Overall, an enjoyable book which - for once - didn't lean too heavily on one side or the other (i.e. boys or girls). Some people have criticised the work Gurian has done (and I'm going to criticise him a little in the minute) but I do think it's a valuable addition to our knowledge of education and it provides some very interesting, pragmatic recommendations for classroom teaching. Something many theoretical books forget.

Ok, onto the criticisms - there are two of these. Firstly, I'm not convinced by the 'brain-based' method that Gurian continually promotes. I find that it somehow 'makes natural' differences between gender and in the wrong hands could be used for bias. Gurian works hard to make sure that he is not saying that such bias is either useful or morally right, but I do think the danger is there. Furthermore, I find the method a little flawed in places- for instance, the historical retelling of how men and women got to the brains they have is based on 'stories' drawn from evolutionary science which are based on assumptions rather than true evidence.
Secondly, the number of times Gurian advocates teacher training in these differences is clearly a commercial for the Gurian Center's courses. Gurian continually argues that teachers are unaware of the gender differences in brains and that they need training; yet he also gives many examples of teachers who continually manipulate their practises intuitively (he even uses this as evidence of the differences). In my opinion, Gurian is therefore having his cake and eating it - a sign of a poor theorist.

Nevertheless, the practical actions are good - the ones for elementary an pre-school are excellent. As a (to-be) citizenship teacher who will teach many of the aspects Gurian talks about in his middle and high school entries (e.g. media and emotional literacy) there is a lot of evidence to help make the case for more citizenship education in secondary schools.