Thursday, January 26, 2012 
About The Program
Choirmaster Gareth Malone teaches in a primary school in Essex for one term. It is a school like many across Britain, with a significant gap between girls' and boys' achievement in literacy. Last week we saw Gareth and the boys tree-climbing and sharpening their speaking skills with a debate. This time Gareth faces a new mission: to get the boys reading.
Thursday, February 17, 2011 I have an acquaintance who, apart from being a practising professional, successful academic and author of several important books, is a pianist capable of rendering entire Bach cantatas as casually as you or I might plunk out Chopsticks. He also has seven equally accomplished children, an undisclosed number of complex relationships, a flourishing side-career as a magician and a personal presence so intensively entertaining that catching up once every few years is enough. These days, I imagine, he would be diagnosed with ADHD and medicated into normalcy. And it's this that makes me wonder. Assuredly there are those who benefit from Ritalin, but a fourfold increase in seven years? And five times as many boys as girls, almost all of them pubescent? Surely this should give us pause for thought.
Saturday, September 18, 2010 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.
Saturday, September 11, 2010 Gareth Malone, the nicest man on TV is back sans choir, with a new series aimed at improving the literacy of schoolboys. He has never been one to shy away from a challenge. Gareth made his name on TV as the choirmaster in BBC Two's The Choir, a series which saw him bring together people from all walks of life and turn them into accomplished singers. However back in April Gareth took on one of his toughest challenges yet, as he took over the reins of a primary school class for a term, helping to reinvigorate the educational experience for a group of 39 boys from an Essex school. Many of these likely lads hadn’t been fulfilling their educational potential, a story that can be found up and down the country as boys continue to lag behind girls in terms of literacy. You can read more at Gareth's website here .
Monday, February 15, 2010 A decline in the number of male teachers is being blamed for rising youth violence. Just 28 per cent of state schoolteachers are men, down from 32 per cent 10 years ago. Youth crime has soared in that time. Sex attacks, robberies, assaults and weapon offences have increased significantly, and psychologists and family groups told the Herald Sun the loss of male role models was an important factor.