Book Review: Boys Don't Try

By Laura Marsden

It may come as no surprise to learn that boys underperform at all key stages of primary and secondary education compared to their female counterparts. Perhaps more shocking is that when young men leave compulsory education they are less likely to go to university; less likely to find paid work between the ages of 22-29; make up 96% of the UK prison population and are 3 times more likely than women to be victims of suicide. Startling when you consider that there is no significant difference between male and female cognition (Pinkett and Roberts, 2019). 

After reading this introduction in Pinkett and Roberts book in ‘Boys Don’t try?’ I found myself feeling both responsible and deflated. I thought about my classes and I thought about the apathy that my male students often demonstrate. I began to question the efficacy of my planning, but in fact, the issue of underachieving boys in the classroom is not a problem that I face alone. This book is an exploration into the reasons why our boys are underachieving and what strategies we can implement at a classroom level (and a leadership level) to help tackle this problem. I highly recommend reading this text in its entirety. For the purposes of this blog post, I have picked 2 areas of the book which I found to be most interesting and summarised the findings. 

The ‘Making Subjects Boy Friendly’ myth 

As an English teacher I have been part of conversations in which we choose texts specifically with young boys in mind: 

‘Shall we throw in an article about football?’

‘Is it about gangs? The boys will like that!’ 

The logic behind this way of the thinking is easily explainable: make their learning relevant, throw in a few prizes and a competition element and even the most reluctant of our male students will want to get involved. But, according to Matt Pinkett, this approach is having the exact opposite effects in our classrooms - especially for those boys who are most in need of a confidence boost. Pinkett asks readers to imagine an environment where boys feel uncomfortable, where they can’t be themselves and they feel pressured to live up to a preconceived notion of how their gender behaves. For many young men, this will be our classrooms when we actively enforce ‘boy-friendly’ topics. 

There are many problems with this approach including: 

• People get bored easily, even in things that normally interest them

• Boys may remember the “relevant” part but they forget the learning part

• Boys don’t all like the same things and we shouldn’t assume that they do 

• Assuming boys like football and competition enforces stereotypes in the classroom for both genders 

• It prevents some boys from building cultural capital 

• It encourages low expectations of boys

• It actually promotes dominant anti-school masculinity 

Pinkett advises that there are no quick fixes as the ‘idea that making lessons entertaining or tailored to pupil interest will increase focus and improve outcomes is a widespread fallacy’. 

Rosenshine’s Principles of Instruction (a summary of 4 decades worth of research that links strategies to student outcomes), is a very good place to start:

• Beginning the lesson with a brief over review of previous learning 

• Providing models and examples, with scaffolds 

• Including opportunities for guided students practice 

• Checking for understanding and using lots of questions 

• Ensuring that students have opportunities to be successful in your lessons 

Peer Pressure 

• Never put your hand up

• Try not to answer a question directly 

• Don’t hand in homework 

• Avoid showing enthusiasm for learning 

The unspoken set of rules if you wanted to be popular at school. Mark Roberts argues that these rules were ‘informal, unofficial, unspoken but deeply intuitive’(Pinkett and Roberts, 2019). Research suggests that there is a strong link between peer pressure and attitudes towards school and learning. It also suggests that young people who see themselves as being typical of their gender are much more likely to gain acceptance and popularity in the often harsh dynamics of school (Pinkett and Roberts, 2019). What I take from these findings is that individuals who see themselves as gender atypical are open to bullying and emotional torment but also that boys actively seek to fail and reject schooling in an attempt to appear masculine and remain socially “safe”. By the time they are at secondary school, teenagers spend nearly a third of their total activity with their peers. This is double the 15% of time they spend with their parents or other adults. (Pinkett and Roberts, 2019). No wonder they listen to what their mates are saying? Roberts alludes to the vicious cycle of peer pressure on boys in which conforming to gender expectations means they reject school work and hard work as it is seen as feminine. This then leads to a lack of self confidence and a fear of appearing stupid which leads to further apathy for education. 

So what can classroom teachers do about it?

• Actively challenge displays of toxic masculinity in the classroom - what may appear as banter may be extremely damaging to the attitudes towards learning in your classroom. This may appear as seemingly tame stereotypical language such as “nerds”, “geeks”, or even homophobic language such as “gay” or pupils mocking or laughing at enthusiasm shown for subjects that are associated as being feminine. 

• Mind the language you use about the subjects you teach - we need to be responsible for breaking down stereotypes. Perhaps consider the impact of a female English teacher saying she was never any good at maths, or a male maths teacher saying he never enjoyed textiles. Even if this may be the case, we have a responsibility to our students to ensure they feel safe and secure in pursuing anything they desire, and our opinions and values matter to them!

• Provide opportunities for boys to discuss their feelings in your lessons 

• Enforce behaviour systems rigorously - one of the best ways to help out boys who do want to work is to create an environment where there is no alternative but to work hard. 

• Consider how you collect homework - does this have to be done publicly? By doing this quietly whilst students are working for example, you remove the opportunity for those who have not done the work to showcase their lack of effort.

• Differentiation should be built in and non- negotiable 

• Ask questions in a way that allows students to remain anonymous - google forms, post it notes etc. This allows students to admit to a misconception without you having to rely on the 5 or so students who are confident enough to speak up.

My Conclusion 

When I was training to become a teacher, I trained in Manchester at a school where the underachievement of boys was extremely low and a cause of great concern for all members of staff. I do not have the answers for how to keep boys engaged and motivated in the classroom, I think this is a difficult issue with multiple facets. However, I personally found that the best way to engage boys in English was by showing them how much I loved my subject. When planning lessons content shouldn’t necessarily drive interest as this can be very subjective. But what can be appreciated by all students in my classroom, whether they are male or female, is that I get so much pleasure from reading; I enjoy reading widely around my subject; I have lots of knowledge to share with them and I get excited when they produce an excellent piece of work or master a new skill. I believe this is a good place to start when we are thinking about how to engage boys in our classrooms. 

Pinkett, M. and Roberts, M., 2019. Boys Don't Try?. 1st ed. Routledge.