5. SCHOOLS FOR BOYS HELP STUDENTS DISCOVER AND EXPLORE THEIR FULL POTENTIAL. Without the social pressures of a coed environment, students in an all-boys school can explore the full range of their personalities and potential. Eschewing stereotypes, they discover they have many roles to play as a scholar, athlete, artist, musician, and friend. By stressing the importance of subjects like literature, languages, music, dance, drama, and the visual arts within the curriculum, a boys- centered school assists students in finding their innate creativity and imagination, while developing their communication skills and pursuing other strengths and interests. Risk takers by nature, boys find a new comfort level with nontraditional subjects and activities when they are encouraged to do so by trusted mentors within the safety of a close-knit community. Young men, who may not step up in the presence of girls, take on leadership roles at all-boys schools, often heading community service programs or serving as mentors to younger students. Boys’ schools have a key role to play in fostering what psychologists like Michael Thompson ( Raising Cain, The Pressured Child ) call “emotionally literate boys,” who respond to others with empathy and compassion. Such schools appreciate that boys “will not express feelings as girls do” and provide guidance in coping with the many expectations schools, parents, or society may have for them as young males.
6. SCHOOLS FOR BOYS FOSTER BROTHERHOOD AND LIFELONG FRIENDSHIPS. Working together in the classroom, on the playing field, or in the performance hall, students are united by a special bond of brotherhood. Many boys’ school graduates say the friendships they developed with their peers and with faculty are among the most important benefits they carry with them from their schools. Relationships are critical to a boy’s learning according to researchers Reichert and Hawley. They report that boys thrive in an educational environment where they first establish positive, trusting relationships with teachers whose high standards and subject mastery students value. They write, “…[R]elationship is the very medium through which successful teaching and learning is performed.” In this reciprocity of relationships, where teachers are forthright and caring, boys also develop the confidence to drop their guard and give of themselves. This relationship- based education model not only enhances the learning process it also contributes to a boy’s growing sense of belonging to his class, his team, and his school. In the outstanding teachers, coaches, and counselors who are by their sides each day, boys find important role models. Female faculty members play a key role in fostering positive, respectful attitudes toward women. These relationships also promote empathy, courage, and resilience. This connection of brotherhood extends to a broader community of what many schools call Old Boys — alumni who stand ready to positively support these young men now and in the future.
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