Landon Joins International Research Project

Landon School is one of fifteen institutions selected to participate in a school-based research study on “Locating Significance in the Lives of Boys,” led by Dr. Adam J. Cox and commissioned by the International Boys’ School Coalition, based in Toronto, Canada.  

Dr. Cox, who is a licensed clinical psychologist and the author of Boys of Few Words and No Mind Left Behind, is conducting research at Landon this week (January 5-7) and will address Landon parents at a special All Parents Meeting to be held on Wednesday, January 6, at 7 p.m. in the Coates Auditorium of the Mondzac Performing Arts Center. The event is jointly sponsored by the Landon Fathers Club and the Landon Mothers Association, and all parents are encouraged to attend.

Dr. Cox will be speaking about how and where boys locate meaning in their lives and why the way they value themselves and their efforts is a foundation for identity, purpose and accomplishment. Among his themes are motivation, empathy, purposeful work and school culture.

While at Landon this week, Cox will also meet with faculty and students as part of the IBSC research study. His research is designed to move beyond general concerns over boys’ academic achievement and psychological well-being, which have been the subject of widespread concern over the last two decades. He hopes to determine how boys construct “significance” in their lives, by which he means “value beyond the immediacy of the moment.” Those meaningful experiences, he believes, develop boys’ minds through the power of insight, inspiration and changes in their subjective perspectives of the world.

Cox first became interested in the project in 2008 when meeting with boys at IBSC-affiliated schools in Australia. Students at Brighton Grammar School, for example, revealed how focused and engaged boys can become when questions of “destiny” and “purpose” are to posed them.  Parents reported how strongly the topic resonated with them as well.

The IBSC project began in the fall of 2009, with U.S. schools and their counterparts in the U.K. as the initial subjects for research. A second year will focus on schools in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa with a final report is expected in June of 2011.