E54: Educating Our Boys with Special Guest Jennifer Fink

E54 Introduction

Currently there is a sea change happening in how we educate our boys. Brought on by this pandemic, parents are looking at alternatives in how we prepare our boys for adulthood. For many, public schools have long been an over-regimented learning environment for our youth. If an institution can suck the joy out of learning, a modern day public school, with its “no child left behind” mentality, may just do the trick.

I remember picking up my exhausted-looking son from school on most days and thinking that something just wasn’t right. Learning shouldn’t sap all the joy out of you. At least, that is my sense of it. When I would ask him why he looked so tired, he would often talk of not having enough free time or time to run around with his friends. Schools had started dropping recess and trimmed lunch to 15-minutes. Both crucial re-set times for boys.  In their attempt to check every curriculum and testing box, schools forgot one thing: the emotional well-being of our boys.

Part of the problem is that we can‘t customize education the way we need to. Each boy is unique.  Schools, with lots of well-meaning adults leading them, just don’t have the resources. As a parent, it’s my job to look beyond the school and have my eyes on what sort of learning is my son ready for that falls outside of his public education. The phrase “it takes a village” has never been more fitting when it comes to educating and readying our boys for adulthood.

Maybe, just maybe, this experiment in online learning and homeschooling, might have a silver lining. Maybe we can get back to learning at THEIR pace a bit more, without all the fear that our boys are “falling behind”, whatever that means.

My guest today has wisdom to share in the ways we educate our boys and is a great resource for parents of boys.

Jennifer Fink Bio

Jennifer L.W. Fink is the founder of BuildingBoys.net and co-host of the podcast ON BOYS: Real Talk About Parenting, Teaching & Reaching Tomorrow’s Men. She’s also an award-winning writer whose work has been published by The New York Times, Washington Post, FOX News, U.S News & World Report, Parents and Your Teen.

Here is my interview with Jennifer Fink.