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{{POV|date=June 2008}}
{{POV|date=June 2008}}


'''Leonard Sax''' is an American [[psychologist]] and family physician. He is the author of ''Why Gender Matters'' (Doubleday, 2005) and of Boys Adrift (Basic Books, 2007). He is founder and executive director of the [http://www.singlesexschools.org National Association for Single Sex Public Education (www.singlesexschools.org)].
'''Leonard Sax''' is an American [[psychologist]] and family physician. He is the author of ''Why Gender Matters'' (Doubleday, 2005) and of [http://www.boysadrift.com ''Boys Adrift: the five factors driving the growing epidemic of unmotivated boys and underachieving young men''] (Basic Books, 2007). He is founder and executive director of the [http://www.singlesexschools.org National Association for Single Sex Public Education (www.singlesexschools.org)].


Leonard Sax is a controversial figure who has both supporters and detractors. A cover story for TIME Magazine March 7 2005 included this statement: "Until recently, there have been two groups of people: those who argue sex differences are innate and should be embraced and those who insist that they are learned and should be eliminated by changing the environment. Sax is one of the few in the middle -- convinced that boys and girls are innately different and that we must change the environment so differences don't become limitations."
A cover story for TIME Magazine March 7 2005 included this statement: "Until recently, there have been two groups of people: those who argue sex differences are innate and should be embraced and those who insist that they are learned and should be eliminated by changing the environment. Sax is one of the few in the middle -- convinced that boys and girls are innately different and that we must change the environment so differences don't become limitations." Full text of this article can be accessed via http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1032301-3,00.html.

According to an article in the "Week in Review" section of the ''New York Times'' published June 11, 2006, Dr. Sax's first book ''Why Gender Matters'' is "a lucid guide to male and female brain differences." Full text of this article is available at http://select.nytimes.com/2006/06/11/opinion/11brooks.html?scp=3&sq=Gender+gap&st=nyt.

Dr. Sax's second book ''Boys Adrift'' was reviewed by the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) in December 2007. According to the review, ''Boys Adrift'' is "powerfully and persuasively presented," and provides "excellent and informative references and information." Full text of the review can be accessed via http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/extract/298/22/2684.


However, his assertions of [[sexual dimorphism]] in human language ability have been met with much opposition from [[linguist]]s, who have noted flawed use of statistics and reasoning in his proposals. In addition, his claims go against mainstream [[linguistics|linguistic]] and [[cognitive science]] schools of thought as established by [[Noam Chomsky]] and [[Steven Pinker]] (author of the best-selling book, [[The Language Instinct]]). Furthermore, current statistical models for the evolution of human language do not see any evolutionary pressures that would cause sexual dimorphism in language abilities, and in fact current evolutionary models for language depend on a lack of sexual dimorphism (other than lower phonetic [[formant]]s produced in general by males).


==Biography==
==Biography==
<p>Sax graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]] (MIT) in 1980 with a [[bachelor's degree]] in [[biology]]. He completed the combined M.D.-Ph.D. program at the University of Pennsylvania in 1986. His Ph.D. was in [[psychology]]. He completed the 3-year residency in family practice at Lancaster General Hospital (Lancaster, PA) in 1989. In 1990, he founded [http://www.poolesvillefamilypractice.com Poolesville Family Practice], a primary care practice in Montgomery County, Maryland. He retired from medical practice in the spring of 2008 in order "to devote myself full-time to working on issues of gender, gender equity, and education." [Text adapted in part from [http://whygendermatters.com ''Why Genders Matters'' official site].]</p>
<p>Sax graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]] (MIT) in 1980 with a [[bachelor's degree]] in [[biology]]. He completed the combined M.D.-Ph.D. program at the University of Pennsylvania in 1986. His Ph.D. was in [[psychology]]. He completed the 3-year residency in family practice at Lancaster General Hospital (Lancaster, PA) in 1989. In 1990, he founded [http://www.poolesvillefamilypractice.com Poolesville Family Practice], a primary care practice in Montgomery County, Maryland. He retired from medical practice in the spring of 2008 in order "to devote myself full-time to working on issues of gender, gender equity, and education." [Text adapted in part from [http://whygendermatters.com ''Why Genders Matters'' official site].]</p>


