Educator and author Gurian (The Wonder of Boys) and his co-writers argue that from preschool to high school, brain differences between the sexes call for different teaching strategies. While it's widely accepted that, in general, boys do better in math and girls in language, the authors claim that, until recently, society has taken the politically correct but scientifically inaccurate classroom view that children of both genders learn best in an "androgynous classroom."

Presenting a detailed picture of boys' and girls' neurological, chemical and hormonal disparities, the authors explain how those differences affect learning. Although Gurian et al. address the problems of both genders, they focus on boys, contending that they are more difficult to teach and have more learning and discipline problems. The female brain, Gurian says, has a "learning advantage" because it is more complex and active, although the male brain does excel at abstract thinking and spatial relations, one reason why boys do better in math.