Getting the Best Boys Have to Offer

When our school decided to give single-gender classes a try, the first thing teachers wanted to know was whether or not they had to take the boys. I know folks who would rather take extra duty than have 25 boys in one room. But boys shine when they don’t have to worry about girls. I had a “boy homeroom” this past year and loved it.

Boys demonstrate out-of-the-box thinking that should have educators running to all-boy classes. My students successfully picked the Final Four. How? They talked about team mascots and based the winner on any given match up by which animal would win in a fight. They chose animals to beat human mascots hands down. Boys think differently. They step back and find the problems in something before they even begin the work.

The best part about the all-boy class was when there were questions about homework. They have “boy-speak” to explain what they understood the assignment to be or how to answer a question. When I assigned experts to tutor in subjects after I reviewed interims, they eagerly embraced helping and getting help with schoolwork. I had heard about other homerooms where all they wanted to do was to play table football. That was never an option in my class and my students knew it. I explained the concept of a Renaissance man, and it made all the difference.

In short, boys are who we see them to be. When you send the vibe that they are capable young men, they will strive to give you what you expect. They have a strong sense of right and wrong in a sort of esprit de corps. They genuinely want to see each other succeed and be happy. It touched my heart when they would tell me that “so and so broke up with his girlfriend today. Can we talk about Carolina baseball to cheer him up?”

And speaking of our state, it gets HOT in South Carolina. My boys went out for recess and played. Hard. The first day that they came in sweating and smelling like boys, I thought I would keel over. I made one comment about having to open the windows, but I didn’t fuss. The next day, they bypassed my room and washed up in the bathroom. I had to giggle when I heard one say, “Make sure you put on deodorant. We don’t want her passing out in here. We stink.”

Harriford-Platt is a middle school language arts teacher in South Carolina.