ABSTRACT
Lads prefer larking to learning… Switching off and dropping out … Anti-school bias blights boys for life. These are just three typical headlines over recent press articles about the motivation and performance of boys in our schools, especially as far as GCSE results are concerned. A generation ago, the under-achievement of girls was identified as a national issue. Now, commentators are suggesting ‘the future is female’ and voicing worries over our ‘lost boys’ because girls are doing better than boys at every stage of school education. Ted Wragg has called it ‘the gravest social problem we’re facing’.
