Boys falling behind in school often starts before anyone thinks to look, and a mental health professor says the gap begins in kindergarten.

Calissa Ngozi says girls’ brains develop faster, giving them social and emotional reasoning that boys need significantly more time to build. She confirms that full brain development doesn’t complete until around 25. The education system isn’t accounting for what happens in those years before it does.

Ngozi points out that expecting boys to sit for hours without physical stimulation is a setup for disengagement. Those academic consequences follow them into university applications, career paths, and well beyond the classroom.

Topics: boys falling behind, brain development, kinesthetic learning, boys education, mental health

GUEST: Calissa Ngozi | @‌calissangozi

Originally aired on2026-05-15