By Tim Kahn
© ChildForum

In this article U.K. early education expert Tim Kahn looks at arguments around boys underachievement and proposes that early childhood teachers should take education to where the boys are at rather than expecting them to be what teachers want them to be.

He includes an excellent example of how an early childhood teacher put aside her initial feeling to forbid boys from following their play interest and ended up successfully engaging in and extending the boys' learning. 

 

I remember when Ben’s teacher told us, when he was seven, that he was amazed Ben could read even though he never picked up a book.

I was aware that we used to watch football on the TV together, and he could read difficult words like Cameroon, Bulgaria and South Korea. But a book? Never.

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