The danger from within is Gurian Many of my friends and I have read the same book.We come to the same conclusion of this book having an agenda to dogmatize our country with meaningless gender bias.In my opinion there is nothing more dangerous to a country and the world as to limit our children's ability to wether the child is male or female. Gurian does not offer any proof as others have stated in the reviews as to how these differences come about.He says it's the hormones,the brain structure.I have read other matierial which has disclosed findings which condradict his so called research. If he were correct in assuming hormones then I would be much more drenched with testostrone than my half brother since I excell at math and he at lanuage.Brain structure varies from person to person,something I doubt he would like you to know. Instill independence and individuality in all your children by seeing them as people rather than sexes. I cannot think of anything worse than leading your child down the wrong "learning style" road,simply because of their sex. People tend to want to agree with anything they read and be a good follower.It's better to think for yourself and be a good leader and helper in your child's life by giving them room to grow the way they want to and without trying to controll their interests or believing they will only show talent in small sterotyped boxes.Terrible book written by someone who is trying to distort your child's life to make $$$$$$.
Little of Substance The first part of the book is unbearably slow, the gender differences of boys and girls are painstakingly boiled down into a litany of "boys excel at..., girls excel at. The list that everybody has heard, sports and spatial tasks = boys, penmanship, language skills = girls. The saving grace of this book is that in the 2nd part the author mentions what should actually be done. Michael Gurian, author/ educator, also has a few pilot projects being run in the state of Missouri. The results sound encouraging. He encourages teachers to start catering to the needs of both genders in the class. He stresses that to do this teachers will need training. As for parents the usual "be a concerned and supportive parent" is always added. I was generally unimpressed with the book, no real blockbusters. The real world results of his pilot education programs were to me the issue that maybe the author was onto something. Hopefully if it is as good as its portrayed this method will gain some notoriety.Hey! Why don't we go to a teacher when we're sick, too. This guy needs to stop flattering himself. He isn't controversial or innovative. He is merely stupid.
The idea that some education or pysch major is going to have something important to say about biology is laughable. It is clear he didn't take (because he couldn't pass) Biology 101. Kind of goes against he's theories doesn't it.
I (a physician) found his references to hormones and neuroanatomy comical. A failing pre-med knows more than he does! He states something about the hormones maturing faster in girls. Well, last time I checked, the structure of various hormones was constant. The hormones themselves don't change a bit. No one who had the slightest inkling of what they were talking about would refer to this is such terms.
This guy is just projecting his social agenda on a bunch of biological terms he doesn't understand. The only people who would fall for this are those who a)know less than he does and b) have the same agenda.
