Summary/Critique #2

Summary /Critique of

Why Can 't We Let Boys be Boys ? by Marcia Vickers

In the article Why Can 't We Let Boys be Boys ? Marcia Vickers decries America 's reliance on standardized achievement tests , particularly in their use as early as pre-Kindergarten . America 's youngsters , some of whose parents what to enroll them in high-priced preschools and private K-5 's are disheartened by the verdict of lack of fine motor skills among their male children . This means that their children will not be accepted into these schools . She accurately points out

that parents in mainline public schools are equally as discouraged and anxious about this . They all feel weak ' because their sons are prescribed Occupational Therapy (OT ) and Physical Therapy (PT ) to help them develop fine motor skills . Ms . Vickers effectively describes a first-hand 2001 parent-teacher conference among her own son 's Kindergarten teachers , her spouse and herself . She states that she and her husband were told that her son was trailing his class , because he could not peel stickers from an adhesive sheet with his fingernails , a fine motor skill . Ms . Vickers describes how she and her husband were stunned by this news , feeling that it described weakness in their son and themselves over something so mundane as stickers . She goes on to say that they accepted movement therapy of several kinds for their son . The author acknowledges that OT and PT led him to discover joy in using his newly developed fine motor skills in art and writing from imagination , but that he would likely have gone in that direction on his own

Ms . Vickers asks why American parents and schools should trust in and rely on standardized tests of developmental (e .g . motor ) skills that lead to the development of curricula that little girls can handle better than little boys at the same age . She advocates protecting the boys threat of experiencing low self-esteem , which seems a valid argument to parents concerned about their children 's emotional development especially in guarding and developing self-esteem . Ms . Vickers points out that testing has uncovered the fact that fine motor skills are naturally develop in girls prior to boys by about 6 years on average and that focusing on this difference can cause little boys to suffer low self-esteem . To protect them from bad feelings and labeling , Ms . Vickers suggests promoting Dr . Leonard Sax 's single-sex education vision that visual-spatial skills like kicking a ball be used with boys and fine motor skills of cutting be used with girls . This seems a logical and workable alternative to focusing on boys ' lack of fine motor skills that will develop in these boys naturally a little later on in the elementary school years

Marcia Vicker 's article is enlightening in that it illustrates how boys can 1 ) be discovered to lack fine motor skills and 2 ) be aided effectively with OT and PT , if the parents wish to pursue that route She also states that the lack of fine motor...