EduCon 2027We Need to Talk About the Boys
Start with an average boy you know as a student. Most of us probably have one in mind already: bright enough (or at least clearly interested in one thing), not quite always doing the work, funny in the hallway, silent in class, and generally an emotional and academic puzzle box. Not a leader among their peers; not a destructive force. Just there, and doing…. fine? We work in a world where male privilege is real and structural, and we also work in buildings where boys are falling behind in reading and writing, graduating less prepared, lonelier than they feel comfortable admitting, and in a growing genuine mental health crisis. The privilege is real; the challenges and at-risk status of boys and young men as a group is real. In mixed-gender schools the data that paint this picture are often hidden behind collective averages girls are lifting academically, or ameliorating behaviorally. Saying the second thing out loud feels risky, so often we don't, and the silence helps nobody, least of all the boys, who have found plenty of other people online happy to explain versions of manhood to them in ways that further depress long-term prospects for healthy outcomes. This is not a session about boys deserving more. We have been handed plenty. This conversation aims to offer a space to explore the vast space between the limiting, binary superlative positive (leader, hero, champion) and negative (toxic, incel, failure) labels we often apply to boys and young men. Teenage boys may be among the most complex, sensitive, and easily misunderstood animals on the planet, and we often lack the vocabulary, cultural permission, and strategies to normalize their challenges, and invite them to talk about them openly and with compassion. We'll borrow provocations from Richard Reeves, Adam Price, and Scott Galloway, but the real material is us: educators from all sorts of schools in many different regions, all watching different versions of the same thing. Come with a dilemma from your own building. Leave with a few new moves and better questions to take back home.
Conversational Practice
I'll talk for maybe twelve of the ninety minutes, and I'd like someone to hold me to that.
We each start with a boy (10 min). Everyone writes silently about one boy they are worried about and what exactly the worry is. Pairs, then a handful of shares for the whole group. Abstractions about "boys" can get negative fast, which is why we’re staring with a specific student - keeps us honest.
Chalk talk (15 min). Four provocations on chart paper around the room: a data set or claim from one of our anchor texts (Reeves, Price, Galloway). Starting with a blank sheet that just says what are you seeing? People walk, write, and argue with each other in the margins. No talking!
Stand somewhere (20 min). A deliberately contestable statement: "our school should run programming specifically for boys" and everyone physically places themselves along a line. That statement is open to interpretation. We hear from several points on it. People are invited to move, and asked what moved them. Nobody has to defend where they started.
Dilemma groups (25 min). Groups of 4-5, each taking a lens: literacy and engagement, discipline and referral patterns, advisory and relationships, how school staffing supports our boys, and what we say to families. We’ll use a consultancy protocol: one person brings a live problem, the group asks clarifying and then probing questions before anyone is allowed to offer advice.
Share & Capture (15 min). Each group puts two things worth stealing and one unresolved question into a shared doc that's open all session. We read it together and name what we still disagree about, because we will.
Close (5 min). One sentence each: what you'll actually try before March.
Norms will go up at the start next to the EduCon Code of Conduct. I’m aware this session can go sideways, and it's kinder to say so in minute one. The shared doc stays open afterward, and I'll keep adding to it.
No comments have been posted yet.
Log in to post a comment.