As Nick either promised or threatened, I am "back on that kick again."You know, the one about boys and reading; about what we're doing to boys in schools, and what we can do about it.
It's interesting to consider the nature/nurture perspective about boys and reading -- and why girls are more verbally inclined at an earlier age. A recent study showed that boys are more likely to have their own bedrooms and their own DVD players and computers, compared to girls. I think that's kind of telling in a number of ways.
In this decade, boys have been referred to as "the new disadvantaged," (Foster, Kimmel, & Skelton, 2001) for a number of reasons: First, in a study that spanned 31 countries, we see that boys' reading and writing scores have increasingly declined relative to those of girls. Boys, compared to girls, are much more likely to be labeled as "Learning Disabeled," disciplinary problems (and significantly higher rates of suicide, too).
If boys' achievement scores are declining, and they are reporting less time spent on reading and higher rates of discouragement, what can we do to help bring boys back as readers? I'm going to offer some suggestions and observations (which are backed up by empirical studies). Here are three findings to get the ball rolling:
1. The male reader role-model. Studies reported in The Australian Journal of Education (April 2008) showed that boys' perception that reading is a feminine pursuit has a great deal to do with the over-representation of female reading role-models in schools and at home, particularly -- for American boys -- during grade school years, when boys are developing their sense of gender role identity.
Bottom line: we don't have enough guys teaching, especially teaching reading to kids under the age of 13. And we don't have enough DADS reading at home. A 2006 study went on to show that boys at this age also perform and achieve better for same-sex teachers.
Be warned, too, as we see the American economy transforming before our eyes, it is shifting away from a labor force that emphasizes brawn, to a smaller, more educated labor force that emphasizes brain. There's nothing we can do about this shift, it happens in economies throughout history as resources and specialization -- the human division of labor -- become geographically confined. Dads, schools, teachers, mentors: we have a responsibility to our sons.
2. The use of technology. This is a perfect time for this. Remember the finding that showed that boys are more likely than girls to have their own computer? In schools, boys identify computers as "their" technology.
Michael Grant, want to chime in on this? Dads with teenage sons and daughters (like me) know this is true.
Here's what studies regarding technology have shown:
- Boys have a more positive attitude toward computers than girls, and their comprehension scores improve when reading stories from a computer as compared to reading stories from a book. (okay, that one kind of scares me).
- Boys' are three times more likely than girls to attend summer computer camps, and they view computers as being innately "male." Some educational theorists suggest that the consistent findings that boys' literacy scores improve with the use of technology makes boys "differently literate" from girls.
Okay, go get your kid an iPad and download Macmillan books for your son to read.
(Poof! There go my "buy buttons")
3. What boys say they like. Another interesting set of tidbits: A study in the journal The Reading Teacher (November 2009) points out the sad truths about the global crisis as far as reading and boys are concerned, but went on to look at what boys "like" when it came to books.
First of all, I'm going to re-emphasize the importance of choice when it comes to encouraging boys to read. Boys need choice. Too many schools, as one study points out, actually discourage boys from reading by doing things like limiting the number of book reports they can do on certain genres of fiction, or making them choose titles from limited lists.
Here's what the boys in the study said they liked:
- Books that "looked good." Yep, boys liked books with cool covers. (Hmm.... you have, I take it, seen the cover of The Marbury Lens).
- Boys like series books, or preferred to stick with a particular author (Star Wars books -- this was one of the titles mentioned where a boy was told he could only do two book reports -- so he quit reading).
- Boys like following a character through a number of situations, even over the course of years for series books. Boys said they preferred characters who weren't depicted as perfect, but had flaws.
- Boys respond positively to book discussions when they establish partnerships with other boy readers. Particularly, they like to respond to the question, "What do boys like to read?"
So... Boys, what do you like to read?
6 comments:
I think the problem may come down to a single word: violence.
Boys like violence. Sorry, we do. We are the "Hunter" portion of the Hunter-Gatherer dichotomy.
Women generally don't like violence. Or not as much anyway. So teachers -- who are most often women -- and librarians who are likewise, stigmatize the very sorts of books boys would like.
Apparently the theory is that boys who read violent stories will become violent. Because of course that was the problem with Attila and Genghis Khan: too many scary books.
I suspect women teachers and librarians see themselves in a civilizing role, as the wiser, less destructive sex (of course they are) and imagine that if they can just keep us from playing with guns, or violent games, or violent books, we'll all become Hugh Grant. And then the world will be swell.