==National media==
==National and international media==

In March last year, New York Times Magazine published a lengthy piece critical of Dr. Sax's work. [http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/02/magazine/02sex3-t.html?pagewanted=all] Dr. Sax was a guest on the TODAY show July 31 2007. [[Matt Lauer]] interviewed Dr. Sax about the controversy surrounding boys' achievement, which was the topic of the cover story in [[TIME Magazine]] that week. Dr. Sax was first a guest on the TODAY show February 15 2005. [[Al Roker]] interviewed Dr. Sax about his book ''Why Gender Matters.'' http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/02/magazine/02sex3-t.html?pagewanted=all
<p>'''United States:''' Dr. Sax was a guest on the TODAY show July 31 2007. [[Matt Lauer]] interviewed Dr. Sax about the controversy surrounding boys' achievement, which was the topic of the cover story in [[TIME Magazine]] that week. [Streaming video of that segment is available at the [http://www.boysadrift.com ''Boys Adrift'' web site].] Dr. Sax was first a guest on the TODAY show February 15 2005. [[Al Roker]] interviewed Dr. Sax about his book ''Why Gender Matters.'' [Streaming video of that segment is available via the [http://www.whygendermatters.com ''Why Gender Matters'' web site].]

<p>'''Canada:''' Dr. Sax was a guest in the Toronto studio of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation for an interview broadcast nationwide on January 18 2008. [Streaming audio of that segment is
available via [http://www.cbc.ca/thecurrent/2008/200801/20080118.html ''this link.'']</p>

<p>'''Australia''': Dr. Sax was a guest in the studio for the Today Show, interviewed by Jessica Rowe. [Streaming video of that segment is available at the [http://video.msn.com/?mkt=en-au&brand=ninemsn&fg=copy&vid=44f43b88-7587-4b94-a88e-1a344d679c5e ''Australian website.'']</p>

<p>'''New Zealand: '''Dr. Sax was a studio guest of New Zealand's Channel One for a discussion of single-sex public education, streaming online at [http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/536641/1762294 ''this Channel One link''], click on “why single-sex schools are best” in the menu at right.</p>

<p>'''United Kingdom''': Dr. Sax was the subject of a full-page feature article in the ''[[The Times]]'',January 23 2008, available online at [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/education/article3234354.ece ''the Times website.'']. He was also featured in an article
which appeared in the ''Daily Mail'' on January 24 2008, available at [http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-509818/Boys-need-taught-separately-age-says-expert.html ''the Daily Mail website.''] </p>
<p> [This listing of appearances comes from the [http://www.singlesexschools.org ''NASSPE'' official site.]


==Popular press==
==Popular press==
* 'TWILIGHT sinks its teeth into feminism' ''[http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/15/AR2008081503099.html Washington Post]'' August 17, 2008.
<blockquote>
Dr. Sax's op-ed about Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series prompted many comments. Dr. Sax has posted a response to the bloggers at http://www.singlesexschools.org/twilight.htm.
</blockquote>
* 'The boy problem: why so many boys think reading is stupid and school stinks' ''[http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6472910.html School Library Journal]'' September 1, 2007.
* 'The boy problem: why so many boys think reading is stupid and school stinks' ''[http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6472910.html School Library Journal]'' September 1, 2007.
* 'What's happening to boys?' ''[http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/30/AR2006033001341.html Washington Post]'', March 31, 2006.
* 'What's happening to boys?' ''[http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/30/AR2006033001341.html Washington Post]'', March 31, 2006.
<blockquote>
<blockquote>
In his op-ed for the ''[http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/30/AR2006033001341.html Washington Post]'' March 31 2006, Dr. Sax called attention to the growing phenomenon of the "Failure to Launch" boy/man: a young man in his 20's, or even his 30's, who is still living at home with his parents -- and who doesn't see what the problem is. The Washington Post invited Dr. Sax to host a one-hour on-line chat, which broke all previous records for the Washington Post: they shut the system down after receiving 395 posts. Dr. Sax himself says that the transcript of the chat session is more interesting than his own op-ed was. It's certainly a lot longer. You can read the transcript of the online chat session [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2006/03/30/DI2006033001398_pf.html here].
In his op-ed for the ''[http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/30/AR2006033001341.html Washington Post]'' March 31 2006, Dr. Sax called attention to the growing phenomenon of the "Failure to Launch" boy/man: a young man in his 20's, or even his 30's, who is still living at home with his parents -- and who doesn't see what the problem is. The Washington Post invited Dr. Sax to host a one-hour on-line chat, which broke all previous records for the Washington Post: they shut the system down after receiving 395 posts. You can read the transcript of the online chat session [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2006/03/30/DI2006033001398_pf.html here].
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
* 'Single-sex education: Separate but better?' ''[[Philadelphia Daily News]]'', March 1, 2006.
* 'Single-sex education: Separate but better?' ''[[Philadelphia Daily News]]'', March 1, 2006.
Line 42: Line 61:


