 

He also includes solutions from real-life parents, such as Hannah, a mother of three in Houston, who had her children give away a toy every time they got a new toy, starting when they were four years old.

THE PURPOSE OF BOYS
by Michael Gurian

This book focuses on four crucial elements of male development today:

* Understanding how boys develop a purpose in life.  Boys develop purpose in some ways distinctly different from girls, and have some distinctly “male” needs for role and purpose—these grow from both nature and nurture.

* Issues boys and men can face when they do not develop purpose, motivation, and a sense of meaning.
 
* The role of parents and communities in ensuring purpose-development for sons (boys need and want not just their parents, but also extended family, mentors, teachers and other community members to provide maps for life-purpose).

* New methods, parenting strategies and teaching techniques that have been proven to work in schools, classrooms and homes.

What Stories Does My Son Need?

Michael Gurian shows parents and teachers how to harness the media's influence to teach boys the lessons they need in today's confusing moral environment. The author gives particular ethical lessons for many great movies and books.

The Wonder of Boys

In the thoughtful and provocative The Wonder of Boys: What Parents, Mentors, and Educators Can Do to Shape Boys into Exceptional Men, Michael Gurian takes a close look at modern boyhood. Gurian asserts that the biological and neurological differences between boys and girls need to be accounted for and nourished in order to raise healthy, happy boys.

In discussing boy culture--and the roles of competition, aggression, and physical risk taking--Michael concludes, "It's not boy culture that's inherently flawed; it's the way we manage it." If the natural, testosterone-based impulses of boys are squelched or ignored, Gurian posits, such biological truths may find their way to the surface in other, more negative behaviors.

He suggests that boys do best when they are part of a "tribe," three families that include: a birth or adoptive family; an extended family of friends, teachers, peers, and mentors; and the "family" of outside culture, media, religious institutions, and community figures.

The Wonder of Boys offers advice on how to understand and build strong father/son and mother/son relationships, stresses the importance of healthy discipline, and suggests methods of teaching boys about sex, relationships, and spirituality. Parents and teachers of boys will find this book to be an insightful read.

The Wonder of Girls

Michael Gurian, himself the father of two girls, provides crucial information for fully understanding the basic nature of girls: up-to-date scientific research on female biology, hormones, and brain development and how they shape girls’ interests, behavior, and relationships.  

Michael also offers insight into a culture mired in competition between traditionalism and feminism and a new vision that provides for the equal status of girls and women yet acknowledges their nature as complex and distinct from men. He explains what is “normal” for girls each year from birth to age 20; what developmental needs girls face in each stage; how to communicate effectively with girls; and how to cope with developmental crises such as early sexuality, eating disorders, parental divorce, and more.  

With personal insights, practical tips, real-life anecdotes, and accessible science, The Wonder of Girls creates a new parenting paradigm. Key elements include: