(How I envied my Finnish cousins when I saw that they got to take an hour or two of nature class every week and sometimes they went home at 1 pm and sometimes they went home at 2:30... depending on the class schedule, which repeated weekly but was different every day!)

The article's suggestions for instructional activities that benefit boys outline projects that also benefit girls. The reason boys are disciplined more than girls when both are bored half to death is that many boys hit each other and run around while many girls are "nice" and just write notes, doodle, or sleep, staying in their seats as required. I say this as a woman who brought a pillow to class in high school and was seen as a stellar student.

A good example of bored boy behavior vs. bored girl behavior: one time in a personal finance management class, we played BINGO with elbow macaroni as markers. (The questions were really simple so the game was neither fun nor educational.) Quite a few guys in the class took to stomping on their macaroni and finding other creative ways to crush it. I was busy getting them all to stand up as little arches and looking for interesting ways to arrange them. I was just as bored but less disruptive.

I think unstructured learning time is hugely lacking in the traditional school setting.

wow. Epiphany