==Criticism==
==Criticism==
* [[Mark Liberman]], a professor of [[linguistics]] at the [[University of Pennsylvania]], has questioned on his blog, [[Language Log]], some of the claims which Dr. Sax has made in the past, particularly on some of Dr. Sax's web sites [http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/003487.html]. Dr. Sax has responded directly to Professor Liberman's criticism; Dr. Sax's letters to Professor Liberman are posted at [http://www.singlesexschools.org/home-leonardsax.htm#Liberman this link]. Dr. Sax claims that Liberman has not responded to his rebuttals, while this is in fact the opposite -- Language Log linguists have sustained a consistent criticism against Leonard Sax and his school, noting Sax's love of using small distribution differences between groups to make sweeping generalisations about group differences, as well as tenuous connections between the assertions he has made and the citations he has used to support the assertions.
* [[Mark Liberman]], a professor of [[linguistics]] at the [[University of Pennsylvania]], has questioned on his blog, [[Language Log]], some of the claims which Dr. Sax has made in the past regarding sex differences in sensory acuity, particularly on some of Dr. Sax's web sites [http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/003487.html]. Dr. Sax has responded directly to Professor Liberman's criticism; Dr. Sax's letters to Professor Liberman are posted at [http://www.singlesexschools.org/home-leonardsax.htm#Liberman this link]. Professor Liberman has responded to Dr. Sax on Liberman's blog.


==External links==
==External links==
*[http://whygendermatters.com Why Genders Matters official site]
*[http://whygendermatters.com Why Genders Matters official site]
*[http://www.boysadrift.com Boys Adrift official site]
*[http://www.boysadrift.com Boys Adrift official site]
*[http://www.singlesexschools.org/contact-contact.htm Contact information for Dr. Sax]


[[Category:American psychologists]]
[[Category:American psychologists]]
[[Category:Pseudoscientists]]

Revision as of 23:50, 8 December 2008

Leonard Sax is an American psychologist and family physician. He is the author of Why Gender Matters (Doubleday, 2005) and of Boys Adrift: the five factors driving the growing epidemic of unmotivated boys and underachieving young men (Basic Books, 2007). He is founder and executive director of the National Association for Single Sex Public Education (www.singlesexschools.org).

A cover story for TIME Magazine March 7 2005 included this statement: "Until recently, there have been two groups of people: those who argue sex differences are innate and should be embraced and those who insist that they are learned and should be eliminated by changing the environment. Sax is one of the few in the middle -- convinced that boys and girls are innately different and that we must change the environment so differences don't become limitations." Full text of this article can be accessed via http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1032301-3,00.html.

According to an article in the "Week in Review" section of the New York Times published June 11, 2006, Dr. Sax's first book Why Gender Matters is "a lucid guide to male and female brain differences." Full text of this article is available at http://select.nytimes.com/2006/06/11/opinion/11brooks.html?scp=3&sq=Gender+gap&st=nyt.

Dr. Sax's second book Boys Adrift was reviewed by the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) in December 2007. According to the review, Boys Adrift is "powerfully and persuasively presented," and provides "excellent and informative references and information." Full text of the review can be accessed via http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/extract/298/22/2684.


Biography

Sax graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1980 with a bachelor's degree in biology. He completed the combined M.D.-Ph.D. program at the University of Pennsylvania in 1986. His Ph.D. was in psychology. He completed the 3-year residency in family practice at Lancaster General Hospital (Lancaster, PA) in 1989. In 1990, he founded Poolesville Family Practice, a primary care practice in Montgomery County, Maryland. He retired from medical practice in the spring of 2008 in order "to devote myself full-time to working on issues of gender, gender equity, and education." [Text adapted in part from Why Genders Matters official site.]

