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

Publisher: Jossey-Bass/John Wiley
Release date: January 30, 2009. Cost $14.95

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

Publisher: Jossey-Bass/John Wiley
Release date: January 30, 2009. Cost $14.95

Leadership and the Sexes

"LEADERSHIP AND THE SEXES is a practical, science-based, and engaging book that will be referred to time and again by our HR department.  At the same time, this book is NOT just for the corporate world. It features an astonishing story about the $190 million annual savings in reduced turnover realized (at least in part) by a corporation working to recognize, understand, and take advantage of the brain differences between genders.  Imagine the bottom line benefit of this same training for peace negotiators, national leaders of pivotal social movements, philanthropists, academicians, and policy-makers - all seeking to make a difference in our world!"

"In LEADERSHIP AND THE SEXES, corporate moguls Michael Gurian and Barbara Annis illustrate how brain chemistry influences gender and how gender in turn powerfully affects every aspect of workplace behavior. The authors are at their best when at their most practical, using step-by-step instructions, exercises and simply worded "GenderTools" to teach men and women to understand each other in meetings and on the golf course....Readers with a desire to improve workplace gender relations will do well with this pragmatic and well-intentioned guide."

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.

USA Today interview with Michael Gurian
about his new book, April 9, 2009

Strategies for Teaching Boys & Girls
Elementary Level

In his best-selling classic Boys and Girls Learn Differently, Michael Gurian explained the origin and nature of gender differences in the classroom. His important book explored the behavior teachers observed and the challenges they faced with both boys and girls in their classrooms.

Taking the next step, two Strategies for Teaching Boys and Girls workbooks, one for Elementary Level and one for Secondary Level, offer teachers hands-on resources that draw on the Gurian Institute's research and training with public, private, and independent elementary schools, secondary schools and school districts. The workbooks present practical strategies, lessons, and activities that have been field-tested in real classrooms and developed to harness boys' and girls' unique strengths.

These workbooks, co-authored by Kathy Stevens and Kelley King, are designed to help teachers build a solid foundation of learning and study habits that their students can use in the classroom and at home. It covers the key curricular areas and offers proven techniques to make learning, no matter what the subject, more engaging for all students.

These workbooks are an essential resource for all teachers who want to improve their practice and get the most from all students—whatever their gender.

Successful Single-Sex Classrooms

Here is an essential resource for teachers and administrators who want to establish single-gender classes, and for anyone already working in schools—public, private, or parochial—with single-sex programs. The book offers educators important information about gender-based brain science and provides practical, effective strategies for single-sex schools and classrooms.

What Could He Be Thinking?

Having studied how boys and girls develop differently, Michael Gurian turns his attention to adult men in this entertaining, informative, and groundbreaking book on the male brain.

Following two decades of neurobiological research, What Could He Be Thinking? answers the questions women and the world are asking about husbands, fathers, boyfriends, and coworkers. Mixing neurobiology with Gurian's very readable style, anecdotes from everyday life, and a new vision of the male psyche, the book will satisfy the tremendous curiosity women and our culture have about the roots of male behavior. Women know intuitively that men are different from them. What women are now just coming to realize is that the men they are married to, having sex with, working with, parenting with, and trying to fathom, act and think in very male ways, not only because they are socialized to do so, but because they are built to--neurobiologically.

The new field of brain science has revealed wonderful secrets about a man's mind. In this book, women who are eager to understand the men in their lives can discover the new brain science in an entertaining way, as they get answers to the prime question every woman asks at some time in her life: What could he be thinking?

The book provides fascinating information about the male brain, male habits, male tendencies, and the nuances of men's actions and thoughts. It is a provocative, exciting vision into the minds of men.

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:

Debating Single-Sex Education
Edited by Frances R. Spielhagen

Educators agree that boys and girls learn differently, but do they learn better in single-sex classes? Single-sex education has become a "hot topic" among educators striving to address achievement declines, especially in the middle school years.

Since the United States Department of Education confirmed the legality of single-sex classes in public schools in 2006, the number of single-sex classes and schools has increased dramatically and the options continue to grow in popularity.

Debating Single-Sex Education offers a timely and detailed summary of the issues surrounding single-sex education. Eight veteran educators provide research-based findings on single-sex classes in the United States and Africa.

This book presents a brief historical summary of single-sex classes in the United States. Other features include recent qualitative case studies, interviews with students, and statistical evidence of the effects of single-sex classes on student achievement.

The final chapter synthesizes the common findings among these studies and the implications for practice in schools.

Last Child in the Woods
by Richard Louv

Published in 2005 by Algonquin Books
of Chapel Hill, North Carolina
http://www.algonquin.com

Richard Louv was the first to identify a phenomenon we all knew existed but couldn't quite articulate: nature-deficit disorder. His book created a national conversation about the disconnection between children and nature, and his message has galvanized an international movement.

Now, several years after its initial publication, we have reached a tipping point, with Leave No Child Inside initiatives adopted in at least 30 regions within 21 states, and in Canada, Holland, Australia, and Great Britain.

From Boys to Men of Heart

Award-winning author Randall L. Eaton, Ph.D., is a behavioral scientist with an international reputation in wildlife conservation who has been studying hunting for 35 years. While producing “The Sacred Hunt” in the mid-1990s, he interviewed scores of recreational hunters as well as Native Americans. Eaton was surprised to discover that they all used the word “respect” to describe how they feel about animals they hunt.

Eaton’s survey also asked hunters what life event most opened their hearts and engendered compassion in them. The choices included death of a loved one, death of a beloved pet, becoming a parent, taking the life of an animal, and teaching young people. The women hunters overwhelmingly chose “becoming a parent,” but nearly all the men selected taking the life of an animal.

“These results indicate the fundamental polarity of human life. Women are adapted to bring life into the world, but men are adapted to take life to support life,” Eaton said.

The same survey asked respondents to choose those universal virtues they learned from hunting. The top three choices were inner peace, patience and humility. Eaton’s book contains interviews of leading authorities in several fields who corroborate his research. One is Michael Gurian, family therapist and best-selling author of several books on how to properly raise boys. Gurian agrees that hunting does teach men compassion, and that it would be a more peaceful world if more men hunted. The Gurian Institute recommends Eaton’s book to parents.