Our boys are not alright.
An ideal education environment support all children, and meets all of their developmental needs.
However, we have a systemic problem in the US where many classrooms are not prepared to meet the developmental needs of young boys.
We see this in all types of education, from traditional to Montessori. Both of my guests, Tom Brown and Justin Tosco, had boys who were counseled out of their Montessori classrooms for being “disruptive.”
Yet, when those same boys went to traditional classroom settings, they thrived. The problem wasn’t their boys, but rather the environment that their boys were in.
We must remember to change the environment, not the child.
When we think of the “normalized child,” as we say in Montessori circles, we must be careful not to have a single archetype of that that means. We must open up our perceptions of who all our children could be so we can honor the diversity of their emerging human spirit.
This is a podcast episode not to miss, especially because Justin and Tom are now an official part of the Breaking the Paradigm Two-Timers Club! We are currently planning a part two on this topic because there is so much to say so stay tuned!
If you have not already, I highly recommend you subscribe to
and to see more of Tom and Justin’s work!**Disclaimer**
The topic of supporting boys in educational environments is deeply connected to other critical social justice issues. In this episode, we focus exclusively on the struggle of cis boys in schools and cis men in society. While we did not mention the difference between sex and gender, talk about the gender binary, or discuss non-binary and trans students, this does not mean that these issues are unimportant, and we are looking forward to complicating and expanding the frame of our discussion in future podcast episodes.
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Breaking the Paradigm is a division of Developing Education, which is on a mission to transform education globally to foster human development and flourishing for all people.
First Intention: Curriculum and pedagogy support for Montessori adolescent practitioners, specifically with math and language across the prepared environment.
The Enlightened Educator Project: Supporting educators with mindfulness and resiliency through professional development and downloadable resources.
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