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Oh Boy, Oh Girl
July 1, 2019
Cultivate a heart of love that knows no anger.
-Cambodian Proverb
-Cambodian Proverb
Two important books that help educators think of the developmental needs of young boys, and of adolescent girls, have been released recently. The first, Oh Boy!, by Francis Wardle, explains that “there is an increasing body of evidence that shows that boys and girls are biologically different. These differences include basic brain development (both structure and maturation), verbal skills, emotional regulation, and physical development….These initial biological differences are compounded by the way the environment responds to boys and girls…behavioral expectations in many programs appear to frustrate the needs of boys to be messy, spontaneous, and physical.”
The second book is the 25th anniversary edition of Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls by Mary Pipher, which originally came out in 1994 and has been revised and updated for a new generation by Pipher and Sara Gilliam, Editor-in-Chief of Exchange Magazine.
Pipher writes: “In 1994, I suggested that we work together to strengthen girls so that they will be prepared for the culture they actually live in. Sara and I reached the same conclusion today. We can encourage emotional resilience and self-protection. We can support and guide girls through the tumult of adolescence, but most important, we can work together to build a culture that is less complicated and more nurturing, less violent and sexualized and more growth-producing.” Gilliam adds: “I am inspired…by the girls I interviewed for this book. They are getting many things right in this new century. They have bypassed tolerance in favor of acceptance, and often, celebration – of people different than themselves. They are insightful about their own mental health and can describe their peers with empathy and wisdom…Today’s girls need love, guidance, deep friendships, respectable limits and time to figure out life on their own terms. So did I.”
Strategies for Teaching Boys in Early Childhood to get 25% off this title for a limited time |
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Comments (2)
Displaying All 2 CommentsFlint, Michigan, United States
I do believe that girls tend to be somewhat more mature than boys because boys do not always take things seriously and they tend to play around more frequently. Girls do develop self regulation, language, fine motor skills at an early age and that is because they are maturing in some of the developmental areas of their lives and those areas seem to be less assertive. I have been working with children for more than 19 years and i am currently raising a daughter and a son and i can tell that my daughter is always looking for me to give her permission and the approval of what she can and cannot do, but my son on the other hand will just do it with no remorse or regret. I also think that boys feel that they have to be loud or in with the end crowd just to be heard and I feel that that is a sterotype that needs to be stopped.
The Tree House Family Child Care
Pardeeville, USA_WI, United States
"These initial biological differences are compounded by the way the environment responds to boys and girls…behavioral expectations in many programs appear to frustrate the needs of boys to be messy, spontaneous, and physical.”- I would counter that many programs frustrate the needs of all children to be messy, spontaneous and physical. Because girls tend to develop emotional self-regulation, language, and fine motor skills at an earlier age and because they are socialized to be more submissive, they tend to be less assertive of their needs, but that does not mean those needs do not exist for girls. I've been working with young children for over 25 years and raised 3 daughters into adulthood. I can tell you that girls want to and often need our permission to dance in the rain, paint themselves with mud, fill their paper with paint, throw rocks in the water, climb trees, howl at the moon, chase and wrestle like puppies, scream out their rage and get their clothes dirty. While boys are told they are supposed to be loud, messy and wild and then sent to a school where none of those things are allowed, girls are told to be pretty, quiet and helpful and then sent to a school where all these things are praised. Don't pretend that compliance means fulfillment. After all, that is exactly why Ophelia needs to be revived.
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