The Boy Problem

The Boy Problem

The Boy Problem

A historical perspective on the factors affecting boys’ relationships with school and the criminal justice system. Outstanding Academic Title, Choice America’s educational system has a problem with boys, and it’s nothing new. The question of what to do with boys—the “boy problem”—has vexed educators and social commentators for more than a century. Contemporary debates about poor academic performance of boys, especially those of color, point to a myriad of reasons: inadequate and punitive schools, broken families, poverty, and cultural conflicts. Julia Grant offers a historical perspective on these debates and reveals that it is a perennial issue in American schooling that says much about gender and education today. Since the birth of compulsory schooling, educators have contended with what exactly to do with boys of immigrant, poor, minority backgrounds. Initially, public schools developed vocational education and organized athletics and technical schools as well as evening and summer continuation schools in response to the concern that the American culture of masculinity devalued academic success in school. Urban educators sought ways to deal with the "bad boys"—almost exclusively poor, immigrant, or migrant—who skipped school, exhibited behavioral problems when they attended, and sometimes landed in special education classes and reformatory institutions. The problems these boys posed led to accommodations in public education and juvenile justice system. This historical study sheds light on contemporary concerns over the academic performance of boys of color who now flounder in school or languish in the juvenile justice system. Grant's cogent analysis will interest education policy-makers and educators, as well as scholars of the history of education, childhood, gender studies, American studies, and urban history.

The Boy Problem in the Home

Excerpt from The Boy Problem in the Home This book differs in several ways from others written upon the home training of children. It is entirely about boys. It deals with boys at all ages. (Some writers dodge the high-school age.) It has to do solely with three things: home government, sex discipline and religious nurture. There are many other interesting phases of the education of boys. There is the boy in relation to his gang, but the author has treated that in his earlier book, "The Boy Problem." There is the boy in relation to the school and society, but the author has touched that in "The Coming Generation." Then there is the boy and the church, but in "Church Work with Boys" the writer has thought about that. Other phases remain: the natural repugnance of boys to Botticelli; their immunity from the great English classics; their affinity for the baseball page in the morning papers; their scorn of afternoon tea. Only lack of space has prevented consideration of these genial themes in this book. The sons who inspired "The Boy Problem" in 1901 have now grown to manhood. Had they not all turned out well this book would not have been written. Yet they have not been referred to often here, because they have not been clinical subjects. They have rather been like friends who drop into an artist's studio while he is painting an allegorical picture and consent occasionally to sit for likenesses as his characters. After the author has outlined his theories they have been obliging enough usually to look the part. But there is one, whose eternal girlhood hardly suggests even now that she is a mother, to whom they and this book and the author owe everything. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.