Letter to the Editor of The West Australian

IBSC Executive Director Tom Batty wrote this letter to the editor of The West Australian in March 2024. It is awaiting publication.

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Education seeks participation and advancement: the transfer of the wisdom of the past to inculcate a population with capacity and desire to take control of their lives and contribute to society; and the inspiring of confidence and adaptability for each generation to advance beyond its line of sight.

We know that, on average, boys and girls develop at different times and at different rates; that as education has increasingly been premised on a content/test format, schools have struggled to find time for what works for boys. We know boys’ and young men’s participation and success rates at school, university and in the work force have fallen. We know how we care for children is confused by conceptions of gender, often leaving girls restricted and boys with little or no framework. We know the significance for boys of caring relationships in providing the necessary intimacy for reflection, accountability and growth. We know behaviour is most influenced by the home, the peer group and success at school. We know male suicide rates are rising. We know that continuing the rightful and long overdue march to equality for girls and women and doing the right thing by boys are not competing goals and can, and should, be pursued together.

Boys are heavily relational in their learning and to engage and thrive, they need to be valued and feel they can access and have a degree of success in that which we are telling them is important. They want to find a peg on which to hang their hat, feel of worth and able to make a difference. Ritual is a powerful influence in boys’ lives; when used well it fosters belonging, care and an aspirational sense of adulthood. Boys need both relational and pragmatic accountability for their actions: the ‘confessional’ and the visible consequence.

Boys are well disposed for Daniel Pink’s drives for success in these times. They want to find their niche, become skilled and connect with others in solving big problems (Mastery); they like to immerse themselves in their passions, and are disposed to disrupt, dismantle and find simpler, cheaper ways of doing things (Autonomy); and, they respond positively to the identity of small groups and teams that play larger part in causes bigger than themselves (Purpose).

If we know this, what are we doing about it in our schools?

In and out of class, schools need to take time to provide experiences that build the relationships, respect and trust on which boys thrive. They should find the time to run activities and nurture the stories upon which boys hang their learning. They must take the time to know each boy and guide him to choose engagement with, rather than separation from, learning. They should steer recruitment and professional development towards staff skilled in learning relationships and the development of boys. And they must direct all such influence to deliver relational and pragmatic consequence and accountability for behaviour. Such fundamental quest is common to all schools with boys, but boys’ schools have the advantage of being able to direct their levers of relational influence exclusively to what they know is important in the care of boys.

There are many fine coeducational schools, there are many fine girls’ schools and, throughout the world, across government, independent and Catholic sectors there are many fine boys’ schools providing choice for families and acting intentionally for the boys in their care, equipping them for participation in, and the advancement of, the societies they will serve.

Tom Batty

Executive Director, International Boys’ Schools Coalition