September 2008
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The 15th Annual IBSC Conference in Toronto
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And on to New Zealand!
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New TrusteesThis year we said farewell to retiring trustees Kerry Brennan (The Roxbury Latin School), Dennis Campbell (Woodberry Forest School), Mike Ingrisani (The Browning School), Ken Larocque (Avon Old Farms School), and Rick Melvoin (Belmont Hill School). Together, they represent many years of service and leadership, and we owe them our heartfelt thanks. Joining the Board of Trustees are:
We've posted brief bios of our new trustees here. As IBSC continues to spread its wings, these new trustees will help us expand our strong leadership and services and further the IBSC mission. |
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Wisdom of Teaching in Boys’ SchoolsSeventeen member schools are participating in Wisdom of Teaching in Boys’ Schools, an exciting IBSC initiative. Wisdom of Teaching in Boys’ Schools explores whether there are instructional practices and activities that seem to be especially effective for boys’ engagement and achievement. We know that our boys’ schools are reservoirs of expertise in boys’ education, and have a long and proven track record of developing the potential of boys. This project is designed to tap and share on a global scale the knowledge and wisdom displayed everyday in IBSC classrooms. Over the past five months, teachers and groups of students in these schools completed a detailed on-line survey, guiding them to narrate memorable teaching and learning experiences. Teachers were also asked to reflect on these memorable lessons and activities – why they seemed to click, and how they might be related to boys’ learning profiles. Altogether, close to 1000 teachers and more than 1500 boys world-wide submitted thoughtful and revealing reflections. It is not an exaggeration to say that this is the richest and largest data base of its kind anywhere. Researchers Mike Reichert and Rick Hawley are now past midway in their review and analysis of the data, and are listening carefully to the “voices” of teachers and boys in these submissions. Their sensitive sifting and sorting of the data is already unearthing, extending, and deepening many clear themes and strands in practice. The report will be delivered to the IBSC in a few months, and we plan to make it available first to IBSC member schools as early as the beginning of the New Year. This report will stimulate and focus discussion at the school level and across our network of boys’ schools – and document in a compelling way that boys’ schools are truly centres of excellence in the teaching of boys. |
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Landon Conference: Building Cultures of Integrity and Honor in Boys' SchoolsLandon School is the host of an IBSC conference on “boys and integrity” on November 20 and 21st. This IBSC conference focuses on the goals and strategies in making and renewing boys’ schools as places where boys practice and learn the core values of honesty, integrity and respect. We all recognize that character education is central to our mission as schools for boys, and an important measure of our achievement. The conference will be of special interest to assistant or deputy heads, deans of students, and others charged with responsibilities for this realm of school life. It is aimed at both the senior and middle school levels. Schools might consider sending a number of staff to the conference, to optimize transfer of this learning. Please click here for information about this conference, and to register.
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Adam Cox in AustraliaAuthor of Boys of Few Words and No Mind Left Behind and a frequent presenter at IBSC conferences, Adam Cox will be visiting IBSC schools in Australia, October 6-17. His journey will take him to Marcellin College, Camberwell Grammar School, and Brighton Grammar School in Melbourne; Anglican Church Grammar School and Moreton Bay Boys' College in Brisbane; The Shore School and Barker College in Sydney; and Christ Church Grammar School in Perth. In addition to these staff and parent presentations, Adam will be a keynote speaker at the National Boys' Education Conference at The King's School in Parramatta on October 12. For more information about Dr. Cox's program in Australia, contact the Executive Director atoffice@theibsc.org. |
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Action ResearchAvailable later in September is Positive Relationships, Positive Learning, a culmination of the creative and inspired work of five educators in the IBSC action research program for 2007-8. The reports explore peer leadership projects, mentoring initiatives, and programs that promote healthy relationships and “give the empathy muscle a workout”, in the words of one contributor. For front-line teachers and school leaders alike, the research journeys recounted here testify to the power of action research to spark professional growth and school change. Twelve members of the new action research team met at the Toronto Conference, and are launched on their own projects. These will investigate ways to use texts and other media to challenge, broaden, and enhance boys’ understanding of “masculinities”. The team will report at the conference next July, and the anthology of their projects will be published. The announcement about the next round of IBSC action research 2009-10 will be made in early October. For more information about the past three years of the action research initiative, go to theIBSC Action Research site. |
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Great Programs in Boys’ Schools Since we announced this web service last year, we have received a number of wonderful submissions. These are great examples of fine programs in IBSC schools, and the pride and enthusiasm are infectious.
To meet the promise of this site, we need many more schools to contribute. Imagine if every school in the IBSC contributed two or three or four examples! The photo to the right depicts the Academic Council at Westlake Boys' High School, New Zealand, the topic of a recently submitted Great Program. The Great Programs in Boys’ Schools submission form and the extended program descriptions are “Members Only”, and you will need your IBSC username/password to get through the door. If you have misplaced these, please contact your Head’s office or write us at office@theibsc.org, and we will help out.
