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And the astonishing if still fledgling research into the workings of the human brain has begun to tease out significant gender differences that will have a profound impact on how we educate boys and girls. While many have warned that the step from research to practice is still in its infancy, few can doubt that this science is set to revolutionize teaching and learning.
All of this comes at a time when single-sex education––why and how single-sex schools, divisions, grades or classes can serve the learning and maturation of boys and girls––has emerged as a significant stream in the contemporary debate. Many in the United States in particular are surprised to learn that single-sex schooling is a natural part of the educational scene in many parts of the world including the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand. In the independent and parochial school sector of the United States, hundreds of single-sex schools are thriving and growing after a culling that quickened especially in and after the 1970s. Current evidence now lends renewed and powerful support to their mission and purpose. In 2006 the U.S. Department of Justice ruled in its Title IX decision in such a way as to remove any constitutional obstacles to the ability of public and charter schools to introduce single-sex schooling. In the wake of this announcement, we are witnessing an extraordinary outpouring of interest and action.
The arrival of Chris Mason’s book is thus propitious because it comes at a time when our understanding of how boys learn and develop has grown profoundly, when our concern for their achievement and well-being has skyrocketed, and when interest in schools that can focus all their energy on boys and their needs is strong and buoyant. But what educators need and seek is an arsenal of programs and teaching practices that actually work.
The intellectual harvest of a seasoned and experienced educator with a deep wisdom about boys and schools, Chris Mason’s book is an important contribution to that growing body of thinking about practice. It deserves close reading. First and foremost, he builds with infinite patience an inventory of writings on manhood, viewed from a wide range of theoretical and historical perspectives. He moves expertly across the continuum of that hot debate about the biological and cultural roots of masculinity.