What is wrong with that boy?

I've started reading the book The Trouble with Boys and it is highly interesting. I'm only in the 3rd chapter where they are still talking numbers but so far it is a very scary number game.

I remember being in elementary school when some news program (20/20, etc) did a story about how boys were called on twice as often in class as girls. From that day forward, I would test my teachers on random days to see if they were guilty of descrimination (none of them ever were) because by God, I deserved to answers as many questions as any 'stupid' boy. I was a staunch feminist. I was a big believer in "anything you can do, I can do better" I'm the girl in second grade who forced my teacher to make the boys were shirts at our spring picnic because I was hot too "and if they get to take off their shirts, then I will too" I distinctly remember the strides girls and women made in the fields of math and science during the early 90s. I remember some arguement about Barbie not having enough "smart" jobs and how they brought out scientist Barbie, vet Barbie, etc to serve as positive role models for girls. I remember all that so why, suddenly, am I concerned about the achievement of boys? After all, boys are tradtionally higher preforming so why is this an issue.

I'm concerned about boy achievement because now I have a boy who isn't achiving. He is consistantly behind in reading. He isn't interested in learning to read. He is interested in science and math. Specifically Chemistry. If things blow up or catch on fire he is all over it but he loves all types of science. Guess which subject they barely teach at school? They have a short science unit each quarter but it is late in the day and passed over if anything else runs long or if there is a half day. It also isn't interesting science. It is "seeds and plants" and "sun moon and stars". At least it is something but it could be so much better. Instead, kindergarten and first graders are being beaten over the head with sight words and take home books and all manner of other age inappropriate activities. His lack of reading achievement seems to be a pretty standard complaint of boy parent's. They mention the achievement gaps in reading and how it grows from 3rd and 4th grade through high school, where girls vastly outperform boys, repeatedly so obviously, this something other parents are dealing with.

I have many questions about this book. For example, it mentions that boys are more likely to be expelled from preschool than girls. Is this because boys aren't able to function is highly academic environments at that young of an age? Is it because (as anticdotal evidence suggests) that there are more boys enrolled in preschool? Hopefully, these questions, and others, will be addressed. I'm sure I'll have more to say about this book as I get further in it but so far I highly recommend it for parent's of boys. Even if your boys aren't in school yet, it is never a bad thing to know what you might expect when they get there.

While you wait for this book here is an article from the author on the problems of boys in school.