How can we encourage boys to develop empathy, strength, and joy? The world is a confusing place and notions of sex, gender, and sexuality are ever-changing. Young people, especially boys, need ways to navigate the world and their own identities with flexibility, integrity, and resilience. We want these boys and young men to develop healthy relationships and a zest for life. The books we are reading combine evidence-based approaches with anecdotes and larger theories to make complex ideas accessible. Rather than being a group designed for specialists, we aim to be a group of thoughtful adults who want to do right by the boys under our care. With that in mind, we will read about and discuss concrete actions to help the boys and young men we love to lead healthy, wonderful lives.
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What are we reading? (click books to purchase)
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Our partner: Think Equal
TaW is hosting this book club in partnership with Think Equal, a global initiative to build a more just society through education. Think Equal provides resources and curriculum for children, ages 3-6, build their social-emotional skills and lead healthy relationships. We will discuss ways participants can use Think Equal resources with the children in their lives. In the early years, when the child’s personality and moral framework are still developing, we must ensure that our children’s hearts are educated, and not just their heads. We must commit to a holistic approach to education which will result in a new generation of equal-thinkers and global citizens who can rise to the challenges of the 21st century.
Our hosts
Georgina Emerson is the founder and director of Teach About Women. She holds a BA in History and MA in Comparative Literature from Dartmouth College as well as a degree in History from L’École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales. The focus of Georgina’s work is curriculum design and providing collaborative professional development for K-12 teachers who want to make equity work part of every aspect of school life. She’s interested in the liberatory power of intersectional, anti-bias pedagogy across departments. In the words of bell hooks, “I celebrate teaching that enables transgressions–a movement against and beyond boundaries. It is that movement which makes education a practice of freedom.” In addition to giving workshops and hosting book clubs, Georgina is currently at work on a book and high school curriculum on the history of women, gender, and power. Follow her on social media @TeachAboutWomen or read her blog.
Jason Ablin has over 30 years of experience in education and leadership. He has served as a teacher, principal and head of school. He holds national certification in leadership coaching and mentoring from the National Association of School Principals and has been mentoring new leaders throughout the country for over 15 years. He consults with schools on gender equity, positive faculty engagement, and school culture. He also partnered with top developmental psychology and cognitive neuroscience researchers at USC to bring research findings effectively into the classroom. He has written for the journal, Mind, Brain and Education. As a lecturer at the Fingerhut Graduate School of Education, he teaches master’s degree classes in pedagogy and inclusion and trains teachers to create gender fair classrooms. He is also the director of the school's Mentor Teacher Training Program. His book, Balancing the Equation: How Schools can Bring Gender Equity to All Their Students is due out from Routledge Press in Spring 2022. He received his A.B. in Political Science from Vassar College and his M.A. in English and Pedagogy from New York University. A native of the Lower East Side in New York, Jason now lives in Los Angeles for the past 29 years with his wife and two daughters.
Leslee Udwin was voted by the New York Times the No.2 Most Impactful Woman of 2015 (second to Hillary Clinton), and has been awarded the prestigious Swedish Anna Lindh Human Rights Prize (previously won by Madeleine Albright). She has also been named Safe’s Global Hero of 2015, Global Thinker by Foreign Policy, and the GlobalmindED award for Arts and Education. In 2019 Leslee was awarded the UN Women for Peace Activist Award at the United Nations, UN Association USA’s Global Citizen of 2019 and the Gandhi Foundation International Peace Award. A former filmmaker and now campaigner for a system change in education, Leslee is no stranger to successful campaigns. Her film, ‘Who Bombed Birmingham?’, (starring John Hurt) for HBO and Granada TV, directly led to the release of the ‘Birmingham Six’ after 17 years of wrongful imprisonment. Her feature film, ‘East is East’, (35 prestigious awards worldwide, including a BAFTA for Best Film) did much to promote tolerance and the celebration of diversity as between the Asian and British communities and has become a classic film taught in schools across Europe. Her documentary,‘India's Daughter’, has been critically acclaimed around the globe, won 32 awards (including the Peabody Award and the Amnesty International Media Award for Best Documentary 2016) and is recognised as having sparked a global movement to end violence against women and girls. She is the founder and Director of Think Equal, a global nonprofit dedicated to ending discrimination through changing how we teach children in their youngest years.