| View Larger Image | Why Gender Matters: What Parents and Teachers Need to Know about the Emerging Science of Sex Differences | Paperbackby Leonard Sax M.D. Ph.D. (Author)
| List Price: | $14.95 | | Price: | $10.17 | | You Save: | $4.78 (32%) | | | Available: | Usually ships in 24 hours |
| | Binding: | Paperback | | Publisher: | Broadway | | Edition: | 1st Edition | | Page Count: | 336 Pages | | Publication Date: | February 14, 2006 | | Sales Rank: | 18,079th |
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FEATURES | - ISBN13: 9780767916257
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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EDITORIAL REVIEWS |
Product Description
Are boys and girls really that different? Twenty years ago, doctors and researchers didn’t think so. Back then, most experts believed that differences in how girls and boys behave are mainly due to differences in how they were treated by their parents, teachers, and friends. It's hard to cling to that belief today. An avalanche of research over the past twenty years has shown that sex differences are more significant and profound than anybody guessed. Sex differences are real, biologically programmed, and important to how children are raised, disciplined, and educated. In Why Gender Matters, psychologist and family physician Dr. Leonard Sax leads parents through the mystifying world of gender differences by explaining the biologically different ways in which children think, feel, and act. He addresses a host of issues, including discipline, learning, risk taking, aggression, sex, and drugs, and shows how boys and girls react in predictable ways to different situations. For example, girls are born with more sensitive hearing than boys, and those differences increase as kids grow up. So when a grown man speaks to a girl in what he thinks is a normal voice, she may hear it as yelling. Conversely, boys who appear to be inattentive in class may just be sitting too far away to hear the teacher—especially if the teacher is female. Likewise, negative emotions are seated in an ancient structure of the brain called the amygdala. Girls develop an early connection between this area and the cerebral cortex, enabling them to talk about their feelings. In boys these links develop later. So if you ask a troubled adolescent boy to tell you what his feelings are, he often literally cannot say.Dr. Sax offers fresh approaches to disciplining children, as well as gender-specific ways to help girls and boys avoid drugs and early sexual activity. He wants parents to understand and work with hardwired differences in children, but he also encourages them to push beyond gender-based stereotypes. A leading proponent of single-sex education, Dr. Sax points out specific instances where keeping boys and girls separate in the classroom has yielded striking educational, social, and interpersonal benefits. Despite the view of many educators and experts on child-rearing that sex differences should be ignored or overcome, parents and teachers would do better to recognize, understand, and make use of the biological differences that make a girl a girl, and a boy a boy. |
CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.0 based on 57 reviews)
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Incredible Science Presented by Scott T. Reese (Mobile, Alabama)  5 Stars
November 05, 2009
Thank goodness Dr. Sax wrote this book. If you have kids and like to rely on scientific results vs. well intentioned ideas, then you'll love this book and it will impact your parenting strategies.
I devoured this book in a few days and my wife has agreed to read it as a result of its impact on me.
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Flawed, but valuable. by A. Huskey (San Francisco, CA)  3 Stars
October 07, 2009
The Good
Why Gender Matters does an excellent job of presenting taboo subject mater with well laid out arguments backed by evidence. The premise of the book is summed up well in this passage from one of the appendages: "A central argument for this book is that for the past three decades, the influence of social and cognitive factors on gender traits has been systematically overestimated while the innate factors have been neglected."
This is a difficult subject to tackle without coming across as a sexist and a bigot. But I was consistently impressed with Sax's ability to approach these topics delicately but unambiguously. His careful phrasing effectively disarmed the knee-jerk defensive reaction, and unapologetically delivered his points in the most reasonable tone.
The writing was pleasant to read, and the content thought-provoking, enlightening and challenging.
The Bad
Sax mixes in a lot of his personal views on morality and proper child rearing. There are whole pages which hardly reference gender at all, which instead serve as a soapbox for Sax to rant about the need for discipline or rail against mushy liberal parenting approaches.
I have little basis on which to judge his parenting advice, being a topic I have little knowledge of or interest in. Even so, it came off as prudish and overbearing, and I think the book suffered for it.
The Unforgivable
In the chapter six, titled "Sex", a sensationalist and thoroughly debunked myth, "Rainbow Parties" (wikipedia it) is cited as evidence for the moral decline of our society and the outrageous activities that kids these days engage in. This glaring factual error lends serious doubt to the credibility of the author as an unbiased man of evidence.
