Boys at Risk IV

Boys Adrift

Program

October 27th, 2022, 8:30 am – 4:00 pm, Online Only

8:30 am — Introduction, Paul Golding, President, Santa Fe Boys Educational Foundation

8:35 am — Leonard Sax, Why Gender Matters: The Evolving Science of Sex Differences

“Gender is complicated, but gender matters… the fact that each child is unique and complex should not blind us to the fact that gender is one of the two great organizing principles of child development – the other being age.”
(Why Gender Matters, 2017 by Leonard Sax)

Eighteen years ago, the first edition of Why Gender Matters broke ground in illuminating the differences between boys and girls—how they perceive the world differently, how they learn differently, how they process emotions and take risks differently.

Failing to recognize these hardwired differences, we end up reinforcing damaging stereotypes, medicalizing bad behavior, and failing to support children to reach their full potential. In the intervening years since the book was first published, the world has changed drastically with an avalanche of new research which deepens and expands this work. In this talk, in addition to addressing the subjects mentioned above, Dr. Sax will discuss research on gender non-conforming, LGB, and transgender kids.

10:30 am—Break

10:45 am — Leonard Sax, Boys Adrift: The factors driving the growing epidemic of unmotivated boys and underachieving young men.

Dr. Sax will draw on his clinical experience to explain why our young men are failing in school and disengaged at home. From kindergarten through college, boys are now doing less well in most school subjects compared with their sisters and this is true for Black, White, and Latino boys. He shows how we have created an environment that is literally toxic to boys and shares practical advice on homework, video games, medication, and more.

Changes in education over the past thirty years — the emphasis on language and feelings, sitting still, soft voices, zero tolerance—have alienated many boys in the first years of school. In addition, the loss of older males in the lives of many boys leaves a void in knowing how to grow to be an adult man and how to contribute positively to one’s community.

11:45 am — Break

12:45 pm — Leonard Sax, Boys Adrift continued

1:45 pm — Break

2:00 pm — Leonard Sax, Medicalization of Misbehavior

“nearly 20 percent of American boys and 10 percent of American girls age 14 to 17 have been diagnosed with ADHD… 69 percent of American kids who are diagnosed with ADHD are also on medication for ADHD.” The growth in rude, defiant, and ill-tempered behavior may be attributed to the boy or to the failure of parental discipline.

Compared to many other countries, in the United States, there has been an abdication of parental authority. Parents are now uncertain and insecure; they are not sure what their role is (from The Collapse of Parenting, 2016 by Leonard Sax). Thus, in this country, it has become common to medicate children with powerful psychiatric drugs as a first resort. That’s a big reason why American kids are now by factors-of-ten more likely to be on medication compared with kids outside North America. We are experimenting on children in a way which has no precedent, with medications whose long-term risks are largely unknown. Dr. Sax will show how the collapse of parenting has led many American parents to use medication in ways which are unthinkable elsewhere.

3:30 pm — Leonard Sax, Q & A

4:00 pm — Event close

Online: Only accessible by registration starting in September, 2022

Recording available October 28 – November 2

• The recording of Leonard Sax’s presentation, “Boys Adrift,” will be available to registered attendees for seven days following the conference. The instructions will be emailed.
• CEU applicants will also be able to access the recording as above, but to qualify for CEUs they must watch the program live and complete the evaluation on the day of the live presentation in order to receive a CEU certificate.