National and international media

United States: Dr. Sax was a guest on the TODAY show July 31 2007. Matt Lauer interviewed Dr. Sax about the controversy surrounding boys' achievement, which was the topic of the cover story in TIME Magazine that week. [Streaming video of that segment is available at the Boys Adrift web site.] Dr. Sax was first a guest on the TODAY show February 15 2005. Al Roker interviewed Dr. Sax about his book Why Gender Matters. [Streaming video of that segment is available via the Why Gender Matters web site.]

Canada: Dr. Sax was a guest in the Toronto studio of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation for an interview broadcast nationwide on January 18 2008. [Streaming audio of that segment is available via this link.

Australia: Dr. Sax was a guest in the studio for the Today Show, interviewed by Jessica Rowe. [Streaming video of that segment is available at the Australian website.

New Zealand: Dr. Sax was a studio guest of New Zealand's Channel One for a discussion of single-sex public education, streaming online at this Channel One link, click on “why single-sex schools are best” in the menu at right.

United Kingdom: Dr. Sax was the subject of a full-page feature article in the The Times,January 23 2008, available online at the Times website.. He was also featured in an article which appeared in the Daily Mail on January 24 2008, available at the Daily Mail website.

[This listing of appearances comes from the NASSPE official site.

Dr. Sax's op-ed about Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series prompted many comments. Dr. Sax has posted a response to the bloggers at http://www.singlesexschools.org/twilight.htm.

In his op-ed for the Washington Post March 31 2006, Dr. Sax called attention to the growing phenomenon of the "Failure to Launch" boy/man: a young man in his 20's, or even his 30's, who is still living at home with his parents -- and who doesn't see what the problem is. The Washington Post invited Dr. Sax to host a one-hour on-line chat, which broke all previous records for the Washington Post: they shut the system down after receiving 395 posts. You can read the transcript of the online chat session here.

Scholarly articles

  • 'Six Degrees of Separation: what teachers need to know about the emerging science of sex differences.' Educational Horizons, Spring 2006, pp. 190-200.
  • 'The Diagnosis and Treatment of ADHD in Women'. The Female Patient 29 (2004): 29-34.
  • 'Dietary Phosphorus Is Toxic for Girls But Not for Boys'. In Victor Preedy (ed.). Annual Reviews in Food & Nutrition London, UK: Taylor & Francis Publishers, 2003, pp. 158-168.
  • 'Who First Suggests the Diagnosis of Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder? A survey of primary-care pediatricians, family physicians, and child psychiatrists'. Annals of Family Medicine 1 (2003): 171-174. [With Kathleen J. Kautz]
  • 'What Was the Cause of Nietzsche's Dementia?' Journal of Medical Biography 11 (2003): 47-54.
  • 'How Common Is Intersex?' Journal of Sex Research 39 (2002): 174-178.
  • 'Maybe Men and Women Are Different.' American Psychologist July (2002): 444-445.
  • 'The Institute of Medicine's "Dietary Reference Intake" for Phosphorus: a critical perspective'. Journal of the American College of Nutrition 20 (2001): 271-278.
  • 'Reclaiming Kindergarten: making kindergarten less harmful to boys'. Psychology of Men and Masculinity 2 (2001): 3-12.
  • 'Characteristics of spatiotemporal integration in the priming and rewarding effects of medial forebrain bundle stimulation'. Behavioral Neuroscience 105 (1991): 884-900. [With C. R. Gallistel]
  • 'Temporal integration in self-stimulation: a paradox'. Behavioral Neuroscience 98 (1984): 467-468.

Criticism

  • Mark Liberman, a professor of linguistics at the University of Pennsylvania, has questioned on his blog, Language Log, some of the claims which Dr. Sax has made in the past regarding sex differences in sensory acuity, particularly on some of Dr. Sax's web sites [1]. Dr. Sax has responded directly to Professor Liberman's criticism; Dr. Sax's letters to Professor Liberman are posted at this link. Professor Liberman has responded to Dr. Sax on Liberman's blog.
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