Boys and the humanities: Making the twain meet

Abstract

Misalignment between the mandates and structures of formal schooling and the developmental needs of boys, particularly in the humanities, is receiving increased levels of public and scholarly attention. The problems may be especially acute for low-income and minoritized children. But little guidance for identifying and implementing best and promising practices is available for educators. Tim Spitsberg and Jonathan A. Plucker outline recent work on this problem and identify some promising state- and local-level strategies for beginning the hard work of improving humanities learning for boys. They advocate pairing common-sense policy and curricular changes (improved data-sharing, curricular reviews for gender bias) with research-supported interventions (personalization, pathways programs into humanities-based learning and professions). When implemented with care, these strategies could improve the education of all students.