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IBSC Visits and ExchangesSo many IBSC schools have expressed an interest in forging global connections and partnerships, and this web service is designed to provide a helpful “notice board”. To post an interest in sending or receiving faculty or teachers in visits and exchanges, you will need your school’s IBSC “Members Only” username and password. The homepage of the programmeoutlines the various categories of faculty and student visits and exchanges. The on-line submission page is designed to capture a school’s intentions as a “sending” and as a “hosting” school, along with relevant information about the school itself. Once submitted, core information for each school is posted on a “notice board”, and the reader can then follow links to the full information for schools that may be of interest. Contact information for those directly responsible for faculty and student visit and exchange programmes in other schools is provided there. Our hope is that IBSC schools will now take up this opportunity, and that it will lead to some wonderful collaboration, enriching the professional lives of our teachers and the experiences of boys in our global network of boys’ schools. To post an interest in sending or receiving faculty or teachers in visits and exchanges, you will need your school’s IBSC “Members Only” username and password. If you have misplaced or forgotten this, contact us at office@theibsc.org.
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New and NoteworthyThe global debate and discussion about boys continues to grow, and the recent publishing season brings many new and thought-provoking books to the list. Fuelling a fire, journalist Kathleen Parker's Save the Males: Why Men Matter; Why Women Should Care paints a picture, among other things, of an anti-male and “boy-bashing” culture, with alarming consequences for masculine identity. Aiming always to poke and provoke, Parker concludes: “Saving the males – engaging their nobility and recognizing their unique strengths – will ultimately benefit women and children, too.” From a different perspective, and based on a wide range of research and interviews, sociologist Michael Kimmel’s Guyland: The Perilous World Where Boys Become Men dissects the Guy Code, a bundle of attitudes and behaviours that are as toxic as they are pervasive. “Today’s young men are coming of age in an era with no road maps, no blueprints, and no primers to tell them what a man is and how to become one”, he writes.
Richard Hawley’s Beyond the Icarus Factor: Releasing the Free Spirit of Boys occupies some of the same territory in this elegaic exploration of the “puer myth” – that creative, imaginative energy in boyhood - and of the ways in which our cultural and educational expectations lead to “successful” but hollow men. The story is told with great sympathy and sensitivity, and prompts readers to see their work in boys' schools in a different light. Journalist Peg Tyre got our attention with her 2006 article on “the Boy Crisis” in Newsweek. In The Trouble with Boys, she deepens and expands the premise, and probes the contours of and reasons for the growing gender gap in school achievement and engagement. Committed as anyone to gender equality, she nonetheless warns that “we don't get there by ignoring the very real struggles of schoolboys. Right now, we have 2.5 million more college-going females than college-going males.” Along with an especially deft and smart handling and analysis of the evidence, she shares success stories, reflections and practical tips that offer direction for parents, schools and community leaders. In Boys Should be Boys: 7 Secrets to Raising Healthy Sons, pediatrician Meg Meeker maps the trends – ranging from the absence of positive role models to a toxic media culture – that throw obstacles in the way of boys’ maturation to manhood. “My concern is not with what is politically correct, but what is true and what is best for boys”. Reflecting on her own engagement with families, she urges parents (and educators) to understand boys’ nature, and to guide them to positive and principled manhood. The unwavering emphasis here is on the nurturing of boys’ moral character; and her practical guidance to mothers, fathers and mentors is firmly articulated. Michael Thompson, writing again with Teresa Barker, returns with It’s A Boy!, Understanding Your Son’s Development from Birth to Age 18. The precise mapping of the physical, cognitive, social and emotional stages of boys’ development, a balanced and careful discussion of the research literature, and a trademark gift for story, make this an exemplary resource. It’s a Boy will prove to be an enormously durable and wise guidebook, an essential reference for schools and teachers, as well as parents. Finally, Michael Gurian joins Barbara Annis in Leadership and the Sexes: Using Gender Science to Create Success in Business. They summarize the neuro-science of gender differences, and focus on the way these play out in workplace relationships, decision-making and corporate leadership. The authors lay out a series of management strategies and exercises to help corporations and organizations become “gender aware”, and harness the power of that understanding. While this book is not in any direct way about schools, some readers may want to think about its application and relevance - what skills boys will need in the workplace of tomorrow, how our schools can mobilize the talent and perspective of all the men and women who teach there. |
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New MembersAustralia Canada Hong Kong, SAR, China New Zealand Poland South Africa United Kingdom United States |
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We welcome any feedback about this e-newsletter and all IBSC matters.
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| The International Boys' Schools Coalition is dedicated to the education and development of boys world-wide, the professional growth of those who work with them, and the advocacy and the advancement of institutions - primarily schools for boys - that serve them. |