Jane Graham: Gareth Malone's views on teaching boys is music to my ears (UK)

I was already a fan of the BBC’s wunder-choirmaster Gareth Malone, having marvelled at the wondrous effects his idealism, enthusiasm and faith in the healing powers of music have had on troubled and uninspired teenagers in the past.So it was with a leaping heart that I learned he was to turn his attention to a national social problem which is increasingly threatening the future of many of our sons — the growing literacy gap between boys and girls.“Of all the animals, the boy is the most unmanageable.”Not the words of Supernanny or even the Minister of Education, but of that enlightened old rascal, Plato, around 430BC.The problem of dealing with the instincts and wills of young boys has been acknowledged for rather a long time — but it’s only in recent years that society has all but given up on them as a species altogether.For any of us with boys to raise, the attitudes and opportunities our kids are growing up around in the UK today is seriously worrying.