The problem is that boys will get their action fix one way or the other. Through sports, movies, TV, games. But not through books. The most well-meaning people in the world place books at a profound competitive disadvantage. We're teaching them that books are boring.
That's not estrogen coursing through our veins, it's testosterone. We're not girls. We're different. Maybe not in a good way, but nevertheless.
So instead of reading GONE or MARBURY LENS kids will play Grand Theft Auto. I would do if my only alternative was LITTLE WOMEN.
This is a wonderful subject to discuss, Andrew, and one very dear to my heart. I suspect that having a publishing industry dominated by female gatekeepers isn't helping boys, either. Where are the books for them? The editor/agent just didn't 'feel it' so let it go. But she didn't feel it because she's female. How do we get more males in publishing? How do we get more male teachers in schools? Until we get more balance in the staffing of these two industries, boys are unlikely to have enough access to the kind of material they like to read.
Okay, this might sound rude or out of line, but "boys like violence", what b*llshit (sorry). That's like saying all girls like pink and want to become mothers and housewives because it's in their genes. I don't believe for a second that testosterone dictates what books we should read or what toys we should play with. We're taught to like these things from the moment we're born! We're encouraged to act a certain way and to like certain things (guns, cars, computers, etc because that's what we're given!) this is true for both genders. If little kids were allowed to read whatever they wanted and if books and toys weren't labeled BOY in big blue letters or GIRL in big pink letters, if more books featured multifaceted (finally got a chance to use a big word) characters, then we wouldn't have this problem. Mr Smith, I totally agree with what you wrote about choice and male reader role-models. I think the answer is diversity and not being forced to read or like one type of books just because we happen to be male. I find it insulting, but I never liked Gary Paulsen type adventure books anyway :)
Charlie:
It's not the 1970's anymore. It's okay to admit that boys and girls are generally different.
Boys don't like violence? Then explain the movie and gaming markets.
Movies and games both cater to the young male viewer/player. Both serve up heaping hot dishes of violence. Both earn giant stacks of money selling violence to males.
A quick glance at the 20 top-grossing movies of 2009: 6 are more or less pure violence, including the number 2 grossing movie, Transformers at 400 million. Even movies, like Avatar, which have elements beyond violence, rely on violence to make the sale.
Of the top-selling video games a solid half are very violent.
I wonder if you have kids yourself. We do, one boy, one girl. My wife is a feminist. When we met I used to help her bake cookies for feminist fundraisers. She ran a county commission for women for a while. No one has ever pushed a gender stereotype on either of our kids.
Our daughter is quite the tomboy into soccer and tae kwon do. Her favorite color is pink and she likes Barbies.
Our son is a geek, a tech whiz. His favorite iPhone game involves tossing someone off a platform and seeing which bones they break.
Our daughter would never play his game, he would never play with Barbie.
So, we can be politically correct and pretend that boys are just like girls and surrender the boys to the movie and gaming universe while reserving books for girls, or we can admit what we all know.
Mr Grant, I wasn't around in the 70's, I wouldn't know. And no, I don't have kids (I'm a teen and I'm still in high school). For the first 12 years of my life I was raised to be a tough kid and I hated every minute of it, but I was allowed to pick my own books when we went the library (nothing was off-limits) and our house had books stacked from the floor to the ceiling. Everyone in my family read, my parents, my sisters and myself. When it came to books I had complete freedom. Choices, see? Boys are expected to like violence and action, it's encouraged from a very young age. In my opinion (you're allowed to disagree) this is taught behaviour because we also have to be taught compassion and empathy and how to be good listeners, we're not born with those skills. If a boy gets to pick between a toy gun or an action figure or a violent video game, then he doesn't really have options. How is he supposed to know if that's even what he likes/wants? That's all I'm saying. Boys are different too and no, not all boys like violence.
Charlie:
I didn't mean to imply that all boys like anything. We're talking in large aggregates. In generalities. As I mentioned, my daughter loves tae kwondo and her instructors love her because she is ready and willing to bring the intensity. Individuals are not groups, groups are not individuals.
If violence were a simple matter of nurture we'd see wide variations across all the thousands of different human cultures both contemporary and historical. But we don't. In every case males have a near-monopoly on violence. In no significant case (at least that I know of) do we see females as the more violent gender.
That's not to say that you or I or Andrew enjoy violence. But as a rule males have a greater taste for violence -- as participants or as vicarious participants.
But why should that be surprising? Males have been the hunters and soldiers throughout human history by virtue of essential physical differences: men have bigger muscles, women give birth. (Of course we are also responsible for just about all the serious crime in the world.)
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