The Wonder of Boys

Much of the theory or explanation of what makes boy "tick" was very interesting and insightful. Some of the suggestions for raising boys to become healthy men were very helpful. Unfortunately, I found that the book relied too much on "social engineering" to be very practical. In short, this book is Mr. Gurian's appeal to society to change their ways so that boys can be saved, rather than a more practical guide for parenting. As just one example, Mr. Gurian suggests in the end chapters that we should force media providers to make more healthy media for boys and teen males. In a perfect world maybe we might be able to achieve that, but I think it is impractical in this one. So it would be more helpful to have suggestions that exist in the show more world that is. In the end, I think social change occurs as homes change. The more that families change in healthy ways, the more society changes. This difference in opinion made this book less helpful for me. show less

This was a wonderful exploration of what it means to be a boy and what parents and elders can do in order to make the boy become the best man possible.

Parts of it are a bit repetitive, but scanning the text was easily done in these passages.

In the end, I determined that I'm doing a pretty good job as a mother of two boys. I am clear about my expectations; I deal out consequences regularly. I teach at the level they can understand.

The primary suggestion I will be taking away from this book is to ensure that my sons have a three family system. Father and I will be Family 1. Family 2 (extended family and care-givers and primary teachers) is already set as well, though I want to concentrate more on communication with Family 2 and how my show more boys are growing and what they need.

We need to work on our Family 3 creation though. As we're not active church members, nor active members of our local neighborhood, there seems to be a void in an extended network for my sons to learn from.

Given that I am not exactly a social butterfly, I'm worried about this one, but the happiness and well being of my boys is worth it... If only I can learn how to network effectively. show less

Gurian's "The Wonder of Boys" has some good information and ideas in it. However, many of them are overshadowed by his too strident tone. The book reads a bit dated (most of his allusions are to things in the 1980s), and that may account for the tone. It's also possible that I am no longer familiar with some of the feminist ideas that he finds so damaging to raising boys. In any case, I felt like he overdid it quite often. Still, I am glad I read it, as my boys will soon be entering some challenging stages in their lives. We'll need any help we can get :-)

If I could read only one book in preparation for raising sons it would be this one. To summarize Gurian's points: boys need a tribe, boys need to do, boys need mentorship, and boys need open dialogue about the intrinsic parts of their development.

Wonderful work on raising a boy. Not all info in this book will be immediately relevant as it spans the whole 18 years of raising a boy, but this is a book written as a reference for the next 18 years. Great stuff.

relationships, gender studies, psychology, parenting