Boys' Trouble in School: Maybe They Need More Art

Last week, there was an article on Newsweek.com that caught my eye about the struggle school-age boys are having. There were numerous reasons sited, and possible solutions given. As a long-time educator, I've experienced the upheavals in society, parent-rearing, and the education system. But as an art educator, I've gained some unique insights that the author of the article and many experts miss.

Here's the deal: we've always heard that girls develop/mature linguistically faster than boys. We accept that to various degrees, almost as a put-down to boys. But what are boys doing at the same time? They are developing their spatial intelligence. This is crucial to know. Watch what they do -- they build, practice drawing realistic subjects like cars and rockets and robots, play with Legos, actively do things with others, and study the details on bugs.... It's always intrigued me that this spatial intelligence is expressed in the type of work many men are drawn to -- architecture, engineering, art, and being able to estimate the amount of boxes needed to pack up a house of furniture. They are good at these types of visual puzzles. However, school rarely addresses the style of learning that many boys crave, little yet acknowledging their spatial intelligence.

School is geared to the subjects that can be easily measured. These are "left-brain" skills. Reading, math, spelling, grammar, etc. are subjects that follow patterns, require one right answer, are logical, and taught methodically. It's possible to teach specific strategies to improve in these areas fairly quickly -- which school does well. However, with the extreme push being forced upon children and teachers alike to excel in these subjects, the "right-brain" activities that actually nourish kids, and boys in particular, have been shunted aside. They require lots of think-time and doing, and school doesn't have that kind of time anymore under the current regime.

There's little left in the school day that honors the way boys learn best.

I thought when I got my masters this would be the topic I'd study for my thesis. But I ended up doing a project involving intervention models for at-risk middle school kids. Had I gone for my PhD, maybe then I'd have been able to set up a formal study just to prove officially what I already know. But I think working with thousands of elementary age children in the art room has given me plenty of insight that I didn't get in the regular classroom teaching one grade level. I've had the advantage of working with K-6 grade students on a daily basis.

There are certain things that have held true over the decades because they relate to child development. They've held true working in three states, in numerous school districts rural, suburban or urban, in schools serving the well-off, the economically disadvantaged, the homeless, and new immigrants. Kids are kids. They pass through very predictable stages of visual, creative thinking development. When this is ignored by adults, it's not the child's fault. Not teaching to this intelligence strips boys of their ability to process the typical subjects in a meaningful way.

My first real inkling of this was when I was asked to serve on a committee for the alternative high school in one community in the 1990's. They were struggling with their dropout rate and wondered if putting in an art strand might help. I spent time in the classes, chatting with students. What I couldn't help noticing was the predominant number of boys in the school. And how many of them doodled really well. It struck me that traditional teaching had failed them; they'd really fallen through the cracks far earlier in their school career. That set me to looking at what we were doing in elementary and middle school. Oh by the way, they instituted that art strand -- including glass blowing -- and had 99% attendance rate.

By the way, I'm not a fan of the "left-brain/right-brain" lingo. However, they've become acceptable mainstream models to explain complex thinking processes. They were actually coined twenty-five years ago by art teacher Betty Edwards. Her book, "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain," has spawned numerous new approaches to old topics such as spelling, even if we don't get to practice them.


You can read the full article "Struggling School Age Boys" from September 8, 2008 at http://www.newsweek.com/id/157898