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Health & Fitness

World-renowned Educator Comes to Princeton Academy

Author and gender-based learning expert Dr. Abigail Norfleet James returned to Princeton Academy for a second time on Dec. 13 to talk about her latest book, “The Parents Guide to Boys: Help your son get the most out of school and life.”

“Parents kept saying, ‘you have books for teachers; write us a book,” explained James. “So I wrote this book to parents to let them know what teachers want when boys come into the classroom.”

About 30 parents and educators listened as James touched upon topics such as how boys’ brain development affects their learning and behavior; strategies to help boys overcome learning difficulties and ways for parents to work with teachers to optimize the educator their sons are receiving.
 
“Sometimes parents look at boys as if something is weird or wrong about them and when you say ‘no, that’s normal,’ it helps parents understand,” said James. “That’s why an all-boys school is so good for younger boys.”

James earned her B.A. in Science Education at Duke University, and went on to the University of Virginia to earn her Master’s in Counselor Education and her Doctorate in Educational Psychology.  She has spent her whole career teaching and working with students, educators and parents not only countrywide, but all over the world.  She estimated that she speaks at about 100 schools a year, but her favorite part is always connecting with the parents.

“It’s when I talk about what boys are like and I get these big grins from parents saying ‘yeah, that’s exactly like my son,” James said. “They see that he’s not weird and he’s not strange – he’s just a boy.”

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