In Summary
The book begins with the claim that this book is the only one of its kind. The very idea of innate gender differences is too taboo to be discussed by any except those promoting antiquated and inaccurate gender stereotypes. Why Gender Matters is valuable to the extent that this is true. This is a subject that desperately needs the attention of rigorous study, but instead receives only politically fueled proclamations on both sides.
If you are a creature of modern sensibilities, reading this book will most likely make you extremely uncomfortable. For some of us, that special kind of discomfort a clue that there's some truth to be found, and moreover a truth that demands seeking out with the aid of brutal self-analysis.
I hope that this does not remain the only book of its kind.
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Why Gender Matters by Wendy E. Cochran (Oakland CA) 5 Stars
August 11, 2009
I am a school teacher and the mother of two grown children, one girl and one boy and the grandmother of an 8 year old boy...this book changed my whole perspective and gave me permission to actually acknowledge that boys and girls learn very differently and some have entirely different ways of communicating. For those who struggle with teenagers as well as younger elementary boys who are nose diving in school around reading....this book is a MUST READ.
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Yes it does! by Kenneth Cleaver (Virginia)  4 Stars
August 07, 2009
In a socio-cultural context where speaking of biological and psychological differences between the genders is usually regarded as taboo, this work handles the obvious with studies to back up its claims. It's up to you to figure out what to do with these differences, but let's not cover up the differences because of our political agenda.
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Sloppy, and intellectually dishonest by N. A. Davis  1 Stars
April 11, 2009
The quality of the author's scholarship is appalling. He selects the studies/works whose conclusions he finds palatable and presents them as representative, and in some cases authoritative. But they are neither. The author has engaged in cherry-picking: he selects the studies whose conclusions he likes and ignores the cascade of controverting studies. Moreover, he manipulatively and underhandedly insinuates that the authors/studies he cites are widely regarded as sound, if not definitive.
It's not merely that the scholarship is atrocious and the author is dishonest. Because of the importance of the topic and the fact that parents are struggling to distinguish the signal from the noise regarding questions of gender identity, sexual orientation, and single-sex schools, etc, the author's oversimplification and propagandistic distortions stand to do real damage.
(If I could have given this a lower rating, I would have done so. I have never written a more unqualifiedly negative review.)
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SIMILAR PRODUCTS |
| Boys Adrift: The Five Factors Driving the Growing Epidemic of Unmotivated Boys and Underachieving Young Men
by Leonard Sax (Author)
Something scary is happening to boys today. From kindergarten to college, American boys are, on average, less resilient and less ambitious than they were a mere twenty years ago. The gender gap in college attendance and graduation rates has widened dramatically. While Emily is working hard at school and getting A’s, her brother Justin is goofing off. He’s more concerned about getting to the next level in his videogame than about finishing his homework. Now, Dr. Leonard Sax delves into the...
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| The Boys and Girls Learn Differently Action Guide for Teachers
by Michael Gurian (Author), Arlette C. Ballew (Author)
The landmark book Boys and Girls Learn Differently! outlines the brain-based educational theories and techniques that can be used to transform classrooms and help children learn better. Now The Boys and Girls Learn Differently Action Guide for Teachers presents experiential learning techniques that teachers can use to create an environment and enriched curriculum that take into account the needs of the developing child's brain and allows both boys and girls to gain maximum learning...
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| Boys and Girls Learn Differently!: A Guide for Teachers and Parents
by Michael Gurian (Author)
In this profoundly significant book, author Michael Gurian synthesizes this current knowledge and clearly demonstrates how this distinction in hard-wiring and socialized gender differences affects how boys and girls learn. Gurian presents a new way to educate our children based on brain science, neurological development, and chemical and hormonal disparities.
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| Teaching the Male Brain: How Boys Think, Feel, and Learn in School
by Abigail Norfleet James (Author)
Helps teachers recognize sociological and neurobiological foundations of cognitive gender differences and develop differentiated teaching strategies that are responsive to boys' learning styles.
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| Same, Different, Equal: Rethinking Single-Sex Schooling
by Professor Rosemary C. Salomone (Author)
In this timely book, Rosemary Salomone offers a reasoned educational and legal argument supporting single-sex education as an alternative to coeducation, particularly in the case of disadvantaged minority students.
“A carefully organized, often lively . . . compendium of everything that matters in the debate: how boys and girls do in classes and on tests, their differing learning styles, and the legal tussles.”—Timothy A. Hacsi, New York Times
“Smart, objective, evenhanded. Must...
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